NASCAR Notebook: Lowe's Motor Speedway
Barry F. Hess
May 26, 2006
Here We Go Again
For the second weekend in a row NASCAR will race at the Lowe?s Motor Speedway, this time in the longest and most grueling race of the entire circuit, the Coca Cola 600.
If the newly paved track and the unique tires being used don?t get you the distance and strain a race like this can put on your engine will.
After an exciting qualifying round Thursday night it?s already obvious that the 43-car field will be shaking up and down more than?well you just fit in whatever you want on that one.
Greg Biffle is arguably the hottest driver in all the Nextel Cup heading into Lowe?s. The driver of the No. 16 National Guard Ford is finally on track after starting the season with five races of 31st or worse, including three DNF?s.
With three top 15 finishes in a row look for Biffle, currently 14th in points and starting from the seventh position on Sunday, to continue his streak of good runs as he battles back toward the top 10 faster than his teammate Matt Kenseth did one year ago.
After jumping out to the best start of his young career Kasey Kahne has cooled off considerably in recent weeks.
With finishes of 14th, 21st, 24th and 39th in his last four starts Kahne has dropped from second in the point standing all the way down to eighth.
Look for all that to change Sunday night.
Kahne, who qualified ninth on the starting grid, will be driving the same car that he won both Texas and Atlanta in and will be looking to prove his strong start was not a fluke.
Ray Evernham has had some questionable engine troubles throughout the season and a race like the 600 could expose yet another but if his equipment works the way it should Kahne should be a legitimate contender all night long.
Last year Bobby Labonte came within a hair of beating Jimmie Johnson before eventually earning his best finish of 2005, second place.
This year Labonte is driving a different car for a different team but his ability to get around Lowe?s is still the same.
Starting fifth on the qualifying grid look for Labonte to get out front early on lead several laps.
The driver of the famed No. 43 Gogourt Dodge will be driving the same car he brought to Atlanta, where he lead 24 laps before engine failure forced him to bow out early.
Labonte ran well in the All-Star Challenge last week and if his engine holds out for him Sunday night look for the 2000 Series Champion to contend for the win.
Carl Edwards will be starting from the 22nd position on the qualifying grid Sunday but don?t let that poor position fool you.
Edwards, currently 17th in points, earned top 10 finishes in both Lowe?s races last year and he will look to make it three in a row as he continues to battle toward his second straight appearance in the Race or the Chase.
After finishing inside the top 10 in four of his last five races Edwards has thrown his name back in the mix for NASCAR?s version of the playoffs but there is little room for error as time continues to wind down.
With a strong engine package designed to run better and better on long runs look for Edwards to use every bit of the Roush horsepower under the hood of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford as he tries to get back to victory lane for the first time this year.
It is difficult not to head into a race at Lowe?s without predicting a Jimmie Johnson victory. Johnson has won the last four points races at his home track and five out of the last six when you take the All-Star Challenge into consideration.
Johnson, who will start from the third position and heads into Sunday as the points leader, is using the same car he won last weekend?s All-Star event in?translation?look out rest of the field.
In a long race like the 600 look for Johnson?s veteran instincts to lead him toward the front rather than sitting back and waiting for an opening as he has done in other races this year.
Johnson wants to lead every lap if possible at his home track and with the set up he showed the world last week coming back for a second tour of duty that is not out of the realm of possibility.
Prediction: NASCAR is all about unpredictability and opportunity and no one embodies both of those things heading into Sunday?s 600 mile event than Scott Riggs.
After missing the Daytona 500 Riggs has rebounded with a the heart and determination of a respectable competitor and it will finally pay off this weekend at Lowe?s.
After dominating the Nextel Open, leading all but one lap, Riggs quickly gained the attention of the rest of the field and after running an amazing lap time of 28.74 second Thursday night at qualifying, good enough to take the pole, he got the attention of his peers yet again.
Currently 26th in points Riggs has five top 15 finishes to his credit and heading into Sunday?s race he has more than just a punchers chance to end up in victory lane.
His car has proven that when out in clean air few can match it in both speed and handling and there is no cleaner air than right from the pole position.
