Coca Cola 600

NASCAR's longest event on the calendar was an eventful race full of shocking moments. Carl Edwards did a fantastic job at picking up from where he left off after dominating the All-Star race. The fastest cars all day were Edwards, Kyle Busch, Kenseth, Kahne, Ambrose, and Ragan. Jack Roush Racing brought their "A" game to Charlotte Motor Speedway as that organization alone led over 140 laps in the first 200 laps of the event. It would have been outstanding to see David Ragan win his first career Sprint Cup Series race. Many members of the Ragan family over the past several generations has had some success in NASCAR racing, but no Ragan family members has ever won a Cup race. There have been a couple occasions where a Ragan family member has been close to a win, but it just never happened. I know that I am not the only NASCAR fan that has faith in the young man driving that #6 UPS Ford.

The Busch Brothers

The inconsistency of cautions throughout the race kept surprising the fans and experts. There wasn't much action in terms of car accidents or any reasons for caution in the first half of the race, it felt like nobody could avoid trouble in the second half. On lap 160 Kurt Busch complained of a loose tire and after a green flag pit stop which put hima lap down, it was determined the left-rear tire was loose. On lap 233 a caution came out for the 2002 Truck Series Champion Mike Bliss who was sitting at a complete stop near the entrance of pit road. This caution on lap 233 interrupted green flag pit stops, Kurt Busch was the only driver yet to pit when this took place. As a result several drivers chose to take the "wave around" option where they don't make a pit stop in order to get back on the lead lap. Kurt got lucky.

Once Kyle Busch found the front of the competition everyone knew it would take some awfully bad luck to prevent him from earning a good finish or the victory. Marcos Ambrose ran a very impressive race again, but he surrendered the lead to Rowdy Busch on lap 246. After just taking the lead Kyle ran his fastest lap of the race at that point on lap 251. The problem Kyle Busch had was a loose race car during the night time portion of the event. Kyle spun and brought the caution out twice, one of those spins took him right through the front straight-away grass. He is lucky is car wasn't damaged.

No Luck For Nobody
Jeff Gordon was running in the 10th position not even 100 laps completed in the event. He lost a tremendous amount of track position when he decided to take 4 tires on a yellow flag pit stop while the majority of the other drivers elected to gamble and take two tires. After that the #24 team struggled all race long with a tight race car around the 18th position. Just when all hope was lost a caution came out with 120 laps to go which once again interrupted the cycle of green flag pit stops. This time Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, and David Gilliland were the cars that were yet to make a pit stop. This was the point where cautions began to take place quite frequently. Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon while under green flag racing conditions had to pit knowing they were both seconds from running on fumes. Congratulations to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for earning an 11th place finish in his first career Sprint Cup Series race. Despite constant minor contact with the outside wall Ricky managed to be in a good spot near the end of the race to take advantage of drivers being out of fuel for this incredible debut finish. That is two drivers that have done something amazing in that #21 Wood Brothers Ford.

Unpredictable Outcome
The entire 600 mile event showed us how difficult it really is to determine who is going to win a race or even who will finish well. Drivers like Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, and Matt Kenseth all experienced good luck but then horrible luck. Just when certain drivers thought they were getting a break something caused these drivers to not earn a well deserved finish. Kasey Kahne was searching for the correct line to use that would get him around the race track the fastest all race long. On the final restart Kasey Kahne ran out of fuel which stacked up the rest of the cars, and that caused several cars to collide. Tough break for Kasey and that #4 Red Bull team. The Hendrick Motorsports drivers all had competitive, fast race cars but they all experienced a form of bad luck or bad timing which caused them to not finish as well as they could have. Mark Martin was involved in a wreck, Jeff Gordon had to pit due to low fuel, Jimmie Johnson blew up with 5 laps to go, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of fuel on the final turn of the final lap to once again fail at snapping that long winless streak. I can't help but feel sorry for the fast cars that didn't have a good finish at the end of this race.

