Patrick's Best Assets Just Might Be Her New Boss

by David Caraviello
NASCAR.com

They met, oddly enough, in Monte Carlo, and oddly enough, on the set of a music video. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick, the most popular and marketable drivers in their respective racing disciplines, had never laid eyes on one another until hip-hop star Jay-Z brought them together in 2006 for the opening sequence of his Show Me What You Got video, a James Bond homage that features Earnhardt and Patrick racing sports cars in and around the Mediterranean principality.

"We hit it off really well," Patrick remembered. "He's a really, really nice guy. I have a lot of respect for him, a lot to learn from him. But we get along great."

And now, three years later, just look at what that unusual introduction may have wrought. Patrick announced Tuesday that she will drive a No. 7 JR Motorsports entry in a limited number of Nationwide Series events for the 2010 season, most of them on either side of a 17-race IndyCar slate that opens March 14 in Brazil and ends Oct. 2 at Homestead, Fla. Next week's ARCA test at Daytona International Speedway -- in preparation for her debut in that series Feb. 6 -- will be her first time in a stock car since a test at Greenville-Pickens Speedway almost a decade ago.

"I remember thinking, compared to my open-wheel car, this thing doesn't stop very well," she said of that experience. "I was like, are these brakes working?"

By now, the steepness of Patrick's on-track learning curve has been well-documented. To her credit, she's taking it relatively slow, starting out with the partial Nationwide schedule -- how many races that exactly entails, we still don't know -- and not leaping directly into Sprint Cup. And yet, some have questioned whether her plan to race in two series at one time will allow her to succeed in either one. And then there's the matter of her rather scant resume in open-wheel cars, and how that compares to some series champions and Indianapolis 500 winners who took years to adjust to stock cars, if they ever made it at all.

Read More here....

Denny Hamlin Wins at Miami, His Fourth Win of the Season

by Jayski.com

Hamlin wins at Homestead: #11-Denny Hamlin won the FORD 400 Sprint Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway for his 4th win of the season and 8th of his career. It is the first win for Toyota at Homestead. Hamlin started 38th, the farthest a driver has started and won at Homestead. #31-Burton finished 2nd [for the 2nd race in a row] followed by #29-Harvick, #2-Busch, #48-Johnson [the 2009 Sprint Cup Champion], #24-Gordon, #99-Edwards, #18-Busch, #1-Truex Jr. and #44-Allmendinger. Johnson wins his 4th NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship in a row, the first driver ever to so in NASCAR's 61 year history. Johnson was presented a check by Sprint for $6,520,800. Rick Hendrick becomes the first owner to finish 1-2-3 in the final Cup standings with Johnson, Martin and Gordon finishing 1-2-3.
There were 7 cautions for 31 yellow flag laps and 18 lead changes among 10 drivers.

Scheduled Race Re-Airs:
ESPN2: Monday, November 23 at 3:00am/et
ESPN Classic: Monday, November 23 at 1:00pm/et
SPEED, Wednesday, November 25 at 12:00pm/et.
For race results, awards and more, see my Homestead Race Results Page.(11-22-2009)

Final UNOFFICIAL 2009 Sprint Cup CHASE Standings
[after Homestead, Chase race 10 of 10; Season race 36 of 36]:
pos, car#, driver, points, behind, [wins], race finish
1) #48-Jimmie Johnson [7 wins], 6652, finished 5th
2) #5-Mark Martin [5 wins], 6511, -141, 12th
3) #24-Jeff Gordon [1 win], 6473, -179, 6th
4) #2-Kurt Busch [2 wins], 6446, -206, 4th
5) #11-Denny Hamlin [4 wins], 6335, -317, WON
6) #14-Tony Stewart [4 wins], 6309, -243, 22nd
7) #16-Greg Biffle, 6292, -360, 14th
8) #42-Juan Montoya, 6252, -400, 38th
9) #39-Ryan Newman, 6175, -477, 23rd
10) #9-Kasey Kahne [2 wins], 6128, -524, 17th
11) #99-Carl Edwards, 6118, -534, 7th
12) #83-Brian Vickers [1 win], 5929, -723, 20th
For the drivers points standings, see my Drivers Points Standings.(11-22-2009)

Jimmie Johnson Wins His Fourth Straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Title

by ESPN News Services

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson was chasing much more than a championship.

He was also chasing NASCAR history.

The most dominant driver of this decade won a record fourth consecutive championship Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he raced hard to finish fifth when 25th place would have gotten the job done.

In doing so, Johnson joined Richard Petty (7), Dale Earnhardt (7) and teammate Jeff Gordon (4) as the only drivers to win more than three titles.

"The cool thing is, we're not done yet," he warned.

All he ever wanted was a chance to race against the very best. Maybe even win a race or two.

Never did he expect to be a champion.

Especially four times over.

"I grew up on two wheels in the dirt," the 34-year-old Californian said. "I had no clue I was going to end up here racing stock cars and doing something that had never been done before. To do something that's never been done in the sport, and love the sport like I do and respect it like I do and the greats -- Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon -- to do something they have never done is so awesome.

"And to win four championships in eight years, what this team has done -- this is unbelievable."

Johnson bulldozed his way into the record books, pouncing when the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship began to pull team owner Rick Hendrick into the record books with him. Johnson's title gave a record 12th overall championship to Hendrick, who was in North Carolina with a niece who was undergoing an emergency liver transplant.

In his absence, Johnson, Mark Martin and Gordon celebrated a 1-2-3 finish in the final points standings, the first time in NASCAR history a team owner has swept the standings with cars he has solely owned the entire season.

Read More Here......

Homestead-Miami Final Practice: Childress Cars Faster Than Everyone

by M Roberts

The Chase for the Championship comes to a close Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Jimmie Johnson looking to win an unprecedented fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Johnson currently has a comfortable 108-point lead over second place Mark Martin which equates to the difference from first to 25th place.

During the final preparations for the race in Saturday’s practice sessions, both Martin and Johnson look to be equally up for the task for Sunday’s showdown. Johnson, who won the pole on Friday, was strong in both sessions running third fastest in the early session and seventh fastest during happy Hour.

Martin fared better Saturday having the fastest times in the first practice and third best in Happy hour giving the No. 5 Hendrick some semblance of hope that at least they know they’ll have one of the strongest cars on race day.

Both drivers are coming in with winning chassis’ as well. Johnson has the same car that he won with at Indianapolis and Martin brought his same car that won a Darlington and Chicagoland.

While the main story all week has centered around the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers battling for the Championship, two Richard Childress Racing drivers came out blazing during Happy Hour creating their own story and making them serious contenders to win the race itself.

Jeff Burton led Happy Hour with the fastest lap of 165.736 mph and close behind was teammate Kevin Harvick with the second fastest lap. Both drivers laid down the quick times in the early stages of the session.

Burton is looking continue his current hot streak on the season that has seen him finish in the top-10 in his last three races including a season best second-place last week at Phoenix. In his last 1.5-mile high banked track, run at Texas, Burton finished fifth.

Despite the good run at Texas, Burton’s team opted to bring a brand new chassis for this race and if this an indication to what may be in store for 2010 for RCR, missing the Chase likely will not occur again.

Harvick’s good run in practice shouldn’t come as too much of surprise, even though he did beat out the regular practice bully’s of Johnson and Martin. Harvick has finished in the top-10 in six of his last eight Miami starts, including last season’s best of second-place. This week he has brought the same chassis that finished fifth at Texas two weeks ago.

Both Harvick and Burton also put together the best average lap speeds during happy Hour which means Mark Martin may have a battle on his hands as he attempts to lead the most laps and win the race.