Riggs has worked incredibly hard to get the No. 10 Valvoline Dodge team on it?s feet and Sunday night in Charlotte all the hard work will finally pay off.
Terrible Tony
Tony Stewart began his career in the Nextel Cup with the reputation for being a hot-headed competitor you didn?t want to piss off or else you would pay the consequences, a style that worked well for the now two-time Nextel Cup Champion.
His outlaw type mentality on the track earned him millions of fans and one of the most prominent sponsors in all of NASCAR, Home Depot.
But after winning his first Cup Championship Stewart decided a change was in order and what evolved was the nicer, softer Tony that always carried a smile for the camera.
That lasted about all of two weeks before Stewart underwent yet another change, however, his latest metamorphosis isn?t one the 42 drivers around him like very much.
Lately Stewart?s aggressive, no-nonsense attitude on the track has change to a watered down, whining version of its former self, evident in his two ongoing, and for the most part one-sided, feuds with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch that just can?t seem to go away this season.
The most recent display of the new Tony was last weekend at the All-Star Challenge after he made several disrespectful comments towards Kenseth after the two got involved in a wreck that was really neither driver?s fault.
After sprouting out from his car and pouting all the way back to his trailer Stewart emerged to bash Kenseth after he told a pit road reporter he had no idea Stewart was even next to him in the seconds prior to the crash.
That's a pretty demented view in my opinion. I think he screwed up on this one, if he thinks I did that and that was my fault, he's screwed up in the head,? Stewart said.
But it didn?t end there.
After the race ended Stewart approached Robbie Reiser, Kenseth?s crew chief in what was described by those who witnessed the altercation as a very heated verbal exchange.
Robbie don't drive the car, he should come confront me if he's mad,? Kenseth said, a driver considered to be one of the cleanest and considerate on the track. ?Tony is always mad at somebody. I'm not going to go out there and do the name calling like he does every week.?
Days after the altercation Stewart sat in pit road of Lowe?s Motor Speedway as he waited to qualify baffled at how much attention the latest run in has received.
All this of course comes after Stewart got into it with sophomore driver Kyle Busch early this year after he refused to give up a position at California, a race he eventually went on to win.
I guess I?ll have to go get another talking too,? Busch jested in victory lane when asked about Stewart, who was so dead set on putting Busch into the wall that he wrecked his own car in the process.
In just 11 points races this season Stewart has struggled to find his identity.
First he was the unofficial sheriff of NASCAR after he took a stand at the Bud Shootout that drivers were not racing with enough brains but just days later at the Daytona 500 he flipped to the other side and became NASCAR?s unofficial outlaw after running Kenseth, the race leader, right off the track.
Then he transformed into NASCAR?s unofficial teacher but Kyle Busch wanted none of that so now he is just the unofficial grumpy guy of NASCAR always looking for drivers to move out of his way and just let him speed right on through to victory lane.
If this humble sportswriter could give just one small piece of advice to old smoke it would be this: Tony, you are currently second in the points and running better than most any driver on the circuit right now. You have a legitimate shot at winning your third Nextel Cup Championship and you have started 2006 better than any of your first 11 races in your career. Relax?just go race and stop letting every single solitary thing get under your skin?.that?s not healthy dude.
Unfortunately, however, Tony will most likely continue on with his grumpy ways, which may help him win a third championship, who knows.
One thing is for sure though, with Stewart and Kenseth, and Busch for that matter, all competing for the same Championship I can?t help but think somewhere, somehow once the Race for the Chase begins this three way feud will heat up hotter than ever and it might just cost one, if not all three, a chance at the title and that would be a damn shame.
Is Robert Yates Racing Ready to Self Destruct?
Robert Yates stood before a crowd of reporters earlier this week and said his race team has become of victim of its own success after announcing that he fired general manager Eddie D?Hondt.
After 11 races the best thing Yates Racing has to hang their hat on in 2006 is Elliot Sadler?s win in one of the Gatorade Duals during speed week.
Since that time Sadler has earned just two top 10 finishes all year while Dale Jarrett announced he was leaving the team at the end of the year to join Michael Waltrip?s new Toyota team.