Noteable Drivers Results:

1. Kevin Harvick

2. David Ragan (Best career Cup finish)

3. Joey Logano

4. Kurt Busch
5. A.J. Allmendinger
6. Marcos Ambrose
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
8. Regan Smith
9. David Reutimann
10. Denny Hamlin

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (First career Cup start!)
13. Greg Biffle
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Clint Bowyer
16. Carl Edwards
17. Tony Stewart
20. Jeff Gordon
21. Jeff Burton
22. Kasey Kahne
28. Jimmie Johnson
31. Ryan Newman
32. Kyle Busch

Images from: http://www.nascar.com/news/110529/kharvick-wins-charlotte-dearnhardtjr/index.html
Written by: Tyler McMurter

I have to start by saying congratulations to Carl Edwards on winning his first career All-Star race. Over the last five seasons he has been one of the best drivers in NASCAR, he deserved this accomplishment. Nobody expected Carl Edwards or any driver for that matter to dominate the majority of the segments. Carl's teammate at Jack Roush Racing Greg Biffle managed to win the first segment. Kyle Busch finished 2nd in the All-Star race in just his second career All-Star race appearance. You could find that #18 M&M's car near the front for most of the night. Although David Reutimann was not a favorite to win the event I am not surprised that he finished in 3rd. Reutimann has won at Charlotte Motor Speedway before. He knows how to be fast and competitive at this NASCAR circuit.

Charlotte Motor Speedway is located in North Carolina, all of the best drivers compete to determine the All-Star driver in NASCAR. For some of the race it looked like Jeff Gordon had an outstanding chance at winning his 4th career All-Star race. However the final pit stop somehow managed to shuffle Gordon to the rear of the competition. The 4-time Champion never recovered and ended up finishing in 15th. I will admit my prediction was false, which was for an unlikely, underdog driver to pull of a shocking victory. I thought Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, or David Reutimann would be the driver to do such a thing. All three of these drivers have a victory at least one victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kasey Kahne is a former All-Star race winner. I did also state that the popular drivers like Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Kyle Busch would have a significant chance at winning this glorious event. I figured it would come down to simply who can find the best lane, speed, and handling balance to decide a winner.

David Ragan out raced Brad Keselowski to win the Sprint Showdown which took place before the All-Star race. What was really exciting was the final restart when Keselowski made a bold move to the inside to make it 3-wide with Paul Menard and David Ragan. Keselowski would then drive off with the lead but was later caught and passed by Ragan, giving Keselowski a 2nd place finish. Jeff Burton was my pick to win the Sprint Showdown despite him not having any top 5 or top 10 finishes yet this season. The former Charlotte winner slipped further away from the leader on a restart when a slower car held up Burton and several other cars. Marcos Ambrose did an excellent job of using the outside lane to pass a couple cars at a time in the corners at some points. Some risky moves which turned into clean passes gave Marcos a 3rd place finish, but this was not enough to advance him into the main event race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was voted as the third of the three drivers to advance into the All-Star race, no one was surprised by this. Dale has so much love, respect, and popularity with the fans because of his father's legacy and again love with the fans. The Most Popular Driver Award usually goes to Earnhardt Jr. at the end of each season, but this year he seems to have a contender. Jeff Gordon has always had a large fan base and now it's beginning to show. For 8 of the 11 races completed so far in 2011 Gordon has been the Pizza Hut Fan Favorite driver. It will be interesting to see who wins this year's Most Popular Driver award.

All-Star Race Results:
1. Carl Edwards
2. Kyle Busch
3. David Reutimann
4. Tony Stewart
5. Greg Biffle

Written by: Tyler McMurter

All-Star Race Preview

The 2011 NASCAR All-Star Race

Every year at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, all of the best drivers and pit crews compete in exciting competitions to determine the most dominant warriors in NASCAR. The Charlotte circuit is a 1.5-mile quad-oval with 24 degrees of banking in the turns and 5 degrees on the straight-aways. Pit road speed is 45 mph. The All-Star weekend will consist of the Pennzoil burnout competition, the Pit Crew Challenge, the Sprint Showdown, and the All-Star race.

Eligibility Regulations

The NASCAR drivers are eligible to compete in this historic event if they have at least one victory in the Sprint Cup Series in the previous season or the current season. All-Star race winners from previous years are automatically eligible for the All-Star race as long as they have competed in any NASCAR series during the 2010 or 2011 season. The exact same thing applies for drivers who have won a Cup Series Championship within the past 10 seasons. Expect a sold out crowd of 171,000 die hard NASCAR fans.

There is a preliminary event called the “Sprint Showdown” for teams that are not eligible for the All-Star race. The top two finishers from the Sprint Showdown will be entered into the All-Star race which will be later that same evening. Keep in mind that the fans get to vote in a third driver that competed in the Sprint Showdown as well. The NASCAR All-Star Event is always exciting for the fans and interesting for the experts.

I continue to say this all week leading up to the legendary event, it’s very possible that an under dog driver with less success than most of the best drivers will win the All-Star race:

-Kasey Kahne won the 2008 All-Star race and the points race at Charlotte the very next weekend. In 2006 Kahne won both points races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

-Casey Mears won the first of the two points races at Charlotte in 2007.