Top Speeds - Saturday’s First Practice Session:
1) Mark Martin 168.177 mph - AVG 30 laps @ 162.027
2) Denny Hamlin 167.884 mph - AVG 32 laps @ 161.119
3) Jimmie Johnson 167.863 mph - AVG 31 laps @ 161.497
4) Ryan Newman 167.822 mph - AVG 28 laps @ 161.046
5) Kyle Busch 167.811 mph - 24 laps @ 161.554
Top Average speed: Kevin Harvick 24 laps @ 163.194
Most laps run: Brian Vickers 39

Top Speeds - Saturday’s Final Practice (Happy Hour)
1) Jeff Burton 165.736 mph - AVG 44 laps @ 161.439
2) Kevin Harvick 165.375 - AVG 42 laps @ 161.293
3) Mark Martin 165.067 mph - AVG 47 laps @ 160.923
4) Martin Truex Jr 165.022 mph - AVG 48 laps @ 160.923
5) Ryan Newman 164.604 mph - AVG 50 laps @ 160.103


Top-10 Rated Drivers do Homestead-Miami based on final practices, recent performances on high banked 1.5-mile tracks, and current state of the team.
1) Mark Martin
2) Kevin Harvick
3) Kurt Busch
4) Jeff Burton
5) Jimmie Johnson
6) Ryan Newman
7) Denny Hamlin
8) Tony Stewart
9) Kyle Busch
10) Juan Pablo Montoya

Homestead-Miami Qualifying Notes: After Slow First Practice, JJ Finds Pole

by Jayski.com

Johnson wins pole at Homestead: #48-Johnson won the Coors Light Pole Award for the FORD 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a lap of 173.919mph for his 4th pole of the season and 23rd career pole. #82-Speed was 2nd fastest followed by #47-Ambrose, #5-Martin, #14-Stewart, #29-Harvick, #39-Newman, #16-Biffle, #21-Elliott and #33-Bowyer.
The non Top-35 drivers who made the race: #82-Speed, #21-Elliott, #78-Smith, #02-Gilliland, #36-McDowell, #71-BLabonte, #37-Kvapil and #08-TLabonte [using a past champions provisional].
Five drivers who failed to qualify: #87-Nemecehk, #66-Blaney, #70-Skinner, #13-Papis and #09-Stremme.
See qualifying results, pole progression, starting lineup on my Homestead Qualifying Results/Starting Lineup page.(11-20-2009)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Homestead-Miami Speedway:
#48-Jimmie Johnson won the Coors Light Pole Award for the FORD 400 with a lap of 31.049 seconds, 173.919 mph.
This is his 23rd pole in 291 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his fourth pole and 26th top-10 start in 2009.
This is his second pole in nine races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His first Homestead pole came in 2007. He finished seventh that race.
#82-Scott Speed (second) posted his seventh top-10 start of 2009 and his second in two races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This matches his best career start (Homestead, 2008; Chicagoland, 2009).
#47-Marcos Ambrose (third) posted his first top-10 start at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It is his sixth in 36 races this season.(NASCAR Statistics)(11-20-2009)

Homestead starting spots for the 2009 Chase Drivers:
(in order of chase points standings coming into Homestead)
1) #48-Jimmie Johnson, on the pole, 1st
2) #5-Mark Martin, 4th
3) #24-Jeff Gordon, 20th
4) #2-Kurt Busch, 12th
5) #14-Tony Stewart, 5th
6) #42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 23rd
7) #16-Greg Biffle, 8th
8) #11-Denny Hamlin, 38th
9) #39-Ryan Newman, 7th
10) #9-Kasey Kahne, 25th
11) #99-Carl Edwards, 24th
12) #83-Brian Vickers, 33rd.(11-20-2009)

Eight 2008 pole sitters shut out: there are eight drivers who scored a pole in 2008 that did not in 2009. #9-Kahne had a six season pole streak on the line [he has won at least one pole in each of the last six seasons] tha is gone. Other drivers who won a pole in 2008 and none in 2009 were: #16-Biffle [2 straight season with a pole], #88-Earnhardt Jr.[2], #99-Edwards [2], #87-Nemechek[1], Patrick Carpentier [1 - has no ride], #98-Menard [1] and Travis Kvapil [1 - no ride]. See 2009 pole winners, some stats and facts and all time pole winners on my Pole Winners page.(11-20-2009)

Homestead-Miami Preview: JJ has it Locked Up, Kurt Busch Could Benefit at 14/1

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

There is nothing else you can say about Jimmie Johnson other than just masterful. Winning the race last week at Phoenix in such dominant fashion pales in comparison to the board scope of what he’s doing right now, on the cusp of winning his fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.

This has never been done before, it’s uncharted waters, and I for one have a tough time really grasping what a great feat this is. What in NASCAR history can you compare it to? There is nothing. We’re witnessing the greatest stretch of consistent dominance in the sports history.

For all the great drivers battling for the Championship we’ve seen over the years, only one has done it it four times in a row. Only one, Cale Yarbrough, had done it three times in a row prior to Johnson last year. Jeff Gordon never did it, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, or Darrell Waltrip; nobody in the brief history!

When thinking of where it ranks as one of the unachievable in sports history, it’s hard to come up with great individual accomplishments that match what Johnson is about to do this week in Miami for the final race of the 2009 season.

Maybe a Tiger Woods in golf, or Tennis’ Roger Federer can come close, but can we really say that the level of competition is at it’s height in golf or tennis like it is in NASCAR. The multi-team operations have made it so there are so many more competitive cars as a whole in the series week to week than ever before.

To be able to be at your peak for four straight years, better than everyone, and showing bno signs of slowing is a testament to what has made Johnson so great. And to think he could have easily been going for six straight titles if it hadn’t have been for a few mishaps early in the Chase for the Championship in the years before he finally won.

His performance last week under pressure at Phoenix is just another chapter in his book of excellence. After what happened to him the previous week at Texas, he could have just laid up like a golfer and got par with a top-10 finish, but he went all out like Tin-Cup and got the money shot leading nearly start to finish.

This week at Miami, he’ll win the title and only second-place Mark Martin who is 108 points behind has a mathematical shot at catching him. It would be easy to suggest that Johnson will run conservatively in trying to finish 25th or better which will clinch the title, but somehow that doesn’t sound like Johnson’s style.

Johnson has never won at Miami, one of the few tracks he hasn’t won at, but that may be more attributed to Miami being the final race of the year where he does lay up a bit to win clinch the title.

He’s got the cars capable of winning and nothing would be better than to see a Championship clinch the title and win in the same race, but his race will be all about staying within the top-25.

For the conservative approach that is sure to be Johnson’s game plan this week, it opens up the door for the rest of the field to capture a win and quite possibly at some double digit prices.

The top driver to look at this week looks like Kurt Busch who really looks dialed in. Miami isn’t the same configuration as the SMI sister tracks of Atlanta and Texas which Busch has won at this year, but the distance and banking are similar.

If there was one track that could be called similar to Miami, it would be Dover which is a half-mile shorter than Miami, a place where Busch finished fifth in his last run there in late September.

"We feel like there’s a bit more business to take care of this weekend before the ’09 season is completed," said Busch, currently fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings entering Sunday’s race. "It’ll be our last race with Pat (crew chief Tryson) holding the reins for our Miller Lite Dodge Team and we’re definitely looking to see it all conclude on a positive note.

"I think we do have another win in us," said Busch. "We’re bringing back ‘Patriot,’ the car we won with at Texas. It’s a great car. Our team has an upbeat feel. We’ve had a long year. We’ve had a successful year. There’s no better way than put together a 100 percent effort this week and go out with a bang and hopefully a win."

You have to love the confidence Busch speaks about and love the way the race may unfold with Johnson not running too hard in this race.

"I’ve always thought that it was extremely important to end the season on a high note," said Busch. "Your last race out is the one that’s freshest on your mind and you certainly hope it’s memorable for all the right reasons. Closing out your season with a competitive weekend at Homestead is just that important.

"If you come out of there with great results, it gives all the team members, the sponsors, the media – everyone out there – a super calling card to remember you by," Busch added. "It works to instill optimism and grow the level of confidence through all those cold and dreary winter days. When you look at that period in between the closing of one season till the opening of the next, that’s a long time to think about it."

It sounds good enough for me. In Las Vegas, If Busch wins, the entire city of Las Vegas gets a free Miller Lite at the multiple locations of PT’s Pub’s through out the city. I like beer and I also like 14 to 1 odds at the cashier window. Let’s close out the season strong with a Busch win and free beer.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #2 Kurt Busch (14/1)
2) #18 Kyle Busch (10/1)
3) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
4) #29 Kevin Harvick (30/1)
5) #11 Denny Hamlin (12/1)

Visit VegasInsider.com for Much more Stats and Info for this weeks race at Miami

Homestead-Miami Facts

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Homestead-Miami Speedway:
History
* Groundbreaking for Homestead-Miami Dade Motorsports Complex – as the track was originally named – began Aug. 24, 1993. The first race was a NASCAR Nationwide Series event on Nov. 5, 1995.
* The original configuration was a four-turn, rectangular oval based on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout.
* The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Homestead was held on Nov. 14, 1999.
* 2002 was the first season of the Championship Weekend at Homestead, with all three of NASCAR’s national series holding their season finale at the same track.

Notebook
* There have been 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, one per season since 1999.
* Five drivers have competed in all nine Homestead races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart.
* David Green won the first pole, in 1999.
* Tony Stewart won the inaugural race, in 1999.
* There have been nine different pole winners. Kurt Busch (2002 and 2004) is the only multiple pole winner there.
* There have been seven different race winners, led by Greg Biffle with three.
* Jack Roush has won six races, most among owners.
* The race has been won from the pole twice: Bill Elliott (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002).
* The race has been won from a top-10 starting position eight of 10 times.
* Greg Biffle won in 2006 from the 22nd starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
* Three active drivers have averaged a top-10 finish: Carl Edwards (6.4), Jeff Gordon (9.9) and Kevin Harvick (9.1).
* Four of the last five races have ended with a margin of victory under one second.