So what success are they victims of again and how exactly does firing one of the better general managers the sport has offer help the situation?
This is a performance-based business and we have to evaluate the performance of where our cars are now,? Yates said. ?That begins with understanding our cars. We stayed small and didn't grow as fast as the technology in the sport has grown. What worked five years ago doesn't work now. Our goal is to figure out a technical direction and find the right people to lead that direction.?
Finding the right people hasn?t been the problem as of late, it?s keeping them that Yates can?t seem to do.
Last year long time Yates crew chief Todd Parrott left to join Petty Enterprises after he reportedly wasn?t happy with being forced to switch from Saddler?s team to Jarrett?s, who has seen at least six crew chiefs come and go since he joined Yates Racing.
As far as performance is concerned Yates needs only to look at his son, Doug, who is in charge of the engine program the team shares with Roush Racing and while Roush qualified all five drivers in the Chase last year Yates watched both of his drivers fail to make the cut.
Though his contract is not set to expire for several years there are talks that Saddler wants out while there is no notable replacement for Jarrett as of yet.
As sad as it is to say the self destruction of a once championship winning race team may be occurring right in front of our very eyes.
Random Thoughts
At the risk of sounding like a cold-hearted villain I have to say that I feel cheated in having to watch Kyle Petty earn a spot in the All-Star Challenge after Coca Cola offered a large monetary donation to his Victory Junction Gang if he got into the race. Drivers like Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were much more deserving of that spot but as always, money plays a more important role than entertaining the fans?.
The latest rumor swirling around the pits theses days is that Robert Yates is so embarrassed by Dale Jarrett leaving for Toyota next year that he is trying to buy out the remainder of his contract for 2006.
After being fired on Tuesday I can?t help but imagine Eddie D?Hondt atop one of Roush Racing?s pit boxes sometime in the near future.
The driver of his old car is having the best season of his career and the former driver of his current car won a championship?maybe Jamie McMurray should start looking for a new hobby because stock car racing doesn?t seem to be a strong fit.
Between the Coca Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500 is there a better weekend for auto racing out there?.I submit no!
For the second weekend in a row NASCAR will race at the Lowe?s Motor Speedway, this time in the longest and most grueling race of the entire circuit, the Coca Cola 600.
If the newly paved track and the unique tires being used don?t get you the distance and strain a race like this can put on your engine will.
After an exciting qualifying round Thursday night it?s already obvious that the 43-car field will be shaking up and down more than?well you just fit in whatever you want on that one.
Greg Biffle is arguably the hottest driver in all the Nextel Cup heading into Lowe?s. The driver of the No. 16 National Guard Ford is finally on track after starting the season with five races of 31st or worse, including three DNF?s.
With three top 15 finishes in a row look for Biffle, currently 14th in points and starting from the seventh position on Sunday, to continue his streak of good runs as he battles back toward the top 10 faster than his teammate Matt Kenseth did one year ago.
After jumping out to the best start of his young career Kasey Kahne has cooled off considerably in recent weeks.
With finishes of 14th, 21st, 24th and 39th in his last four starts Kahne has dropped from second in the point standing all the way down to eighth.
Look for all that to change Sunday night.
Kahne, who qualified ninth on the starting grid, will be driving the same car that he won both Texas and Atlanta in and will be looking to prove his strong start was not a fluke.
Ray Evernham has had some questionable engine troubles throughout the season and a race like the 600 could expose yet another but if his equipment works the way it should Kahne should be a legitimate contender all night long.
Last year Bobby Labonte came within a hair of beating Jimmie Johnson before eventually earning his best finish of 2005, second place.
This year Labonte is driving a different car for a different team but his ability to get around Lowe?s is still the same.
Starting fifth on the qualifying grid look for Labonte to get out front early on lead several laps.
The driver of the famed No. 43 Gogourt Dodge will be driving the same car he brought to Atlanta, where he lead 24 laps before engine failure forced him to bow out early.
Labonte ran well in the All-Star Challenge last week and if his engine holds out for him Sunday night look for the 2000 Series Champion to contend for the win.