-Kurt Busch has been struggling. Over the last six races his best finish is 10^th. However Kurt won the 2010 All-Star race and the first of the two points races at Charlotte last season.

-Jeff Burton has no top 5 or top 10 finishes so far in 2011. He could pull off a victory this weekend; he won the second of the two points races at Charlotte in 2008.

*Keep in mind that drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, and Kyle Busch will all have a good chance at winning this historic event. 


Jamie McMurray won the second points race at Charlotte last season, Jimmie Johnson won the same event at Charlotte in 2009, and so did Jeff Gordon in 2007. Jeff Gordon is a 3 time All-Star race winner, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have each won the event twice, there are about eight drivers that have a great chance at being victorious this weekend.


Written By: Tyler McMurter

11 Years of Change To NASCAR

   I am impressed and deeply appreciate NASCAR's actions on upgrading the safety feature and technology inside the race cars. After the great Dale Earnhardt Sr passed away from an accident in the 2001 Daytona 500 they started investigating on procedures they can do. Eventually they changed the entire shape and aerodynamics of the cars in order to have the large amount of safety features inside the cars. As a result the cars carry a lot more weight now than they did before and they almost guarantee to save a driver's life no matter how brutal the accident is.

   I find that the excitement builds up more and more now throughout each Sprint Cup season knowing that the Chase is getting closer and closer. I think it's fantastic that NASCAR has it's own version of the Playoffs, it also allows 9 drivers to be almost even with the points leader to have a better chance at winning the Championship. Fans find it more interesting as they are always looking forward to the beginning of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The "safer barriers" installation on most areas of the wall at all NASCAR circuits has drastically decreased the impact to the driver from making contact with the wall. At these insane speeds there are bound to be the rare incident where a driver will collide with the wall at a speed like 160 mph. The safer barrier is another great way to keep drivers safe. It's rare to see a driver hit a spot of the wall where there is no safer barrier installation, but when it happens the drivers often notice the difference and comment on the radio about the impact.

   The new points system format that NASCAR came up with for the start of this season is something I am not sure if I agree with yet. However what I do know is that this has caused the new biggest key to success in the standings is consistency. One DNF can send you back three or four spots in the standings, so this is causing drivers to not take big risks so they can stay alive in terms of the Chase. Drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick are doing very well in the standings because they are good at being consistent.

   Mark Martin in that #5 car, but after some bad luck early in the season he finds himself in 11th in the Standings after the Dover race (May 15th). Mark finished 2nd in that race after electing not to pit while he was running about 14th. Staying on topic... drivers like Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne are struggling in the standings because of DNF's and poor finishes. Jeff Burton is even further behind in the standings, he is 23rd in the points with no top 5 or top 10 finishes after 11 races in 2011.

   I expect for Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, and maybe Kasey Kahne will improve their consistency for the remaining events this season and will make the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. I also predict that Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman who are currently inside the top 10 in points will find themselves not in the Chase this year. I would like to see Mark Martin make the Chase this season, but I have to admit I doubt it will happen. One thing is for sure... these drivers have had a lot to adapt to over the past 11 years. Now instead of Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Burton being the top drivers... unfortunately it is now Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, & Carl Edwards.

Written by: Tyler McMurter

Dover... The Monster Mile

Qualifying on Friday never took place due to rain. Jimmie Johnson would then start in the 1st place position, but is not awarded a pole award because he did not earn it in a qualifying session. The rain managed to stay away to allow the race to go all 400 laps at Dover.

Dover Results:
1. Matt Kenseth
2. Mark Martin
3. Marcos Ambrose
4. Kyle Busch
5. Brian Vickers   -First top 5 finish of 2011
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Carl Edwards   -Holds the best average finish at Dover with 7.7 (before today's race)
8. Martin Truex Jr  -His only win came here at Dover, today was his 200th career start
9. Jimmie Johnson  -Led 207 laps, and has led in the last eight straight races in 2011
10. Kevin Harvick  -Started 10th, finished 10th... consistent race

Noteable Drivers:

11. Jeff Burton

12. Dale Earnhardt Jr

14. Kurt Busch

16. Denny Hamlin

17. Jeff Gordon

18. Bobby Labonte

*J. Gordon has led over 2,000 laps at Dover (most among all drivers in NASCAR)