NASCAR in Florida
* There have been 161 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Florida.
* 157 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series have their home state recorded as Florida.
* There have been 10 race winners from Florida in NASCAR’s three national series.

Johnson Too Good at Phoenix, Widens Lead to 108 Points With One To Go

by Jayski.com

Johnson wins at Phoenix: #48-Jimmie Johnson won the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway for his 7th win of the season, leading the most laps and winning his 48th race of his career. #31-Burton finished 2nd, followed by #11-Hamlin #5-Martin, #1-Truex Jr. [pole sitter, his first top-5 of the season], #2-Busch, #33-Bowyer, #42-Montoya, #24-Gordon and #00-Reutimann. Johnson's win and Martins 4th place finish allowed Johnson to open up a 108 point lead, so Johnson just needs to finish 25th or better and nothing Martin can do to catch him, Johnson could finish further back if Martin does. Jeff Gordon is eliminated when Johnson starts the car at Homestead. There were only 4 cautions for 23 yellow flag laps and there were 9 lead changes among 4 drivers.

Scheduled Race Re-Airs:
ESPN2: Monday, November 16 at 3:00am/et
ESPN Classic: Monday, November 16 at 1:00pm/et
SPEED, Wednesday, November 18 at 12:00pm/et
For race results, awards and more, see my Phoenix Race Results Page.(11-15-2009)

Phoenix Happy Hour: Johnson and Martin Bringing Their Best This Week

by M Roberts

Any thoughts of Jimmie Johnson having any lingering affects from last weeks disastrous finish at Texas were quickly put to rest during Saturday’s Final Phoenix Practice in preparation for Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series points leader laid out the fastest lap of 132.348 mph early in the practice and appears to be primed at taking care of business and increasing his 73 point lead in the Chase for the Championship.

Johnson has a conceivable chance of clinching the title at Phoenix this week with one race still to go, which would be an unprecedented fourth Championship in a row. However, with another poor performance and good runs by his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, Johnson could also find himself leaving Phoenix third in points.

The later scenario seems very unlikely based on his past history at Phoenix that has never seen him finish worse than 15th with a current streak of six straight top-5 finishes that include three wins.

Johnson’s rocket this week is the same chassis he used while finishing second at Martinsville, a track that -- while half the distance of Phoenix -- is still relevant because of relatively no banking.

There are a few other drivers who have brought their Martinsville chassis as well, but most teams opted to go with their Chassis’ that ran at the combination of New Hampshire, Richmond, or the April Phoenix race, which are all flat tracks and similar in distance.

The top driver on the combined trio of similar tracks this year is Mark Martin who captured victories at Phoenix earlier this year and the last race held at New Hampshire. Martin brought the chassis with him that won those two races and was very quick in final practice with the second fastest lap just behind Johnson.

Martin can be expected to go all out on Sunday like we have seldom seem the cool, collective veteran who rarely pushes anything. He’s fighting for a chance at winning his first Cup Championship and is just 73 points behind. Should he finish the season where he’s at, it would be his fifth second-place finish over his great career.

The third fastest in Happy Hour was another Hendrick driver, but wasn’t Jeff Gordon. No, it was Dale Earnhardt Jr who brought the same chassis he ran with at New Hampshire that running in fourth before being wrecked.

The positive for Junior Nation is that they are running very well of late with some of the newer formatted Hendrick chassis’ and he‘s a two-time winner at Phoenix. However, the negative of just not having any luck has outweighed the actual quality of how good his cars have been.

Juan Pablo Montoya had the 17th fastest single lap during happy Hour, but had the best overall average times for the session which should give him his best career finish on the track which is 16th.

Martin Truex Jr won the Pole on Friday and showed on Saturday that he isn’t just fast in qualifying-trim, but that his race set-up is equally as fast. He had the fourth fastest single lap time and the third fastest average speeds. Truex Jr has three top-10 Phoenix finishes over his career.

Last weeks winner, Kurt Busch, came up with the fifth best lap during Happy Hour, laying it down early like all the other top speeds of the day. Busch used the same Chassis this week that led 123 laps in his last two Phoenix starts. Busch has one Phoenix win over his career, along with one, a-hem, suspension for a traffic altercation outside the raceway in 2005.

One of the surprises of the day was how poorly Denny Hamlin ran with having only the 25th best lap. A lot was expected oh Hamlin because of how ell he did on the last runs at like-tracks by winning at Richmond and finishing second at New Hampshire. Hamlin also won on the short flat track of Martinsville just a few weeks ago giving reason to believe he’d be there contending with Johnson and Martin for the win this week.

Of the former Phoenix winners not mentioned, Jeff Burton came in with the sixth best speed, Jeff Gordon seventh, Tony Stewart 11th, Matt Kenseth 17th, Kevin Harvick 22nd, Kyle Busch 27th.

Top Speeds - Final Practice (Happy Hour)
1) Jimmie Johnson 132.348 mph - 64 laps @ 128.333
2) Mark Martin 132.275 mph - 68 laps @ 127.546
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr 132.018 mph - 41 laps @ 128.039
4) Martin Truex Jr 131.878 mph - 52 laps @ 128.210
5) Kurt Busch 131.868 mph - 61 laps @ 127.863

Top-10 Rated Drivers - Ratings based on Happy Hour, recent past performances on the tracks of New Hampshire, Phoenix, and Richmond along with the current state of the team.
1) Mark Martin
2) Jimmie Johnson
3) Kurt Busch
4) Jeff Gordon
5) Jeff Burton
6) Dale Earnhardt Jr
7) Denny Hamlin
8) Tony Stewart
9) Kyle Busch
10) Martin Truex Jr

Phoenix Preview: Look For Hamlin To Lead The Way Followed by Hendrick

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Just when we thought NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship was a runaway lacking any kind drama with Jimmie Johnson running away, Sam Hornish crashed the party by wrecking Johnson last week at Texas.

Johnson lost 111 points and is only 73 points ahead of second place Mark Martin and 112 points ahead of third place Jeff Gordon. He still has a comfortable lead with two races to go, but at least it‘s something to talk about unlike what we’ve had fir the duration of the Chase where Johnson has ran away in his quest to win four straight titles.

This week it’s off to Phoenix where Johnson has three career wins at including a sweep on 2008. Earlier in the season, Johnson finished fourth behind winner Mark Martin making it five straight wins in Phoenix by a Hendrick Motorsports driver.

“Yeah, I would say that looking at the schedule, the best track remaining for us would be PIR, “ Johnson said. “We had a really fast car in the spring and had some different issues on pit road and some bad luck with the timing of the caution that kept us back in the pack, and still ended up with a reasonable finish but we passed a lot of cars, and in our opinion felt like we had the strongest car.

“For me it's a great track but it's also a great track for Jeff. He runs very consistent there, and then Mark won in the spring. The two guys I'm trying to stay ahead of in the points have that track as a strong one, as well.

Johnson will be using his Martinsville chassis from last month in which he finished second to Denny Hamlin in. Though much shorter in length, the flat nature of Martinsville is very suitable for Phoenix. If things don’t work out, they can roll their back-up out which has four of five races it started including Richmond and Phoenix last season.

Jeff Gordon got his first career win at Phoenix in 2007, but had always run fairly well despite the win drought. He’ll be looking to press the issue this week as only two races remain.

“A lot can happen in these final two races,“ said Gordon at an attempt of being optimistic. “There are hundreds of moments that you have as a team every single weekend that maybe don’t materialize, or that don’t get seen by the public or even the media. But we see it. There are close calls all the time, and it can happen at any time. I get through every race and think, ‘whew, we survived this moment or that moment. Phoenix has certainly been on our radar because it’s a track that’s been hit or miss for us. I’m a little disappointed in how we performed earlier this year, and we certainly need to improve on that this weekend. A lot still has to happen if we are going to realistically battle for the championship in the season finale. But we need to make sure we do everything in our control to secure as many points as possible this weekend.”

True, a lot can happen, but the “Lot” happened last week at Texas. We all kind of figured that there would be a lapse by Johnson somewhere and assumed it would be at Talladega, but it happened at Texas instead. Asking for a Johnson collapse on a track like Phoenix where his worst career finish in 15th and he’s finished in the top-5 for six straight races might be a little too much.

The bottom line is that the gift came last week and drivers like Mark Martin and Gordon didn’t capitalize enough on it to make Johnson feel the pressure a little bit. This guy is about as cool as they come and these are the types of moments that have already defined him as one of the best ever.

