Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login

Auto Racing - Pro Sports Wrap

Nascar Pocono 500 from Pocono Raceway Preview

June 8th 2008 14:22
Kasey Kahne image
Can Kasey Kahne win from the pole?


With many drivers criticizing Pocono Raceway it was of little surprise that just 44 teams were entered in the race for qualifying, 43 of them would of course make the field. This week just one, instead of the usual 3-6, would not make the cut and go home early. That one car this week was the #96 Hall of Fame Racing car driven by J.J. Yeley. This is also the first of five races where retired driver Terry Labonte will be driving the #45 Petty Enterprises car in place of Kyle Petty. He used a past champions provisional to make the field, and will ironically start the Petty car from the 43rd spot on the grid. His brother and temporary teammate, Bobby will roll off from the 33rd spot.


Jimmie Johnson was the first one out for qualifying on Friday, not usually the spot you want. Obviously being first out his time put him on the pole. The surprising thing was, he stayed there for most of the day.

Kasey Kahne was the one who would post a better time than Johnson, he was the 31st car to qualify. He ran a lap of 170.219mph to put his #9 Dodge Budweiser car on the pole. Kahne is riding high as of late. He won the all-star race three weeks ago, and then followed that up by winning the Coca-Cola 600 seven days later.

Johnson’s time would be good enough to hold on to the outside of the front row. The second row is made up of two DEI cars whose driver’s absolutely loved the cars they had under them. Mark Martin will start third, and Regan Smith will roll off fourth. Front Row Joe Nemechek will have to settle for row 3 and fifth. The rest of the top ten was filled by Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, Scott Riggs, and Kyle Busch.


Kyle Busch will be finishing up what has been being called his own “Triple Crown”. As long as Kyle starts today’s race at Pocono Raceway, he will become the first person to ever start three Nascar races from different series at three different tacks, not to mention three different states. He started the Craftsman Truck Series races in Texas on Friday, coming home in second place. Then on Saturday he raced at Nashville in leg two, a Nationwide Series race, he would finish 20th there. For the Pocono 500 he may have qualified in 10th, but he crashed in practice and had to go to a back-up car. This means he will be starting at the back of the field. Joining him back there will be Sam Hornish, Jr. who also had to go to a back-up car.

If the track is as drivers have said, very hard to pass on, this could be a very boring race. I personally used to live less than half an hour from Pocono Raceway in Long Pond. I always remember the races being rather exciting near the end of the races. I must agree with the drivers though, this race should not be 500 miles, but instead 400. Going 500 miles cars do tend to wait around way too long knowing that they have a ton of laps before they need to be making their move.

My pick: Kasey Kahne keeps the train rolling and wins from the pole.


tr border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=376 style='border-collapse: collapse;table-layout:fixed;width:282pt'>
Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway
POS DRIVER CAR MANUFACTURER SPEED
1 Kasey Kahne 9 Dodge 170.219 mph
2 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 169.856 mph
3 Mark Martin 8 Chevrolet 168.897 mph
4 Regan Smith 1 Chevrolet 168.745 mph
5 Joe Nemechek 78 Chevrolet 168.723 mph
6 Carl Edwards 99 Ford 168.517 mph
7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 168.505 mph
8 A.J. Allmendinger 84 Toyota 168.479 mph
9 Scott Riggs 66 Chevrolet 168.391 mph
10 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 168.139 mph
11 Kurt Busch 2 Dodge 168.124 mph
12 Tony Stewart 20 Toyota 168.055 mph
13 Matt Kenseth 17 Ford 167.970 mph
14 Dario Franchitti 40 Dodge 167.939 mph
15 Brian Vickers 83 Toyota 167.904 mph
16 Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota 167.895 mph
17 Paul Menard 15 Chevrolet 167.838 mph
18 Elliott Sadler 19 Dodge 167.785 mph
19 Michael Waltrip 55 Toyota 167.738 mph
20 Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet 167.735 mph
21 Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Dodge 167.467 mph
22 Jamie McMurray 26 Ford 167.436 mph
23 Travis Kvapil 28 Ford 167.367 mph
24 Patrick Carpentier 10 Dodge 167.345 mph
25 Martin Truex Jr. 1 Chevrolet 167.327 mph
26 Jason Leffler 70 Chevrolet 167.258 mph
27 Ryan Newman 12 Dodge 167.255 mph
28 Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet 167.029 mph
29 Bill Elliott 21 Ford 166.759 mph
30 David Ragan 6 Ford 166.710 mph
31 Reed Sorenson 41 Dodge 166.688 mph
32 Dave Blaney 22 Toyota 166.648 mph
33 Greg Biffle 16 Ford 166.645 mph
34 Casey Mears 5 Chevrolet 166.605 mph
35 Clint Bowyer 7 Chevrolet 166.593 mph
36 David Reutimann 44 Toyota 166.590 mph
37 Bobby Labonte 43 Dodge 166.568 mph
38 Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet 166.454 mph
39 Michael McDowell 0 Toyota 166.276 mph
40 Robby Gordon 7 Dodge 165.871 mph
41 Sam Hornish Jr. 77 Dodge 165.071 mph
42 David Gilliland 38 Ford 164.971 mph
43 Terry Labonte 45 Dodge 166.276 mph
89
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Two Guys Sports - Category: Nascar
   