*B. Labonte won the June 1999 race at Dover

   Congratulations to Matt Kenseth on his second win of 2011, second win at Dover, and his 20th career Sprint Cup Series win. Coming into today's race Kenseth had finished 4th or better at five of the last six Dover races. As a result from today's race Kenseth goes from 10th in the standings to 6th. The Jack Roush Racing cars always perform well at the tough tracks to drive like Dover, Darlington, Texas, and Atlanta. Today was no different as Kenseth, Edwards and Ragan had very fast race cars for this event. Edwards led over 100 laps in today's race, but due to teams electing to take only two tires he couldn't recover back to the top 3 for the end of the race. Carl's 7th place finish today is his 9th top 10 of the 11 races completed this season. Mark Martin impressed even the experts like Darrell Waltrip with how he was able to only allow one car to pass him while having much older tires than the rest of the competition. If Mark held off Matt to win the race, it would have been Mark's 5th victory at Dover and his 41st career Sprint Cup Series victory. After seeing Mark's car perform all race I predicted he wouldn't last 15 laps in the top 10, boy was I wrong.

   The strategy for Mark Martin almost prevailed. Mark elected to not pit with about 30 laps to go at an attempt to win the race. He was running about 15th place anyway, might as well gamble. After finishing second Mark goes from 14th to 11th in the Sprint Cup Series standings. This caused the dominant drivers to be mired in traffic for the restart like Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Clint Bowyer. Johnson led 207 laps today, it was Edwards and Johnson swapping the lead all race long. The fastest pit crews in my opinion were the #48 team, #33 team, #99 team, and #24 team. They did well at advancing their position while on pit road, but Gordon was never able to hold on to those gained spots. If we were going to see a first time Sprint Cup Series winner today it would have been by David Ragan or A.J. Allmendinger. Early in the race while running in the top 10 the #6 car of Ragan spun out while entering pit road for green flag pit stops. After his stop was completed he found himself a lap down in 26th. Allmendinger raced the first 150 laps in the top 5, after engine problems he pulled his #43 Best Buy Ford to the garage area. You could hear the disappointment in A.J.'s voice during an interview. He now drops five spots in the standings to 16th.

   The top 18 cars were strong enough to finish on the lead lap like Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, and Greg Biffle did everything they could to keep themselves from going a lap down. Gordon is lucky he never once fell a lap down because his race car today was not competitive at all. The #24 car got as high as 9th place, but he was inside the top 20 for the majority of the race. This really shocks me because your talking about a driver that is a 4 time Dover winner and has led over 2,000 laps at this historical circuit. Despite the 17th place finish Gordon moves up three spots in the standings to 14th.

   The veterans of NASCAR struggled to get any where near the front in today's race. Jeff Burton finished in 2nd place in both Dover races in 2010, but he failed to earn his first top 10 of 2011 in today's race by finishing 11th. There was a few times where I thought Burton was going to keep himself in the top 10 and earn an impressive finish. Kurt Busch in the #22 car couldn't figure out their rear grip issue and so he finished in 14th place. Kurt Busch would get the "free pass" for being the first car a lap down on lap 331 for Kasey Kahne's engine troubles, this helped him finish as well as he did. However I can't say the same for Kasey Kahne who ended up earning a DNF, 36th place. He was hoping for another strong performance after finishing 4th in Darlington. As a result Kasey drops from 15th to 18th in the Sprint Cup standings.

*Fast Fact: Richard Petty won the very first NASCAR race at Dover in 1969.
Images from: http://www.nascar.com/news/110515/mkenseth-dover-win/index.html
Written by: Tyler McMurter

The Lady In Black

   Regan Smith won his first career Sprint Cup Series race last night at one of the most historic NASCAR circuits ever. He did a great job of running solid all race long and holding off Carl Edwards with 2 laps to go. Regan was very emotional during the interview in victory lane which is understandable. He is one of those drivers that rarely gets mentioned on or off the air, but has the talent to perform well. This just might land Regan a contract offer from a more popular team. It's too bad the conflict between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch took the camera time and commentator's attention away from him, he deserved to be documented throughout the post-race show. A shoving match between Kevin Harvick's pit crew and Kyle Busch's pit crew took place right before Regan Smith's winning celebration was about to begin. Kevin was aggravated with Kyle because Kyle spun out Kevin intentionally immediately after Clint Bowyer spun out first while racing 3-wide with the #18 and #29 cars. However Bowyer in the #33 car spinning out was caused by unintentional contact with Bowyer's teammate Harvick. Kyle Busch is a talented driver, but this proves he can be a loose cannon if he becomes angry of not winning... for once!