We have the luxury at Phoenix of looking back at two other facilities to get a better grasp on who may win the race. The flat banking and length of New Hampshire and Richmond are very similar and just about every year we see multiple wins by at least one driver from a team who has figured out the layout.

So far, Mark Martin is that guy having won at Phoenix earlier in the year and New Hampshire in September. The others with one win are Kyle Busch at Richmond, Joey Logano in a rain shortened New Hampshire race, and Denny Hamlin at Richmond.

Martin, Busch and Hamlin will again be contenders to win this week based on their excellence on those tracks this year. Of the three, Martin will be charging the hardest trying to gain as many points possible to ensure he doesn’t just finish second in the points again, something he’s done four times in his career without ever winning the title.

The driver I’m going to key on this week is Hamlin. I like the way he drives on these type of tracks, especially what he‘s done lately. In his last run at New Hampshire, he finished just behind Martin in second place. The race prior to New Hampshire, he won at Richmond and just to boot, he won on the smaller flat track of Martinsville as well. He’s never won at Phoenix, but has finished third on three separate instances.

As for the point leader, Mr. Johnson, the Sports Books have him listed as the favorite to win based on past history, but I’d look for him to play it conservative this week and race for points. 73 points is the margin between running first and 15th. Johnson should finish with a top-10, but after getting a huge scare last week, don’t expect him to let it all hang out and go for the win in a race he’d be normally very capable of winning under different circumstances.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #11 Denny Hamlin (8/1)
2) #18 Kyle Busch (10/1)
3) #5 Mark Martin (8/1)
4) #24 Jeff Gordon (10/1)
5) #48 Jimmie Johnson (5/1)

Phoenix International Raceway Facts

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Phoenix International Raceway:
History
• Construction was completed in January 1964. The facility consisted of a one-mile oval and a 2.5-mile road course.
• Alan Kulwicki won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix on Nov. 6, 1988.
• The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debuted at Phoenix on Feb. 5, 1995. Mike Skinner became the series’ first winner.
• The first spring race was held on April 23, 2005 and also the first night race, which was won by Kurt Busch.

Notebook
• There have been 26 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Phoenix International Raceway, one per season from 1988-2004 and two each season since.
• Geoffrey Bodine won the first pole in 1988.
• There have been 16 different pole winners, led by Ryan Newman with four.
• Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon are the only drivers to win consecutive poles. Newman won three straight (2002-04), while Gordon won the fall of 2006 and spring of 2007.
• There have been 19 different race winners, led by Jimmie Johnson, with three. Mark Martin ended Johnson’s streak with his win in the spring.
• The race has been won from the pole three times: Jeff Gordon (spring 2007), Jimmie Johnson (fall 2008) and Mark Martin (spring 2009).
• The race has been won from a top-10 starting position in 13 of 26 events.
• Ricky Rudd won the 1995 race from the 29th-place starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
• Mark Martin has 10 top-five finishes, more than any other driver. Martin (9.0 average finish) is one of two active drivers who average a top-10 finish. Jimmie Johnson (5.4) is the other. Alan Kulwicki (5.2) leads all drivers in average finish at Phoenix.
• Five of the last six races have ended with a margin of victory under one second.
• Jimmie Johnson leads the points standings by 73 points over Mark Martin with two races remaining. The largest points deficit overcome with two races remaining was 85 by Alan Kulwicki in 1992.

NASCAR in Arizona
• There have been 31 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Arizona.
• 29 drivers in NASCAR national series history have their home state recorded as Arizona.
• There have been no race winners from Arizona in NASCAR’s three national series.

Kurt Busch at Texas, Second win of the Year on SMI Sister-Tracks

by Jayski.com

Kurt Busch wins at Texas: #2-Kurt Busch won the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway for his 2nd win of the season and 20th of his career. #18-Kyle Busch led 232 laps and was in position to win the race and set history by winning the Cup, Nationwide and Truck race same weekend/ same track, then ran out of fuel with two laps to go and finished 11th. #11-Hamlin finished 2nd, followed by #17-Kenseth, #5-Martin, #29-Harvick [who was 2nd but ran out of fuel and got passed by three cars], #14-Stewart, #33-Bowyer, #16-Biffle, #31-Burton and #44-Allmendinger. On lap 3, points leader #48-Johnson was involved in a wreck and hit the inside wall, the crew took just over an hour to repair the car and get Johnson out so he could make laps and finished 38th. Johnson's points lead went from 184 to 73 over #5-Mark Martin. There were 5 cautions for 26 yellow flag laps and there were 13 lead changes among 4 drivers.
Scheduled Race Re-Airs:
ESPN2: Monday, November 9 at 3:30am/et
ESPN Classic: Monday, November 9 at 1:00pm/et
SPEED, Wednesday, November 11 at 12:00pm/et
For race results, awards and more, see my Texas Race Results Page.(11-8-2009)

Where the 2009 Chase Drivers finish at Texas in the Dickies 500:
(in order of chase points standings coming into Texas)
1) #48-Jimmie Johnson, 38th, wrecked lap 3
2) #5-Mark Martin, 4th
3) #24-Jeff Gordon, 13th
4) #42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 37th
5) #14-Tony Stewart, 6th
6) #2-Kurt Busch, WON
7) #16-Greg Biffle, 8th
8) #39-Ryan Newman, 12th
9) #9-Kasey Kahne, 33rd
10) #99-Carl Edwards, 39th
11) #11-Denny Hamlin, 2nd
12) #83-Brian Vickers, 26th.(11-8-2009)

Texas Final Practice: Johnson Fastest, But Roush Stable Is On The Prowl

by M Roberts

Happy Hour is any indication of how the Texas NASCAR Sprint Cup race will be run on Sunday, then Jimmie Johnson is likely to widen his lead in the Chase for the Championship and quite possibly win his seventh race of the season.

Johnson laid down the fastest lap in Texas’ final practice session at 186.670 mph while running the second most laps with 49. After escaping Talladega with a gift sixth place finish while simply looking to just finish, Johnson looks like he wants to finish the last three races of the season with his guns-a-blazin’.

A great tool to use helping figure out who may run better than others is by referring to all the other similar track’s data using practices and what happened in the race itself. In Texas’ case, we have six similar instances this year of races run on 1.5 mile high banked tracks that include Las Vegas, Charlotte, Atlanta, and the first Texas race.

The two most recent races run are the most likely indicators of the six as to how well Saturday’s practice times relate to a driver’s actual expected performance.

Without having to look at anything, Johnson stands out despite his practice times just because he’s, well, he’s Jimmie Johnson. Even though he won at Charlotte, the last like-track, he’s had his worst combined season of finishes on these type of tracks which should give hope to some of the others.

What may turn out to be more good news for the field is that Johnson is using that Charlotte rocket as his back-up car this week, opting to go with the chassis that won at Dover instead.

The driver that looked the most promising among those who haven’t done well on these type of tracks this season is Carl Edwards who had the second fastest lap in Happy Hour. He does have two top-5 finishes on these types this season, but Edwards just doesn’t get top-5’s, he gets wins on them and dominates, or at least he did.

Last season at Texas, he continued the Fenway-Roush dominance at Texas by sweeping the season giving him three career wins on the track. It also contributed to Roush’s beefy all-around performance at the track since it opened giving his stable seven wins in 17 races there.

These are supposed to be Roush-friendly tracks and always have been. Yet as the stars aligned in February, everything seemed to change. Roush ended up winning his first Daytona 500 ever, but in the process, sold his season’s soul to do it, or at least that how it looks.

Following Matt Kenseth’s two straight wins to start the season, it’s been one of the worst years ever for Roush.

There has never been a driver so dominant one year with nine wins, to the next having zero wins, while starting every event like Edwards is on the verge of. Greg Biffle won two races late last season and hasn’t won either. David Ragan has gone from barely missing the Chase last season to competing for 26th position in points with the likes of A.J. Allmendinger.

The lone bright spot since Kenseth’s run was the Jamie McMurray win last week, a driver who is in lame duck status. The taint on the bright spot was that the win gave no hope to a once strong program because it was in a restrictor plate race.

Somehow, some way, all things look to be better for Roush this week based on practice. Not only is Edwards second fastest, but Biffle came in fourth, Ragan sixth, McMurray 13th, and Kenseth 27th.

Kenseth’s times are always lousy and he never really puts any emphasis on them. What is encouraging was the nice run he had in the last Charlotte race where he finished second to Johnson as well as his fifth at Texas in the spring.

Denny Hamlin had the third fastest Happy Hour lap and the best average lap times while running his same chassis that led 54 laps at Charlotte last month before having engine problems.