Nascar Best buy 400 Results

June 2nd 2008 11:02
Kyle Busch image
Kyle busch wins the Best Buy 400 at Dover


Greg Biffle sat on the pole for the Best Buy 400 at The Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware. It is worth noting that no car that has sat on the pole has won a race this year. This happened quickly after the race got under way, on lap 4 Jimmie Johnson took second place from Kurt Busch. By lap eight Biffle had built up a two second lead over Johnson, he kept pulling away and by lap 15 the lead had grown to 3.5 seconds. At this point, with Biffle dominating so much I have to think it is only a matter of time before Biffle either blows up or has a wheel fall of.

Lap eighteen brought out the first caution flag. Elliot Sadler was trying to pass Sam Hornish when David Gilliland’s car came up under his rear quarterpanel, Sadler would spin and hit the wall. This would cause a big wreck, in came car after car around turn two into the pile-up. In the end nine cars were involved; Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kasey Kahne, Bill Elliot, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Bobby Labonte, and Scott Riggs. This would cause the red flag to wave on lap 20. As they headed back to the green flag Biffle was still at the front of the pack. Of the nine cars involved in the wreck, Dale Jr., Kahne, and Labonte were back in the race.

By lap 40 Biffle had built up a lead of two seconds, his lead would remain the same over Kyle Busch until lap 50. Tony Raines had trouble on the track and brought the car to a stop to bring out caution number two, he would be penalized a lap for doing that. The race would restart at lap 73, just two laps later Michael Waltrip would tap Joe Nemechek’s car sending him into the wall to bring out the third caution.

Things would quiet down again, and by lap 115 Rousch-Fenway cars filled all but one spot in the top five; Biffle, Edwards, Kyle Busch the only non R-F car, Matt Kenseth, and Jamie McMurray. On lap 132 Tony Stewart made his way back onto the track. Things remained quiet until lap 149, up until this point Biffle had led all but one lap in the race, he relinquished the lead to teammate Carl Edwards to make a green flag pit stop. Just as green flag pit stops had cycled through out came the 4th caution of the day. When they would restart near lap 160 there were just 16 cars on the lead lap.

On lap 168 Patrick Carpentier was tapped on the driver’s side by Jeremy Mayfield. This would cut one of his tires and he would have to pit. No caution would come out. Three laps later, on lap 171 Carl Edwards pulled up past Biffle for the lead. At this point I was not surprised to hear Biffle complaining about a voltage problem. Like I said it was just a matter of time. Within just a couple of laps Edwards had built up more than a second lead over Biffle, who would soon be passed by Kyle Busch for second.

At the halfway point Edwards had a 1.5 second lead over Busch. With about 190 laps left Clint Bowyer cut down a tire and had to make an unscheduled pit stop, he would go a lap down. Less than 10 laps later Bowyer would return to the pits and he would stay there for quite a few laps due to a shock absorber breaking out of its frame.

With 175 laps to go there were just 13 cars on the lead lap. Green flag stops started right after that. The fifth caution flag came out on lap … for debris on the track, luckily for many the green flag pits stops had just ended. Brian Vickers for the second time, and Jeremy Mayfield both had to go to the end of the longest line for speeding in the pits. As they restarted with a little more than 150 laps to go, Kyle Busch was in the lead, followed by Carl Edwards & Greg Biffle.