Carl Edwards will be starting from the 22nd position on the qualifying grid Sunday but don?t let that poor position fool you.
Edwards, currently 17th in points, earned top 10 finishes in both Lowe?s races last year and he will look to make it three in a row as he continues to battle toward his second straight appearance in the Race or the Chase.
After finishing inside the top 10 in four of his last five races Edwards has thrown his name back in the mix for NASCAR?s version of the playoffs but there is little room for error as time continues to wind down.
With a strong engine package designed to run better and better on long runs look for Edwards to use every bit of the Roush horsepower under the hood of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford as he tries to get back to victory lane for the first time this year.
It is difficult not to head into a race at Lowe?s without predicting a Jimmie Johnson victory. Johnson has won the last four points races at his home track and five out of the last six when you take the All-Star Challenge into consideration.
Johnson, who will start from the third position and heads into Sunday as the points leader, is using the same car he won last weekend?s All-Star event in?translation?look out rest of the field.
In a long race like the 600 look for Johnson?s veteran instincts to lead him toward the front rather than sitting back and waiting for an opening as he has done in other races this year.
Johnson wants to lead every lap if possible at his home track and with the set up he showed the world last week coming back for a second tour of duty that is not out of the realm of possibility.
Prediction: NASCAR is all about unpredictability and opportunity and no one embodies both of those things heading into Sunday?s 600 mile event than Scott Riggs.
After missing the Daytona 500 Riggs has rebounded with a the heart and determination of a respectable competitor and it will finally pay off this weekend at Lowe?s.
After dominating the Nextel Open, leading all but one lap, Riggs quickly gained the attention of the rest of the field and after running an amazing lap time of 28.74 second Thursday night at qualifying, good enough to take the pole, he got the attention of his peers yet again.
Currently 26th in points Riggs has five top 15 finishes to his credit and heading into Sunday?s race he has more than just a punchers chance to end up in victory lane.
His car has proven that when out in clean air few can match it in both speed and handling and there is no cleaner air than right from the pole position.
Riggs has worked incredibly hard to get the No. 10 Valvoline Dodge team on it?s feet and Sunday night in Charlotte all the hard work will finally pay off.
Terrible Tony
Tony Stewart began his career in the Nextel Cup with the reputation for being a hot-headed competitor you didn?t want to piss off or else you would pay the consequences, a style that worked well for the now two-time Nextel Cup Champion.
His outlaw type mentality on the track earned him millions of fans and one of the most prominent sponsors in all of NASCAR, Home Depot.
But after winning his first Cup Championship Stewart decided a change was in order and what evolved was the nicer, softer Tony that always carried a smile for the camera.
That lasted about all of two weeks before Stewart underwent yet another change, however, his latest metamorphosis isn?t one the 42 drivers around him like very much.
Lately Stewart?s aggressive, no-nonsense attitude on the track has change to a watered down, whining version of its former self, evident in his two ongoing, and for the most part one-sided, feuds with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch that just can?t seem to go away this season.
The most recent display of the new Tony was last weekend at the All-Star Challenge after he made several disrespectful comments towards Kenseth after the two got involved in a wreck that was really neither driver?s fault.
After sprouting out from his car and pouting all the way back to his trailer Stewart emerged to bash Kenseth after he told a pit road reporter he had no idea Stewart was even next to him in the seconds prior to the crash.
That's a pretty demented view in my opinion. I think he screwed up on this one, if he thinks I did that and that was my fault, he's screwed up in the head,? Stewart said.
But it didn?t end there.
After the race ended Stewart approached Robbie Reiser, Kenseth?s crew chief in what was described by those who witnessed the altercation as a very heated verbal exchange.
Robbie don't drive the car, he should come confront me if he's mad,? Kenseth said, a driver considered to be one of the cleanest and considerate on the track. ?Tony is always mad at somebody. I'm not going to go out there and do the name calling like he does every week.?
Days after the altercation Stewart sat in pit road of Lowe?s Motor Speedway as he waited to qualify baffled at how much attention the latest run in has received.
All this of course comes after Stewart got into it with sophomore driver Kyle Busch early this year after he refused to give up a position at California, a race he eventually went on to win.