Dale Earnhardt Jr looked solid in his final practice as he came in with the eighth best lap, but more encouraging for him is that he was fast in long runs having the best average lap times over the session. He ran 39 laps in his Kansas chassis, the one that led 41 laps before engine trouble, and has a car capable of winning on race day; something we haven’t been able to say too often this season. It was one of his best practices of 2009.

David Reutimann got off to a blazing start in Saturday’s first practice session by running the overall fastest lap of 186.812 mph on his first of 22 laps run. His fast times should come as no surprise because he’s been doing it all season on the high-banked 1.5 mile tracks.

Not only has Reutimann had great practices for these races, but he’s also turned into success in the actual race. In the six races run on the like-facilities, Reutimann has captured three of his five top-5 finishes, including the only win of his career in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

Top Speeds - Saturday’s Final Practice (Happy Hour):
1) Jimmie Johnson 186.670 mph - AVG 49 laps @ 179.239
2) Carl Edwards 186.265 mph - AVG 34 laps @ 179.479
3) Denny Hamlin 185.810 mph - AVG 29 laps @ 179.604
4) Greg Biffle 185.503 mph - AVG 31 laps @ 178.739
5) Bill Elliott 184.894 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 177.448

Top Speeds - Saturday’s First Practice:
1) David Reutimann 186.812 mph - AVG 22 laps @ 181.520
2) Tony Stewart 186.716 mph - AVG 16 laps @ 182.866
3) Juan Pablo Montoya 186.265 mph - AVG 11 laps @ 181.639
4) Kyle Busch 186.252 mph - AVG 32 laps @ 180.853
5) Kurt Busch 185.714 mph - AVG 28 laps @ 180.381

Top 10 Rated Drivers at Texas following all qualifying and practice sessions. Ratings based on those practices, recent results on similar tracks, and current state of the team.
1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Carl Edwards
3) Greg Biffle
4) Matt Kenseth
5) Denny Hamlin
6) Jeff Gordon
7) Dale Earnhardt Jr
8) Kyle Busch
9) Tony Stewart
10) Mark Martin

Jeff Gordon Wins Texas Pole: First of 2009, 17th Straight Year with Pole

by Jayski.com

Jeff Gordon on pole at Texas:
#24-Jeff Gordon won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway with a lap of 191.117mph for his 1st pole of the season and 68th career pole, Gordon has now won at least one pole every season for 17 straight seasons and has won 17 races from the 1st starting position. #9-Kahne was 2nd fastest followed by #2-Busch, #14-Stewart, #18-Busch, #99-Edwards, #5-Martin, #16-Biffle, #88-Earnhardt Jr. and #33-Bowyer.

The non Top-35 drivers who made the race: #02-Gilliland, #70-Skinner, #71-Labonte, #82-Speed, #78-Smith, #87-Nemechek, #36-McDowell and #21-Elliott.
The four drivers who failed to qualify: #37-Raines, #66-Blaney, #13-Papis and #09-Bliss.(11-6-2009)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Texas:
* #24-Jeff Gordon won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Dickies 500 with a lap of 28.255 seconds, 191.117 mph.
* This is his 68th pole in 579 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He has now won a pole in 17 consecutive seasons.
* This is his first pole and 24th top-10 start in 2009. His last pole came at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2008.
* This is his second pole in 18 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
* #9-Kasey Kahne (second) posted his 18th top-10 start of 2009 and his seventh in 11 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
* #2-Kurt Busch (third) posted his fourth top-10 start at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 17th in 34 races this season.
* #20-Joey Logano (14th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.
(NASCAR Statistics)(11-6-2009)

Texas Dickies 500 Preview: Kenseth Could Be a Live Underdog This Week

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Race No. 34 of 36 on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule takes us to Texas where we can get back some normal racing instead of the garbage witnessed last week at Talladega.

The best thing about Texas is that you can use a wealth of data from the long season to help handicap for this race. You have results from the similar sister-tracks of Las Vegas, Atlanta, Charlotte, and the spring Texas race to go off of. Most of those tracks are all banked about the same and are very similar despite some unique traits of their own.

The most recent race run should get higher regards than the one ran earlier. If we sift through all the results I would pay more attention to the Charlotte race from a few weeks ago more than I would the March Vegas race, but necessarily more than the April Texas race.

Take Jeff Gordon for example. He won the first Texas race this season and has finished well at every one of the sister-tracks. His worse finish was at Charlotte in May when he finished 14th, but that was in part because of rain ending the race. Gordon was in that race as a strong contender to win. Even if we use that finish, Gordon’s average finish on the combined tracks is 5.8.

Jimmie Johnson almost went the entire season without winning on one of these type of tracks, which would have been a major shock because he has dominated on them since he came into the series. No one has been better. He didn’t get the win until a few weeks ago at Charlotte. In the five previous 1.5-mile high-banked races he had struggled, at least by his standards. He did finish second in Texas, but that was the only top-5.

Johnson will be bringing his chassis that he won at Dover with. His backup chassis will be the one he won with at Charlotte. He’s got a nice lead in points and we can expect him to let it all hang out, unlike last week. Knowing Johnson’s style, he’d love nothing more than to win his fourth title in a row in style.

Matt Kenseth hasn’t been good at too many places other than the first two stops of the season he won -- remember the Daytona 500 winner. Yeah, I know, it seems like two years ago since then. Anyway, Kenseth falls into that category of a driver that should do well based on his last race on these type of tracks and Texas itself.

Last month at Charlotte, Kenseth gave everything he had to beat Johnson but had to settle for second. In one of his rare six top-5 finishes on the year, Kenseth was able to finish fifth in the April Texas race. This is one driver that may slip under the Sports Books radar and present great value in all betting propositions.

Kasey Kahne started out slow, but was still respectable on these type of tracks at the beginning of the season. He really came on late with a win at Atlanta in September and then came back with a strong third in Charlotte. The former Texas winner looks like a top contender to win again this week.

Even though the 1.5-mile high banks appear to be the same as results show, Kahne has some particulars that are different to the driver.

"Getting into Turn One can be tricky,” Kahne said. “It is real flat and then as you are coming into the corner, you get into the banking. It’s almost like you fall into the corner at 190 miles per hour. Turn Three is similar but it is not as drastic. It is a difficult place to get your car to handle the way you want. It is a great track, but you really need your car to handle well on entry to be competitive."

This type of track usually doesn’t allow for many surprises, at least to the magnitude we saw the with the last two Talladega winners of Brad Keselowski and Jamie McMurray winning.

Speaking of Keselowski, he’ll be getting his first run with his new job in 2010 running for Penske Racing in the No. 12 Dodge. He’ll be running the final three races this season. Unlike David Stremme, Keselowski will be getting brand new equipment beginning this week.

TOP 5 Finish prediction:
1) #9 Kasey Kahne (12/1)
2) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
3) #17 Matt Kenseth (20/1)
4) #48 Jimmie Johnson (6/1)
5) #18 Kyle Busch (10/1)


Last weeks race at Talladega was going so well with all kinds of lead changes and drivers shuffling from way back to the front in one or two laps. In was an exciting race, at least until the end.

In was supposed to be a Green-White-Checkers end, but it didn’t seem like they got to the White flag when all the action started. The caution flag came out a little too late and it seemed like they were in a hurry to call the thing to avoid any more delays, and wrecks, or at least that‘s the way I wanted to believe it.

In all NASCAR’s efforts since the Carl Edwards flip into the catch-fence at Talladega in the spring to avoid those type of occurrences, they threw gasoline on the fire. It seems to me that the folks in NASCAR may want to do a better job a separating the cars more, because that seems to be where the big accidents always come from.

The answer isn’t making the hole in the restrictor plate smaller to slow the fuel down because all that does is make the cars take longer to get up to full speed and then once the drafting starts, they go about 10 to 15 miles an hour faster.

If they want to solve the problem, the best way may be to go with a smaller engine that still has some response to the throttle and use some skinnier tires. If drivers start wrecking because they can’t grip, they’ll learn to control their throttle more instead of the full out mash on the gas they do now.

The late Dale Earnhardt used to always complain about not having control over his throttle in plate races, even after he’d won.

Picture going uphill to an expressway driving a Yugo, trying to get up to speed, but getting no response as you continue to chug at 25 mph.

NASCAR has put these drivers in this position and they’re not happy about it. Poor Ryan Newman had to sit crammed in flattened car for 20 minutes until they opened his car like a can of sardines to get him out and it was a direct result of what NASCAR has done.

For my own benefit, If I’m going to spend the bulk of my Sunday morning watching a race that is competing for air-time with my previously unbeaten Denver Broncos, then I at least want to see a finish. Don’t give me all the fun and a frills of what looks to be great racing and then give me an ending like Geraldo’s search for Al Capone’s Lost Vault.