With about 100 laps to go someone finally got close to leader Kyle Busch, it was Carl Edwards, but he just couldn’t get close enough to make the pass. The laps wound down and it was time for the last round of green flag pit stops with under 85 laps to go. After the pit stops cycled through Kyle Busch was about three seconds ahead of Carl Edwards. Kyle just kept driving away from the field, and second place Edwards, with 60 laps to go his lead was up to almost five seconds. There were just seven cars on the lead lap with 50 to go, and he was nearly 26 seconds behind. As the laps went down the split between first and second went higher and higher, with 40 laps left Kyle’s lead was 7.5 seconds. Without a caution flag no one had a remote chance to catch Kyle Busch. With 29 laps to go Kyle picked off Jimmie Johnson and put him a lap down, leaving just Martin Truex, Jr. Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and Carl Edwards on the lead lap. He wasn’t able to, or didn’t want to lap anyone else. He had a near six second lead with just three to go and finally dialed the speed back a little to come to the checkered flag safely.

Love him or hate him, he can sure drive a car. If the other teams, and even his own teammates can’t figure something out soon they can pretty much not bother showing up for the Chase at the end of the season. Also Nascar still needs to address the fact that Toyotas are so much better than the other makes. Any other time they would have changed some specs on the cars to even them up. Are they just waiting to give the new kid on the block the press and assure that Toyota continues to pour money into the sport?


tr border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=367 style='border-collapse: collapse;table-layout:fixed;width:276pt'>
Best Buy 400 Results -- 6/1/2008
             
Final Results 
Pos Driver Car # Make Started Laps Led
1 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 3 400 158
2 Carl Edwards 99 Ford 14 400 64
3 Greg Biffle 16 Ford 1 400 164
4 Matt Kenseth 17 Ford 21 400 1
5 Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet 7 400 3
6 Martin Truex Jr. 1 Chevrolet 20 400 0
7 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 4 399 2
8 Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet 38 399 0
9 Dave Blaney 22 Toyota 18 399 0
10 Jamie McMurray 26 Ford 5 399 1
11 Travis Kvapil 28 Ford 12 399 0
12 Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Dodge 35 399 0
13 Brian Vickers 83 Toyota 6 398 0
14 Ryan Newman 12 Dodge 11 398 6
15 David Ragan 6 Ford 23 398 0
16 David Gilliland 38 Ford 17 397 0
17 Casey Mears 5 Chevrolet 39 397 0
18 Sam Hornish Jr. 77 Dodge 16 397 0
19 Robby Gordon 7 Dodge 41 397 0
20 Kurt Busch 2 Dodge 2 396 0
21 Regan Smith 1 Chevrolet 29 396 0
22 Paul Menard 15 Chevrolet 13 396 0
23 Mark Martin 8 Chevrolet 30 394 0
24 J.J. Yeley 96 Toyota 27 394 0
25 Jeremy Mayfield 40 Dodge 10 394 0
26 Reed Sorenson 41 Dodge 42 394 0
27 David Reutimann 44 Toyota 37 394 0
28 Michael Waltrip 55 Toyota 40 393 0
29 Patrick Carpentier 10 Dodge 36 393 0
30 Michael McDowell 0 Toyota 32 393 1
31 Kasey Kahne 9 Dodge 15 392 0
32 Bobby Labonte 43 Dodge 19 391 0
33 Bill Elliott 21 Ford 24 389 0
34 Joe Nemechek 78 Chevrolet 31 388 0
35 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 25 387 0
36 Clint Bowyer 7 Chevrolet 26 381 0
37 AJ Allmendinger 84 Toyota 8 365 0
38 Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet 34 326 0
39 Scott Riggs 66 Chevrolet 28 308 0
40 Tony Raines 34 Chevrolet 43 296 0
41 Tony Stewart 20 Toyota 22 199 0
42 Elliott Sadler 19 Dodge 9 16 0
43 Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota 33 16 0
58
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Two Guys Sports - Category: Nascar
   


The IndyCar ABC Supply Co. inc. AJ Foyt 225 (6-1-08)

June 1st 2008 07:51
Danica Patrick image
Danica Patrick is focused on winning in Milwaukee.


