May 30, 2009

Trucks: Dover Results

It's always great to see a first time winner. Brian Scott rolled the dice and stayed out on old rubber while those around him cut their tires and slammed the wall. Dennis Setzer also stayed out on old tires, but could not quite make the pass for the lead.

Two of the drivers snake bit by a blown tire were Kyle Busch and Colin Braun, who were running first and second at the time and who slapped the wall within seconds of one another. Braun would not recover and he retired 16 laps from the end of the race. Busch charged from 15th to ninth, but was unable to crack the top-five again.

It was a rough day for the point leader Ron Hornaday Jr. After starting from the pole, he cut a tire early and did major damage to his truck. The No. 33 crew made a valiant effort to get back on track, but Hornaday retired with crash damage after completing only 43 laps. About the only good news is that he managed to retain the point lead by a mere 27 markers over Mike Skinner and 29 points over Matt Crafton.

Results, with Avg. finish

FinishStartDriverLapsLaps LedStatusAvg Fin
13Brian Scott20014Running16.50
225Dennis Setzer200
Running13.20
314David Starr2003Running8.50
413Jason White200
Running23.00
54Johnny Sauter200
Running5.00
623Matt Crafton200
Running16.44
75Chad McCumbee200
Running13.75
811Mike Skinner2005Running9.67
910Kyle Busch200133Running11.80
106Terry Cook200
Running12.50
1116J R Fitzpatrick200
Running11.00
1220Tayler Malsam200
Running12.00
1312Stacy Compton200
Running11.00
1426Chris Fontaine2005Running14.00
1536Tim Bainey Jr2001Running15.00
1622Max Papis199
Running16.00
1719Timothy Peters198
Running12.33
188Todd Bodine197
Running17.80
1918Rick Crawford197
Running10.00
207Johnny Benson Jr19523Engine14.80
2124Scott Wimmer192
Running21.00
222Colin Braun1844Accident15.00
2315T J Bell171
Running21.67
2417James Buescher160
Running24.00
259Brian Ickler65
Accident25.00
261Ron Hornaday Jr4312Accident8.20
2727Dexter Bean38
Handling27.00
2829Andy Ponstein31
Alternator28.00
2921Ryan Hackett26
Engine29.00
3033Norm Benning26
Vibration30.00
3128Johnny Chapman23
Overheating32.50
3235Wayne Edwards18
Oil29.33
3331Kevin Lepage15
Brakes26.67
3434Brandon Knupp12
Transmission34.00
3532Brent Raymer10
Vibration35.00
3630Mario Gosselin7
Accident36.00

N'Wide: Dover Results

Once again, Kyle Busch led the most laps at a race and failed to win. This time his disappointment was intensified by the fact that it was his teammate Joey Logano who helped ruin his day. Busch may have had a tire going down on the final restart, but he failed to get up to speed quickly enough to keep from being run into from behind by the No. 20. One way or the other, Logano proved that he is hungry for victory. He wound up second.

Brad Keselowski was in the right place to take advantage of the contact, and he won his third Nationwide Series race. The No. 88 has been a consistently strong contender in the second series, so chances are good that you were rooting for him at the end.

Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards round out the top 10.

Results, with career average finish

FinishStartDriverLapsLaps LedStatusAvg Fin
112Brad Keselowski2002Running8.40
21Joey Logano20087Running7.33
317Clint Bowyer200
Running6.86
47Brian Vickers200
Running6.20
58Carl Edwards200
Running9.67
610Paul Menard200
Running21.71
74Scott Speed200
Running7.00
823Jason Leffler200
Running15.08
913Jason Keller200
Running13.17
1021Justin Allgaier200
Running10.00
1129Michael McDowell200
Running11.00
129Brendan Gaughan200
Running12.00
135Kevin Harvick200
Running12.57
1416Mike Bliss200
Running10.89
1530Bobby Hamilton Jr200
Running14.87
1639Brian Keselowski200
Running16.00
173Kyle Busch200108Running16.10
1814Scott Wimmer199
Running11.15
1940Michael Annett1981Running19.00
2031Brandon Whitt198
Running21.50
2138Danny O'Quinn Jr196
Running22.50
2234Morgan Shepherd196
Running24.00
2318Eric McClure196
Running25.40
2441Kevin Conway194
Running27.00
2511Greg Biffle191
Running9.60
2642Mike Harmon175
Black Flagged Too Slow36.56
2733Scott Lagasse Jr158
Accident33.33
2837Tony Raines151
Running17.38
2920Steve Wallace145
Accident23.00
302David Ragan145
Accident25.00
3125Peyton Sellers128
Running31.00
326Ryan Newman126
Accident18.00
3328Kenny Wallace972Engine14.85
3422Marc Davis83
Accident34.00
3535Kevin Lepage65
Accident24.86
3643Kertus Davis43
Overheating33.20
3736Ken Butler III26
Accident37.00
3827John Wes Townley26
Accident34.00
3919Mark Green14
Quit26.00
4026Johnny Chapman13
Quit38.00
4115Terry Cook11
Quit41.00
4224Dennis Setzer8
Quit26.89
4332Casey Atwood8
Quit22.00
44
Jeffrey Earnhardt0
Did Not Qualify