Texas Motor Speedway Facts

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Texas Motor Speedway:
History
• Construction on Texas Motor Speedway began in 1995.
• The first NASCAR race at Texas was a NASCAR Nationwide Series event on April 5, 1997.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas was on April 6, 1997.
• In 1998, Turn 4 at Texas was reshaped to ease the transition from the turns to the front straightaway.
• A second renovation started after the 1998 race and eliminated dual banking and gave the track its current configuration.

Notebook
• There have been 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway, one per season 1997 through 2004 and two races per year since 2005.
• Four drivers have competed in all 17 Texas races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin.
• Jeremy Mayfield won the first timed qualifying on April 4, 1998. Qualifying for the inaugural race in 1997 was canceled.
• Jeff Burton won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
• 12 drivers have scored poles at Texas, led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman with two each.
• 14 drivers have won races, led by Carl Edwards, with three. Jeff Gordon won at Texas for the first time, in April. Gordon has won at every track he has run except Homestead-Miami Speedway.
• 13 of 17 races have been won from a top-10 starting position. Only one has been won from the pole (Kasey Kahne in 2006).
• Matt Kenseth started 31st en route to his victory at Texas in 2002, the deepest in the field that a race winner has started.
• Both Jeff Burton (1999) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2000) scored their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Texas.
• Five of the last six races have had a margin of victory under one second.
• Jimmie Johnson (8.5) and Matt Kenseth (9.7) each average a top-10 finish.

NASCAR in Texas
• There have been 26 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Texas.
• 71 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Texas.
• There have been seven race winners from Texas in NASCAR’s three national series.

McMurray Wins at Talladega, Johnson 6th Secures Peace of Mind

By Ed Hinton
ESPN.com

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Jimmie Johnson opened the drain NASCAR poured its season down Sunday.

Now get this for working a system and a screwball race made screwier by NASCAR's pre-race antics (I mean edicts): Riding around 30th or worse for most of the afternoon, Johnson blew the Chase to smithereens and turned the rest of it into his personal, three-city victory parade through Fort Worth, Phoenix and Miami.

All that's left to mop up is a little math. He'll likely clinch at Phoenix in two weeks, show up at Homestead-Miami only if he feels like it, then hit Las Vegas for the official celebration of his historic fourth straight championship.

This one may not be over, but it's over.

Win the Amp Energy 500? Nah. Who needed that? (For those who care, Jamie McMurray won the worse-than-usual mess at Talladega Superspeedway.)

This was better than a win for Johnson. A lot better. He finished a slick sixth and escaped Casino de Alabama decisively ahead of those who didn't -- 184 points ahead of Mark Martin, 192 up on Jeff Gordon and 239 over Juan Pablo Montoya, all of whom wrecked on the inevitable big one that came at the white flag of a green-white-checkered overtime.

"Yes, I do feel better than a race win with today's finish," Johnson confirmed when I asked him.

But there was the somewhat hollow feeling of leaving teammates Martin and Gordon so far back in the Chase due to the crapshoot circumstances that got them caught up in the big one that started just feet behind Johnson's right-rear fender.

He felt "still in shock" with elation, but, "I'm trying to keep it back because I do feel bad that the guys crashed coming to the finish. … I was really concerned for Mark, because when I looked in the mirror I saw the 5 roof number tumbling and flipping and then hitting the outside fence. I hate to see things take place that way …

"But [gaining] points on them, that's what we're here to do. I wish it would have been under fuel circumstances [which got Martin and Gordon back into the crazy areas of the draft lines], not a crash, for sure. But we'll take them."

Read More at ESPN.com

Talladega Practice Notes

No Happy Hour and Practice write up this week because the times and speeds are irrelevant due to the nature of the draft and restrictor plates. Those who are good like the Busch Brothers, and recently the Roush stable, will be good Sunday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr should have his best chance at winning a race since he finished second at Talladega in the spring.

Qualifying was set by points on Saturday due to rain.


From Jayski.com practice page
Happy Hour/Final Practice for the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is over, the fastest:
#33-Bowyer 193.154
#55-Waltrip 192.116
#48-Johnson 191.214
#43-Sorenson 191.016
#2-Busch 190.863
slowest: #66-Blaney 180.041 & #77-Hornish 178.490. 38 cars have been on track.
notes: NASCAR spent much of the session warning drivers to not drive so agressively during practice. Midway through the session, #55-Waltrip was temporarily parked by NASCAR after bump drafting in the corners.
(10-30-2009)

The First Practice for the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is over, the fastest:
#9-Kahne 195.944
#11-Hamlin 195.944
#98-Menard 197.701
#98-Darnell 194.595
#20-Logano 194.149
slowest: #37-Raines 181.415 & #66-Blaney 180.203
incidents: Several cars bumped off each other early in the session causing #33-Bowyer to spin and #77 Hornish to suffer sheetmetal damage. Bowyer's crew will repair his car, Hornish will go to a backup.
(10-30-2009)

Amp Energy 500 Talladega Preview: Time for Kurt Busch to Win!

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

This weeks race takes us to Talladega Superspeedway where anything can and usually does happen. Because of the volatile nature of the track, Jimmie Johnson will have to tread gingerly through the race because this is likely the only track of the four remaining that could spoil his efforts in becoming the only driver to win four straight Cup titles.

Should Johnson finish 30th like he did in the spring and Mark Martin, who is second in points, win the race, Martin would find himself only one point out of first place in the Chase for the Championship. If Martin were to lead the most laps he would be four points ahead with three races remaining.

All the drivers who are in striking distance will let it all hang out in this race. Included in the group who could really makes things interesting down the stretch that are hoping for similar Johnson results this time around are Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart.

Jeff Gordon is a six time winner at Talladega and swept the season in 2007. Despite having poor finishes in his last two attempts at this beast of a track, not many see the draft better.

Stewart won this race last season, the first Talladega win of his career after placing 2nd six different times over his career. In his first run with his new team this year he finished 23rd, but in his last restrictor plate race he won at Daytona.

The likely strategy for Johnson will be to lay back for much of the race keeping all the action in front of him. With about 10 laps to go we’ll see Johnson press forward and make some moves to avoid finishing too poorly. Johnson would gladly take the ninth he had in this race last season during the Chase and move on to Texas, a place where he a little more control in the outcome.

Among the more impressive plate programs the last two seasons has been Fenway-Roush Racing’s Fords. It used to be all about cookie cutters for this team and they did a complete reversal this season with Matt Kenseth winning Roush’s first Daytona 500 ever. In the process, their cookie cutter program has suffered, most notably Carl Edwards who still doesn‘t have a win this season after netting nine in 2008.

Carl Edwards looked to be on his way to getting Roush’s first Talladega win in the spring since Mark Martin won in 1997, but he ended up in the fence with only a few yards to go in one of the more spectacular crashes you’ll ever see.

“We’re going back to Talladega and we really have nothing to lose at this point in the Chase so we’ll just go for it and try to get a win,” said Edwards. “I’ve heard they raised the fences so that is good. You never like to come back and see a new fence because of you. Our team has
worked hard on our restrictor-plate package and it’s pretty good. Maybe we’ll partner up with somebody like we did last time and make it to the finish line this time to finally get a win at one of these places. That would be a blast.”

Edwards is like many of the Chase drivers who have given up any chance of winning after not performing well up to this point and is just looking for a positive to end the season.

Kyle Busch fit’s a profile similar to Edwards coming in where he is just racing for momentum to carry over into 2010. It’s safe to say that over the last 2 seasons of plate racing, no one has been better than Busch, not in just mere results, but actually having the best car. While with Joe Gibbs, Busch has been dominant in the plate races of Daytona and Talladega.

The best statistical driver at Talladega over the last eight seasons is Kurt Busch. He is without a doubt the best plate racer never to win a plate race. At Talladega in 17 starts he has an average finish of 12.1. In the spring, he raced very well with a chance to win and settled for sixth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr battled strong for the win in the spring and settled for second as the Edwards flip happened right in front of him. This looks like a great opportunity for Junior, who has won five times at Talladega, to get his first win of the season. With all the trouble he’s had this season amid all the mounting pressure of not running well considering the team he drives for, there might not be a better story to root for then seeing him win. His odds to win the race are at 10 to 1 or higher which presents some good value for a driver that should be in the lead pack.

After Bred Keselowski won the spring race at 100 to 1 odds, it should serve as notice that anyone can win this race. A nice long shot this week could be Jeff Burton who gets Todd Berrier as his crew this week and knows how to get a car set real good for plate racing as evident by Harvick‘s great runs including winning the Daytona 2007.