   I am disappointed and confused that Jeff Gordon eventually was not near as good as he was in the first half of the race. Jeff ended up crossing the finish line in 12th place. I was correct about Kasey Kahne qualifying good, though I didn't expect him to stay up near the front the way he did. Kahne qualified on the pole and unlike last week's pole winner Juan-Pablo Montoya, Kasey raced solidly in he top 10 throughout the evening. Fantastic performances from Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman. That #39 team was expected to have a strong showing at Darlington, but Keselowski was a complete surprise to me and every other NASCAR fan. Through the early stages of the race it was Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, and Carl Edwards that were the fastest, where did Keselowski and Regan Smith come from? I enjoy watching the Sprint Cup Series race every weekend. I am proud to congratulate Regan Smith and that #78 team on an impressive victory at a difficult race track like Darlington.

Darlington Results:

1. Regan Smith

2. Carl Edwards

3. Brad Keselowski

4. Kasey Kahne

5. Ryan Newman

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Tony Stewart

8. Greg Biffle

9. Jamie McMurray
10. Martin Truex Jr.

*11. Kyle Busch

*12. Jeff Gordon
*14. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
*15. Jimmie Johnson
*17. Kevin Harvick

*Noteable drivers

Images from: http://www.autoracingdaily.com/, http://www.bnd.com/2011/05/06/1699377/kahne-sets-darlington-record.html, and http://www.nascar-betting-odds-online.com/subway-fresh-fit-600.htm.

Written by: Tyler McMurter

Richmond Racing

   It was an exciting race Saturday night at Richmond. 400 laps, 43 cars, and 1 winner. Dale Earnhardt Jr. clocked in the fastest lap in the first practice session, then Juan-Pablo Montoya not only was fastest in the final practice, but he won his 7th career pole as well. Despite the impressive pole award I did not expect Montoya to finish in the top 10, there are too many drivers that can be competitive at Richmond. The favorites to win that were well documented in the pre-race show were Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.


Fast Facts
Hamlin: Has 2 victories at Richmond in the Nationwide Series, and 2 in the Sprint Cup series
Kyle Busch: Has won this event 2 times in a row (before the race on Saturday)
Jeff Gordon: Has led more laps at Richmond than any other active race car driver in NASCAR
Montoya: Has finished 2nd three times on an oval track, he has only won in NASCAR on a road course
Clint Bowyer: Former Richmond winner
Earnhardt Jr: Came to Richmond on Saturday 3rd in the point standings

   Clint Bowyer qualified 2nd, Mark Martin qualified 5th, and Jeff Gordon qualified 6th. These three drivers raced in the top 5 for the majority of the race while Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Burton slowly fought their way to the front as expected. Jimmie Johnson who qualified 30th struggled all race long and for a lot of laps I thought he was never going to get back on the lead lap. Jimmie seems to always find a way to be consistent even when off to a horrible start, he is like Kevin Harvick in that sense. On lap 300 a multi-car crash ended Jeff Gordon's day with an evil bang. The 4-time champion had a top 5 car all race long, it was a shame to see him finish in 39th place. Not much justice for the #24 team so far this season. Kasey Kahne was another driver that I figured like Montoya would slowly drift towards the back of the competition as the drivers continued to get chances to adjust their handling issues, and for a while it looked this way. Kasey qualified 4th and earned an impressive 3rd place finish, right behind the two Joe Gibbs Racing cars.

   I expected Kyle Busch to be fast and a contender for the victory at the end, but I was certain either Clint Bowyer or Denny Hamlin had a few more tricks up their sleeves. Kyle has now won this event three times in a row, I continue to be impressed by "Rowdy" Busch. Denny Hamlin won the Nationwide Series race at Richmond on Friday, I knew there was a tremendous chance for him to win both events this weekend. What can I say about David Ragan except "Where the heck did this come from?". It was probably the best performance I have seen from this young man, David raced in the top 15 all evening long and never looked back. After a couple long green flag runs it becomes hard to stay on the lead lap when certain cars will be good at cleanly passing cars that have been lapped by the leader. A solid job for the top 9 finishers from Richmond, they were able to survive and finish on the lead lap. I continue to be impressed by the short track talents of Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick.

Richmond Results:
1. Kyle Busch #18
2. Denny Hamlin #11
3. Kasey Kahne #4
4. David Ragan #6
5. Carl Edwards #99
6. Clint Bowyer #33
7. A.J. Allmendinger #43
8. Jimmie Johnson #48
9. Tony Stewart #14
10. Brian Vickers #83 -1 lap down



Images from: http://galleries.nascar.com/gallery/2011_Crown_Royal_400
Written by: Tyler McMurter