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NASCAR Sunday In Martinsville

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The sixth race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes place on Sunday in Martinsvlle, VA (12:30 PM ET, Fox)and for TheSportsNotebook that meant it was time to call resident NASCAR junkie, my  brother Bill and get some insight on what to expect, as Greg Biffle looks to keep his seven-point lead in the standings on Kevin Harvick.

“Martinsville is the shortest track in the series,” Bill told me. It’s flat and shaped like a paper clip. Position is everything.” Bill refers to the pole positions that will be settled on Saturday at 11:30 AM EST, and the track’s configuration make it one of the “revenge tracks” that he’s told me about previously, where the tight parameters make it possible—a cynic might even say likely—for drivers to create bumps with other drivers they may have a grudge against, and get away with it because the closeness of the action prevents anything from seeming obvious.

Tony Stewart has won two of the first five races, the only driver with multiple wins under his belt, but the defending Cup Series champ is still fourth in the standings, 18 points off of Biffle, due to the fact that Stewart has been outside the Top 10 in the other three races. Contrast that with Biffle’s performance. The leader has yet to win a race, but he’s been in the Top 10 four times and three times in the Top 5.

I posed the question to Bill that perhaps Biffle is getting lucky, that you can only ride throughout without getting caught up in a crash for so long, and that to stay atop the leader board without winning a race wouldn’t be possible much longer. “It’s never about luck,” Bill told me in the sort of mildly annoyed tone that a football coach would drop on ESPN field announcer on his way to the locker room. “It’s about skill, running strong and keeping yourself out of trouble.” He went to point out that prior to rules NASCAR instituted for last season it was possible to go an entire season, all the way into November, without winning a race and still win a championship. The new scoring methods might make that a tall order, but apparently I jumped the gun in thinking Biffle needed to start getting some wins when we’re only at the sixth race of the season.

If you’re looking at recent history for some answers, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson have had the most success at this track lately. Martinsville hosts two races per year and over a five-year period starting in 2007, and encompassing ten races, Hamlin and Johnson each have four wins. The flip to that argument is that 2011 is the year that produced the two other winners, Stewart and Jamie MacMurray. Hamlin is within shouting distance of Biffle right now, in seventh place and 24 points back, while Johnson is into the Top 10 and in solid position for the rest of the season now that his points penalty was lifted last week.

NASCAR Heads To Hollywood On Sunday

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to SoCal on Sunday with a race in the Fontana suburb of Los Angeles (2:30 PM ET, Fox) and the race took its second major twist this week when the penalties on driver Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were lifted.

It was in the aftermath of the Daytona 500 that Knaus was suspended for doing the NASCAR equivalent of putting his car on steroids, and according TheSportsNotebook’s Sprint Cup consultant, my brother Bill, this is not the first time that Knaus has ridden past the boundaries outlined in the rulebook. Furthermore, the 25-point penalty given to Johnson has been reversed, and with the restoration, JJ is now back to 12th in the overall standings.

“A bunch of BS”, was how Bill described the decision to restore the points and Knaus’ eligibility. “A lot of NASCAR fans are unhappy with this. It’s not the first time this has happened (putting the car on steroids).” When I noted that Johnson was still a distant 12th in the point standings, Bill reminded us causal NASCAR fans that a driver need only make the Top 10 to make the Chase For The Cup in the season’s fall races.  Essentially fans have witnessed the equivalent of the New York Yankees penalized ten games in the standings, had the season begin and then suddenly given those games back. Whatever you think the final decision should have been, this is clearly no way to run a railroad.

Sunday’s race will be at one of the “cookie-cutter” tracks that have become more common, to the chagrin of racing buffs. The Fontana track fits a standard mold of being 1.5 to 2 miles. Bill anticipates a spread-out race. “Cookie-cutter tracks are like that. When the race is spread out, pole position is not important as long as you’re not lapped.” He cited tracks at Chicago, Michigan and the recently completed run in Las Vegas as having a similar dynamic.

The drivers Bill called “the usual suspects” are at the top off the odds board—Johnson, Stewart, Kyle Busch, et al, are running with odds of anywhere from 6-1 to 8-1.  While their respective resumes make it understandable for their favorites’ status, the early overall standings don’t include them.

Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick run 1-2 without having won a race thanks to their overall consistency, while Daytona champ Matt Kenseth is a close third. Martin Truex and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are also in the top five without a win, as Earnhardt Jr. shares the five-spot with Vegas winner Denny Hamlin.

“The early standings have surprises,” Bill allowed. “Kasey Kahne has had no luck whatsoever. He’s been caught up in other drivers’ wrecks. Jeff Gordon has also had some tough luck.” It’s certainly one of the variables of NASCAR that it’s hard to find an equivalent of, where a driver can be running a good race when an accident in front him that he had nothing do sucks him in and wrecks (no pun intended) not just the race but his position in the standings.

While the fact Kahne is Bill’s favorite driver might lead some (at least me) to believe some sour grapes is involved, Bill is entitled—like me, he’s a Wisconsin basketball fan and after talking NASCAR the conversation shifted to commiseration over the tough Sweet 16 loss to Syracuse. Seeing your favorite driver wrecked and your favorite team take a wild ill-advised shot in the closing seconds is a lot for anyone to handle. But like it or not, what all NASCAR fans and drivers have to handle is that a decision away from the track and in the administrative offices put the sport’s top driver in Jimmie Johnson back in business as we get set for action in the Los Angeles area.

NASCAR Sunday: In The Fast Lane In Las Vegas

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Another NASCAR Sunday is ahead of us, this time in Las Vegas, where the Kobalt 400 will go at 2:30 PM ET on Fox, and NASCAR time at TheSportsNotebook means it’s time for me to pick up the phone and call my brother Bill, who follows this stuff the way I follow college hoops, spring training and NCIS Los Angeles. Which makes it appropriate that this week’s race gave Bill an opportunity to point out something where NASCAR bears an unfortuante similarity to baseball. The wave of baseball stadiums that arose in 1970s were known as “cookie-cutters”, because between the dimensions and the artificial turf, the parks in places like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and St. Louis looked like they were stamped out of the same cookie-cutter. Baseball’s learned its lesson and followed the lead of Baltimore’s Camden Yards that ushered in a new era of uniqueness and style to each park. NASCAR fans aren’t so lucky.

“A lot of fans are irritated with NASCAR”, Bill told TheSportsNotebook. “Las Vegas is a mile and a half tri-oval with no real unique feature and that’s more and more common.” I speculated that perhaps this generic track style is the reason that results at Vegas have followed a generic pattern. Jimmie Johnson has been the top racer on the circuit overall and has won here four times since 2005. Only two other drivers have won in Vegas, and Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are hardly longshots. While Bill didn’t necessarily debunk my generic track=favorites winning theory, he did point out the necessity of each crew making sure the car is properly fit to run on each track and adjusting throughout the race, and that this is something Johnson has done well in Las Vegas.

Johnson, Edwards and Tony Stewart are the tri-favorites in this race at 7-1. Stewart, last year’s Sprint Cup champion, hasn’t made his mark in 2012’s first two races. Bill said the reason is that Stewart had some fuel problems during a caution flag, resulting in him running out and causing a critical delay. Before we jump on Stewart and his team though, Bill pointed out that NASCAR has new rules governing fuel-injection in these situations and that Stewart won’t be the first to have problems. Either way, the defending champ is going to need to step it up with at least a strong finish and a good chunk of points sometime in the immediate future.

Another driver who had fuel issues, although it had nothing to do with the rules, was Kevin Harvick, who just missed catching Denny Hamlin for the win last week in Phoenix. “Happy Harvick” was making a strong push before his fuel ran out and he had to basically coast in and hold on to second place. Harvick is third in the overall standings thus far, while Greg Biffle, who also hasn’t won a race yet is second. Hamlin leads up the pack, with Daytona winner Matt Kenseth running fourth. No one else is within ten points of the lead at this early date in the schedule.

If you’re looking for a pleasant surprise, Bill pointed out Kurt Busch. “He’s doing surprisingly well, considering he’s a one-man operation with limited funds”, Bill advised. While Kurt Busch hasn’t made a run at a win yet, he deserves credit for being the Tampa Bay Rays of the circuit.

When it comes to picking a winner on Sunday, Bill’s liking his own personal favorite driver of Kasey Kahne, who’s run well here in the past and is available at 10-1 odds. I like Biffle, based on the more generic theory that when you get a successful veteran who’s second in the overall standings and can bet him at 20-1 odds, take a shot at it.