"Honestly, I think this will be one of our best chances ever to win a race at Talladega, Burton said. “Over the past year and a half, everyone back at the shop has worked extremely hard on taking things to the next level, including our engine department. We’ve seen a big difference in our horsepower when it comes to our superspeedway engines and I think we’ll be able to put our best stuff forward this weekend. Back in April, our Caterpillar Chevy was extremely fast. We ended up going three laps down because he had to change an alternator but was lucky enough to get those laps back and then fought our way to finish 10th. In the past, I can honestly tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever been to Talladega with a car fast enough to win a race. My strategy was to always try to get reasonable finishes out of it because I didn’t think I was good enough to win. I think that will be different this time."

With the front pack of drivers likely to have about 15 to 20 shuffling around for the final three laps, it might be a good idea to shop around a few long shots that have shown some kind of knack for the plate races. A driver in a Richard Childress car isn’t a bad place to begin.

Top 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #2 Kurt Busch (12/1)
2) #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr (10/1)
3) #14 Tony Stewart (10/1)
4) #18 Kyle Busch (7/1)
5) #31 Jeff Burton (30/1)

Talladega Superspeedway Facts

At Talladega Superspeedway:
• Construction began on what was then known as the Alabama International Motor Speedway on May 23, 1968.

• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on Sept. 14, 1969.

• The track changed to Talladega Superspeedway in 1989.

• Track’s fourth repaving completed on Sept. 19, 2006.

• There have been 80 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Talladega Superspeedway since the track opened in 1969; two a year every year except the inaugural season, which had just one.

• Richard Brickhouse won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

• Bobby Isaac won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in September 1969. Isaac won the first three poles there.

• 35 different drivers have won poles. Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole in this season’s spring race, his first career pole.

• Bill Elliott leads all drivers with eight poles.

• 38 different drivers have posted victories, led by Dale Earnhardt Sr. (10). Eighteen drivers have won more than once. Brad Keselowski became a first-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner with his win earlier this season.

• Jeff Gordon leads all other active drivers in victories, with six.

• Hendrick Motorsports has won 10 races, more than any other organization.

• 31 of 80 races have been won from a top-two starting position, including 13 from the pole; 22 have been won from a starting position outside the top 10. The most recent driver to win from the pole was Jeff Gordon in 2007 (spring).

• The furthest back in the field a race winner started was 36th, by Jeff Gordon in 2000. Two of the last four races have been won from the 34th starting position (Jeff Gordon in 2007 and Tony Stewart in 2008).

• Mark Martin’s pace in the 1997 spring race set an all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup record for the fastest race ever. He won the caution-free race with an average speed of 188.354 mph and covered the 500-mile distance in two hours, 39 minutes and 18 seconds.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. had four consecutive victories (October 2001 through April 2003), the most ever by a driver there. Buddy Baker (three - May 1975 through May 1976) is the only other driver to win more than two consecutive races there.

• Since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993, every race that has ended under green has had a margin of victory under one second.

• There have been 99 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Alabama.

• 65 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Alabama.

NHRA Tales From the Las Vegas Sports Book

by Micah Roberts
Go2Geiger.com

The NHRA roars into Las Vegas this weekend for the second time this season. Beyond the ultra-modern facility and the neon lights of the city, the one thing that makes a Las Vegas race stand out above all other races on the tour is that there is legal wagering on the top pro classes -- Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock.

That’s where I come into play. My name is Micah Roberts and I posted the odds on all the Las Vegas events from the inaugural race in 2000 through 2008. Before the Strip was built, I had never been to an NHRA event and had only sparingly watched the drags on television, but I was the guy in Las Vegas who did all the auto racing odds, so it was a natural for me lump the NHRA in with NASCAR, Indy Racing, and Champ Cars. I talked with a lot people who understood the sport thoroughly, used some past results as a reference, and voila, now we had odds and began taking bets.

It took just one day of qualifying on that inaugural weekend for me to figure out that NHRA was nothing like NASCAR, where qualifying doesn’t mean as much as the final practices. It was a learning process and when bets came in, we moved the odds up or down on drivers based on overall risk for each. If we didn’t have much money on a particular driver, we’d bump him up a little bit and if a driver had lots of action, we’d drop him a notch.

To gain knowledge and get involved I walked around the pits and talked with the drivers and told them who I was and what I did. I also was writing for a local weekly newspaper covering motorsports and was able to kill two birds with one stone.

Every one of the drivers I talked with were intrigued by the odds. They had never seen it done before and many commented how the odds legitimized drag racing with other big league sports, something I had never even thought about.

read more here on Go2geiger.com

Hamlins Wins at Martinsville

by Jayski.com

Hamlin wins at Martinsville:
#11-Denny Hamlin won the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway under a green-white-checkered finish for his 3rd win of the season [most ever in a season for Hamlin] and 7th of his career. #48-Johnson finished 2nd, followed by #42-Montoya, #18-Busch, #24-Gordon, #26-McMurray, #39-Newman [pole winner], #5-Martin, #14-Stewart and #29-Harvick. The five other Chasers finished as follows: #83-Vickers 11th; #2-Busch 17th; #99-Edwards 20th; #16-Biffle 25th and #9-Kahne 32nd.
There were 15 cautions for 76 yellow flag laps and there were 23 lead changes among 12 drivers.
Scheduled TV Race Re-Airs:
ESPN2: Monday, October 26 at 2:30am/et
ESPN Classic: Monday, October 26 at 1:00pm/et
SPEED, Wednesday, October 29 at 12:00pm/et
For race results, awards and more, see my Race Results Page.(10-25-2009)

Race Fast Facts - Martinsville Speedway:
#11-Denny Hamlin won the TUMS Fast Relief 500 (61st Running), his seventh victory in 147 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his third victory and 17th top-10 finish in 2009.
This is his second victory and eighth top-10 finish in nine races at Martinsville Speedway.
#48-Jimmie Johnson (second) posted his 15th top-10 finish in 16 races at Martinsville Speedway. It is his 21st top-10 finish in 2009.
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya (third) posted his second top-10 finish in six races at Martinsville Speedway.
#20-Joey Logano (12th) was the highest finishing rookie.
#48-Jimmie Johnson leads the point standings by 118 points over Mark Martin.(NASCAR Statistics)(10-25-2009)

Saturday's Martinsville Practices Wiped Away Due to Rain

Saturday practices for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway have been canceled due to rain. The first practice was scheduled for 10:00am/et and Happy Hour/final practice was scheduled for 11:15am/et. See weather links on my Martinsville Race Info Page - weather section(10-24-2009)

Pit Stall Selections - Martinsville: The selections of pit stalls for the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway have been made. Pole sitter #39-Newman chose pit stall 1 [as do most pole sitters].
Outside pole sitter #24-Gordon took pit stall 11, the next stall with an opening in front of it.
#1-Truex Jr., who starts 3rd took the 10th pit stall, the first stall with an opeing behind it.
The 43rd and final pit stall was taken by #82-Speed, who starts 18th.
To see where all the drivers/teams pit stall is, see the pit selection chart on the Martinsville Pit Stall Selection chart.(10-24-2009)

Newman on pole at Martinsville: #39-Ryan Newman won the Coors Light Pole Award for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway with a lap of 96.795mph for his 2nd pole of the season and 45th career pole [Newman has only won 3 races from the pole]. #24-Gordon starts 2nd fastest followed by #1-Truex Jr., #5-Martin, #00-Reutimann, #07-Mears, #20-Logano, #96-Labonte, #43-Sorenson and #29-Harvick.
The non Top-35 drivers who made the race: #82-Speed(18th), #37-Kvapil(25th), #87-Nemechek(28th), #71-Gilliland(35th), #09-Marlin(38th), #66-Blaney(39th), #36-McDowell(42nd) and #64-Cope (43rd).
The one driver who failed to qualify: #73-Wise.
See qualifying results, pole progression, qualifying ordewr and starting lineup on my Martinsville Qualifying/Starting Lineup page.(10-23-2009)

Read More on Jayski.com

Martinsville Preview: Johnson Tough To Beat This Week, but Hamlin Might Do It

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

How in the world does anyone stop Jimmie Johnson? There are only five races left in the Chase and Johnson has himself a hefty 90-point lead in his quest to win an unprecedented four straight NASCAR Cup Championships.

As if winning three races in five of the Chase races thus far wasn’t bad enough, Johnson goes to a track this week where he’s won six times, including this year in March. The only active driver with more Martinsville wins than Johnson is his teammate and owner Jeff Gordon with seven wins.

One of the pillars of strength for Johnson during his three straight Championships has been Martinsville where he has won the last three years in Chase races. The flat half-mile paper-clip layout has been to Johnson’s liking and despite his standing in points, he’s always let it all hang out with disregard for points.

Johnson has won five of the last six races at Martinsville and every since his debut of 35th in his rookie season, he’s never finished outside of the top-10. In 15 starts, Johnson has 11 top-4 finishes. That is just ridiculous, but a sign of just how great he is on this track.