IRL: Milwaukee Lineup

The lineup is set for Sunday's ABC Supply Co. 225 and Ryan Briscoe is picking up where he left off last year—at the front of the pack. This track has not always been kind to him with a 22nd in 2005 and an 18th in 2006, but after taking 2007 off, he won last year.

Graham Rahal will start to his outside, which is the same position he started last year. Unfortunately, he ran into trouble in that race and finished 25th.

The driver with the best five-year average finish will start in third. Tony Kanaan has won twice and finished fourth or better at Milwaukee since 2004, so he has to be considered a favorite for your fantasy roster.

Lineup

StartDriverAvg. FinAvg. StartAttempts
1Ryan Briscoe9.5014.002
2Graham Rahal25.002.001
3Tony Kanaan2.604.805
4Scott Dixon7.258.004
5Mario Moraes23.0023.001
6Hideki Mutoh12.0014.001
7Danica Patrick10.0012.504
8Dario Franchitti2.759.254
9Raphael Matos


10Tomas Scheckter11.008.004
11Mike Conway


12Robert Doornbos


13Marco Andretti13.676.003
14Dan Wheldon7.609.405
15Justin Wilson7.0022.001
16Paul Tracy


17E J Viso8.0010.001
18Ryan Hunter-Reay15.0012.001
19Ed Carpenter13.2012.405
20Helio Castroneves12.602.805
DNQStanton Barrett


Trucks: Scott records first win at Dover

Brian Scott and crew chief Jeff Hensley made a gutsy call to stay out on old tires and held off Dennis Setzer and the field to win his career first Camping World Truck Series race.

Our View: This race has been full of surprises—and it's been hard on Truck regulars. Ron Hornaday and Todd Bodine had big problems early, which made this anyone's race.

IRL: Briscoe on Milwaukee pole

Ryan Briscoe will lead the field to green at the Milwaukee Mile after posting a four-lap average speed of 168.394.

Our View: In three previous starts, Briscoe has an average finish of only 13.7, but fantasy owners should be more concerned with the fact that he's the defending winner of this race.

Complete Lineup

N'Wide: Keselowski wins after Logano (nearly) spins Busch

Brad Keselowski inherited the lead of the Heluva Good! 200 at Dover after first-place Kyle Busch got nudge by second-place Joey Logano.

Our View: Busch had a flat, but it is unclear if that came before or after the contact. One thing is certain; the teenager showed he was hungry for the win. In typical fashion, Busch stormed off without comment, so we are left to speculate.

Indy Lights: Romancini on Milwaukee pole

Mario Romancini won the pole for the Husar's House of Fine Diamonds 100, according to a tweet from @IndyCarPR. He broke Pablo Donoso's qualifying record set last year.

Our View: The advancement from Indy Lights to IRL (and the crossover) is a little slower than Nationwide to Cup, but this is still the most likely road to the major leagues.

N'Wide: Four drivers do double duty

Four drivers in the Nationwide Heluva Good! 200 will also run in the AAA Insurance 200. They are Mike Bliss, Kyle Busch, Terry Cook and Scott Wimmer.

Our View: Practice makes perfect—and Busch will actually run the triple header with Sunday's Cup Autism Speaks 400.

Kasey Kahne on Dover

Here are some excerpts from an interview after Saturday's practice sessions for the Autism Speaks 400.