I guess I?ll have to go get another talking too,? Busch jested in victory lane when asked about Stewart, who was so dead set on putting Busch into the wall that he wrecked his own car in the process.
In just 11 points races this season Stewart has struggled to find his identity.
First he was the unofficial sheriff of NASCAR after he took a stand at the Bud Shootout that drivers were not racing with enough brains but just days later at the Daytona 500 he flipped to the other side and became NASCAR?s unofficial outlaw after running Kenseth, the race leader, right off the track.
Then he transformed into NASCAR?s unofficial teacher but Kyle Busch wanted none of that so now he is just the unofficial grumpy guy of NASCAR always looking for drivers to move out of his way and just let him speed right on through to victory lane.
If this humble sportswriter could give just one small piece of advice to old smoke it would be this: Tony, you are currently second in the points and running better than most any driver on the circuit right now. You have a legitimate shot at winning your third Nextel Cup Championship and you have started 2006 better than any of your first 11 races in your career. Relax?just go race and stop letting every single solitary thing get under your skin?.that?s not healthy dude.
Unfortunately, however, Tony will most likely continue on with his grumpy ways, which may help him win a third championship, who knows.
One thing is for sure though, with Stewart and Kenseth, and Busch for that matter, all competing for the same Championship I can?t help but think somewhere, somehow once the Race for the Chase begins this three way feud will heat up hotter than ever and it might just cost one, if not all three, a chance at the title and that would be a damn shame.
Is Robert Yates Racing Ready to Self Destruct?
Robert Yates stood before a crowd of reporters earlier this week and said his race team has become of victim of its own success after announcing that he fired general manager Eddie D?Hondt.
After 11 races the best thing Yates Racing has to hang their hat on in 2006 is Elliot Sadler?s win in one of the Gatorade Duals during speed week.
Since that time Sadler has earned just two top 10 finishes all year while Dale Jarrett announced he was leaving the team at the end of the year to join Michael Waltrip?s new Toyota team.
So what success are they victims of again and how exactly does firing one of the better general managers the sport has offer help the situation?
This is a performance-based business and we have to evaluate the performance of where our cars are now,? Yates said. ?That begins with understanding our cars. We stayed small and didn't grow as fast as the technology in the sport has grown. What worked five years ago doesn't work now. Our goal is to figure out a technical direction and find the right people to lead that direction.?
Finding the right people hasn?t been the problem as of late, it?s keeping them that Yates can?t seem to do.
Last year long time Yates crew chief Todd Parrott left to join Petty Enterprises after he reportedly wasn?t happy with being forced to switch from Saddler?s team to Jarrett?s, who has seen at least six crew chiefs come and go since he joined Yates Racing.
As far as performance is concerned Yates needs only to look at his son, Doug, who is in charge of the engine program the team shares with Roush Racing and while Roush qualified all five drivers in the Chase last year Yates watched both of his drivers fail to make the cut.
Though his contract is not set to expire for several years there are talks that Saddler wants out while there is no notable replacement for Jarrett as of yet.
As sad as it is to say the self destruction of a once championship winning race team may be occurring right in front of our very eyes.
Random Thoughts
At the risk of sounding like a cold-hearted villain I have to say that I feel cheated in having to watch Kyle Petty earn a spot in the All-Star Challenge after Coca Cola offered a large monetary donation to his Victory Junction Gang if he got into the race. Drivers like Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were much more deserving of that spot but as always, money plays a more important role than entertaining the fans?.
The latest rumor swirling around the pits theses days is that Robert Yates is so embarrassed by Dale Jarrett leaving for Toyota next year that he is trying to buy out the remainder of his contract for 2006.
After being fired on Tuesday I can?t help but imagine Eddie D?Hondt atop one of Roush Racing?s pit boxes sometime in the near future.
The driver of his old car is having the best season of his career and the former driver of his current car won a championship?maybe Jamie McMurray should start looking for a new hobby because stock car racing doesn?t seem to be a strong fit.
Between the Coca Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500 is there a better weekend for auto racing out there?.I submit no!
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