Now that the spectacle that is the Indy 500 is over most people will forget about the IndyCar Series. They do race more than once a year in case you didn’t know. Helio Castroneves has to keep himself busy somehow, and the Dancing With The Stars – All-Star season isn’t in the making quite yet. So, instead he will be driving his <car sponsor team here> in races at places you might be familiar with. Places like, Texas Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Watkins Glen, Chicagoland Speedway, and Kentucky Speedway now owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. who own many tracks.

This week the drivers roll into The Milwaukee Mile for the ABC Supply Co. inc. AJ Foyt 225. As its name states this track is a one mile long oval with 2.5 degree banking in the straightaways, and 9.25 degree banking in the turns. The mile is actually the oldest continually operating motor speedway in the world. Racing started here way back in 1903, which pre-dates even the Indy 500 by eight years. Everyone from AJ Foyt to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. have won races at “America’s Legendary Oval”. Besides IndyCar, The Mile hosts events in the Nascar Nationwide Series, and Craftsman Truck Series.

This weekend is all about the IndyCars though, a weekend that wraps up with the AJ Foyt 225 Sunday at 3PM EDT. The race can be seen on ABC.

If you thought last week’s Indy 500 had a lot of cautions and laps under the yellow flag, just wait until Sunday afternoon. Most think that the 26 cars that are starting are too many on this flat track. I have to agree with them, but it will only be a problem in the early stages of the race. Yes, I am saying right from the start there will be caution after caution for all of the crashes that will happen. By the halfway point there might be less than half the field still making circuits around The Mile. This could make the race exciting, as long as the half that stays out of trouble includes some of the names we want to see running.

In a flashback to nearly two decades ago, the front row at the start of this race will be Andretti – Rahal. The younger namesakes whose teams are owned by their dads, Marco and Graham that is, not Michael and Bobby. Graham Rahal had taken the pole halfway through qualifying and stayed there till Andretti, who rolled off 25th to qualify, knocked him to the outside pole by under half a mile per hour average speed.

The rest of the front of the starting grid was filled by Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon in third, a driver that has to have one of the best names in sports, Will Power in fourth, Helio Castroneves who sat on the pole here last year in fifth, and the winner at The Milwaukee Mile for two years running, Tony Kanaan in sixth.

Other starting spots of note, Danica Patrick will be rolling off from the 13th spot on the grid. Directly in front of her will be Ryan Briscoe, the driver of the car that hit her in the pits last week at Indy and knocked her out of the race. I read an article that says she has moved past the incident, but she never did make it to his pits last week. Will she try to accidentally bump him or take him out? We’ll just have to wait and see, but watch close because if she does I am sure she will disguise it as best she can to avoid penalties.

My predictions:
Many caution flags, let’s say 13 yellows, and throw in one red flag.
Laps under caution: more than half of them
Winner: Helio Castroneves edges out Tony Kanaan in the final laps. Danica fades shortly before then to finish in third.

tr border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=332 style='border-collapse: collapse;table-layout:fixed;width:250pt'>
Starting Grid - ABC Supply AJ Foyt 225
POS DRIVER CAR SPEED
1 Marco Andretti 26 168.079 mph
2 Graham Rahal 6 167.654 mph
3 Scott Dixon 9 167.637 mph
4 Will Power 8 167.265 mph
5 Helio Castroneves 3 166.667 mph
6 Tony Kanaan 11 166.473 mph
7 Dan Wheldon 10 166.195 mph
8 Enrique Bernoldi 36 165.216 mph
9 Oriol Servia 5 165.190 mph
10 E.J. Viso 33 164.843 mph
11 Ryan Briscoe 6 164.106 mph
12 Ryan Hunter-Reay 17 164.066 mph
13 Danica Patrick 7 163.702 mph
14 Hideki Mutoh 27 163.368 mph
15 Bruno Junqueira 18 163.123 mph
16 John Andretti 24 162.449 mph
17 Ed Carpenter 20 162.139 mph
18 A.J. Foyt IV 2 162.049 mph
19 Buddy Rice 15 161.903 mph
20 Darren Manning 14 160.787 mph
21 Townsend Bell 23 160.311 mph
22 Justin Wilson 2 159.927 mph
23 Mario Moraes 19 155.511 mph
24 Jaime Camara 34 154.613 mph
25 Mario Dominguez 96 150.071 mph
26 Vitor Meira 4 N/A