YOU WERE SECOND IN PRACTICE TODAY, HOW WAS YOUR CAR? “So far, so good. Our Budweiser Dodge feels really strong again today. Kenny (Francis, crew-chief) really seems happy with the car, so we just tried to fine-tune our package a bit to stay with the race track. It’s a long race tomorrow and our (race) package has to be right when we get the green flag to go racing. We’re fairly close, but we’re really fast too.”

HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO RUN IN TRAFFIC ENOUGH TO GET A FEEL FOR HOW THE R6 ENGINE PERFORMS WITH OTHER CARS AROUND YOU? “Not really. I was pretty much by myself all practice. It’s kind of how practice is at Dover. Everybody is heading into the pits to make changes and you don’t really have the traffic you look for in practice.”

DOVER HASN’T BEEN TOO FRIENDLY TO YOU IN RECENT YEARS. HOW NICE IS IT TO START UP FRONT TOMORROW? “No kidding. I’ve been in a lot of little deals (wrecks) that were never really our fault. When you hit oil or get involved in wrecks just driving down the straighaways and get collected, it’s tough to swallow sometimes. Dover’s been a rough place for us recently, but I think we have as good a race car as we’ve brought here in recent years. I’m excited for tomorrow.”

HOW PHYSICALLY DEMANDING OF A RACE WILL TOMORROW BE? “It certainly gets your attention. You can run pretty hard here and the track is pretty rough. The concrete is pretty rough and you get bouncing around like you’re on really, really hard tires. It’s a little bit physical compared to some of the other tracks, but nothing too out of control.”

THIRTY-SEVEN RACES HAVE BEEN WON INSIDE THE TOP-THREE STARTING SPOTS. YOU START IN SECOND POSITION, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU HEADING INTO TOMORROW? “Qualifying is a big part of your race day success at Dover. We’ve got a great starting position and a great pit stall, so that’s a nice advantage. Just as important is the fact that our race car was strong in race trim all day today. We unloaded fast and have been fast all weekend.”

IRL: Barrett going home

According to a tweet from @IndyCarPR, Stanton Barrett has loaded up and is going home from Milwaukee after crashing in practice.

Our View: That certainly won't help his campaign to win rookie honors, but the team says they will be ready for the next race at Texas Motor Speedway

Hamlin post single fast lap in Dover Happy Hour

Denny Hamlin posted the single fastest lap in Dover's Happy Hour with a speed of 151.286 mph.

Our View: His average speed of 146.188 mph during 71 laps was among the worst, however. Given his recent struggles at Dover, we recommend parking him until next week's Pocono race.

Kahne wins Dover Happy Hour

Kasey Kahne posted the quickest average speed in Dover Happy Hour at 147.875 mph during 27 laps.

Our View: Kahne had one of the strongest cars last week at Lowe's, and he has something to prove this week. Start him with confidence.

N'Wide: Competition caution coming

According to a tweet from @BobPockrass, NASCAR will throw a competition caution at lap 35 to allow drivers to assess their tire wear.

Our View: Safety should come first, but this also allows veteran teams to make a final adjustment before the race truly gets underway.

Ky Busch fastest in Dover practice 2

Kyle Busch posted the fastest single lap in the Saturday morning practice session with a speed of 153.512 mph.

Our View: His average speed of 148.829 mph was only eighth best, but that is still a great combination of top end speed and durability.

Reutimann wins Dover practice 2

David Reutimann continues to hold the hot hand in NASCAR. He posted the quickest average speed of 149.618 during 27 laps.

Our View: His fastest single lap wasn't bad either. With a speed of 152.983 mph, he was third best behind Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne.

USAC racer dies in crash

Chad McDaniel died Friday night due to injuries sustained in a crash at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa, according to ThatsRacin.com.

Our View: Dirt and short track racing is where the major league stars cut their teeth, but most importantly, they do this because they love it. Fans of auto racing send their sympathies and appreciate the passion of drivers like McDaniel.

N'Wide: Logano wins Dover pole

On the one-year anniversary of his first Nationwide start, Joey Logano won the pole for the Heluva Good 200 at Dover with a speed of 155.959 mph.

Our View: Nine of the top-10 qualifiers are Cup regulars. Only Brendan Gaughan in ninth does not have a fulltime ride.

Complete Lineup