Johnson realizes that this is his best track record wise, but still has his eye on Talladega as the track that could make or break his fourth straight title.

"Sure, that's the track that you don't have any control at,” Johnson said, “But at the same time, I mean, we're only halfway through this thing. So much can happen. Somebody at Martinsville can lose their brakes and clean you out. With the double file restart there's going to be a lot of bumping and banging. Someone can get into you and knock a valve stem out or cut a tire. I mean, it's a nice points lead, but there's no need for anybody to get too excited yet. We've got good tracks ahead for us, so from a team standpoint we're excited and optimistic, but at the same time there's a lot of danger out there and we've just got to be smart."

Can this week be any different than the last three seasons?

If there is anyone to say that Johnson won’t win this week it may the Virginian himself, Denny Hamlin. He won this race in the spring last season and led the most laps while finishing second to Johnson in the first race this year. In his last six races at Martinsville, Hamlin has finished no worse than sixth.

If the Virginian can’t get there, then it will be up to Jeff Gordon who hasn’t finished outside the top-4 in his last nine Martinsville races. Gordon last won on the track in 2005 when swept the season, but since then Johnson has taken over.

Martinsville has been a place where Hamlin has been phenomenal at statistically speaking, The question is, why exactly?

“It’s probably a combination of all those - knowing the track and feeling comfortable with that type of racing,” Hamlin said. “In terms of places where I have a lot of laps, certainly Martinsville is the place I have the most. Between the Late Model races here and then Cup, trucks and Nationwide this is a place I know well. On top of that, it’s a track that reminds me of the kind of short flat tracks that I grew up on. While I know I have become a much better intermediate and superspeedway driver, those are still my best tracks.”

Of the three, Johnson, Gordon, and Hamlin, they have all hit the top-6 in the last six races at Martinsville. If thinking of betting against anyone of them, it likely is to be worse than betting on UNLV Football on the road.

For Gordon, all his success at Martinsville and looking afar since he hasn’t there in the Jimmie era, he feels working out to manage those continuous shortt turns is essential to getting back in the winners circle there.

"It's extremely important to work out,” Gordon said. “I've not always been the best one at it, and I'm obviously a lot more focused on it now with my back and strengthening that area. I think mentally and physically it's a good thing to put in your regimen, whether you're a race car driver or not a race car driver."

The one wild card is Tony Stewart who finished third this year with his new team. Over his 21 career starts he has two wins and is fourth among active drivers in average finish position. Stewart also has led the third most laps among the active drivers behind Gordon and Johnson.

Of the Chase racers, Mark Martin may have a nice shot at competing with the heavyweights above. While he was on his part-timer farewell tour for two seasons he didn’t race at Martinsville. In his first outing this year he finished seventh under the Hendrick umbrella. He’s got two career wins on the track with the last coming in 2000.

Of the non-Chasers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have the best chance of finishing well. He finished second in this race last year and was eighth earlier this year while driving Tony Eury Jr garbage. Despite his whining last week about how the season has gone, he should be primed and focused to have a good run at a track he’s always ran well at.

"We've had some pretty good runs at Martinsville, and I like racing on the short tracks,” said Earnhardt Jr, “Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) have always run really well there and can give good advice and feedback. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) has built some good race cars for me, and he is bringing a brand new car. I think we've got a good shot."

Top 5 Finish Prediction:

1) #11 Denny Hamlin (8/1)
2) #24 Jeff Gordon (7/1)
3) #48 Jimmie Johnson (4/1)
4) #14 Tony Stewart (8/1)
5) #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr (25/1)

Visit VegasInsider.com for all kinds of Martinsville Stats and Driver History

Martinsville Facts: Johnson, Gordon, and Hamlin Look to Be Top Choices to Win

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Martinsville Speedway:
History
• Opened in September 1947 by H. Clay Earles, Martinsville Speedway, originally a dirt track, is one of the oldest continuously-operating racing facilities in the United States.
• The first NASCAR-sanctioned race at Martinsville was on July 4, 1948.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on Sept. 25, 1949.
• The track was paved in 1955.
• The first 500-lap event at Martinsville was in 1956.
• Concrete corners were added atop the asphalt track in 1976.

Notebook
• There have been 121 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway, one in the inaugural year and two races per year since 1950.
• Curtis Turner won the pole for the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville in 1949.
• Red Byron won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville.
• 55 drivers have won poles, led by Darrell Waltrip with eight. Jeff Gordon, with seven poles, can tie that mark this weekend.
• Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip share the consecutive pole record, each with three.
• 45 different drivers have won races, led by Richard Petty with 15.
• Fred Lorenzen holds the consecutive win record (4).
• 17 races have been won from the pole, the last by Jimmie Johnson in October 2008.
• Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with seven victories.
• Petty Enterprises has won 19 races, more than any other organization. Hendrick Motorsports, with 19 wins, can tie that mark this weekend.
• Kurt Busch won the 2002 fall race from the 36th starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
• Three drivers average a top-10 finish: Jimmie Johnson (5.3), Jeff Gordon (6.8), Denny Hamlin (8.0).

NASCAR in Virginia• There have been 265 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Virginia.
• 158 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Virginia.
• There have been 18 race winners from Virginia in NASCAR’s three national series.

Johnson and Team Lowe's Win The Final Race At "Lowe's" Motor Speedway

by NASCAR Media Services

Jimmie Johnson has done it again. He won the NASCAR Banking 500 Saturday night, extending his lead over teammate Mark Martin to 90 points in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Johnson drove away from the field after dicing with teammate Jeff Gordon in the closing laps of the 334-lap race.

It was Johnson's sixth win at Lowe's Motor Speedway and put him another step closer to a fourth consecutive championship, which would be a first in NASCAR history.

Trailing Johnson at the finish line were Matt Kenseth, with his best finish since winning at Auto Club Speedway in February, Kasey Kahne, Gordon, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Casey Mears, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex and Kurt Busch.

Martin had his worst night of the Chase thus far after accidentally hitting the rear of Juan Pablo Montoya's car on a restart. The accident ended Montoya's streak of top-five finishes at four, and relegated Martin to a 17th-place finish. Montoya didn't fare so well. He wound up 35th.

It was not a good night for other Chase drivers as well. Denny Hamlin ran with the leaders before losing an engine. Carl Edwards was the victim of an accident and his damaged car lost an engine when he returned to the track in an attempt to get as many points as possible. Edwards was 39th. Brian Vickers had another terrible run, finishing 34th.

Other drivers in the Chase wound up better with Ryan Newman finishing 11th; Tony Stewart 13th and Greg Biffle 16th.

The race was delayed several minutes by a cold, spitting rain but it stopped and Johnson took off from the pole in quest of another win at LMS, a track he owns in recent statistics.

Sam Hornish Jr. brought out a caution on Lap 3 when he spun and barely glazed the second Turn 2 wall. The race was back underway at Lap 7 and Hornish spun again, this time off the fourth turn. Once again, the former Indy 500 winner escaped with no serious damage to his car.

When the race resumed on Lap 13, it was Johnson out front, followed by Martin, Kyle Busch, Newman, Kahne, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Montoya, Kenseth and Hamlin. Montoya had gained 10 spots in just a few laps from his 18th starting position.

Rain prompted NASCAR officials to throw a caution again on Lap 35. Following pit stops, Kenseth was the leader on the 42nd lap restart with Johnson and Kyle Busch right behind him. Rounding out the top 10 were Hamlin, Biffle, Kahne, Montoya, Gordon and Newman.

Johnson eventually regained the lead with Hamlin in second and Kenseth third. By Lap 70, Johnson had built nearly a full-second lead, showing everyone why he has been so successful at this 1.5-mile hometown track.

However, just a few laps later, Hamlim zoomed to the front in his FedEx Toyota owned by Joe Gibbs.

All of the frontrunners pitted under green between Laps 93 and 96 and when the smoke cleared, it was Kenseth in front briefly before Hamlin took back over, followed by Kyle Busch, Johnson, Montoya, Mears, Martin, Bowyer, Kahne and David Reutimann.

Kyle Busch spun in Turn 4 at 120 laps to bring out another caution. Gordon was the leader on the 124th lap restart with Biffle, Newman and Hamlin in tow.

Martin got into the back of Montoya on the restart, causing considerable damage to Montoya's Chevrolet. Montoya dropped well back in the pack due to the accident because his right rear fender was bent outwards, acting like a parachute catching the wind.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled into the garage shortly after the restart with transmission problems.

At the halfway mark (162 laps), the top 10 were Gordon, Hamlin, Johnson, Kahne, Kenseth, Biffle, Newman, Bowyer and Bill Elliott.

Montoya brought out a caution when his ill-handling car spun shortly before the halfway point. He lost two laps while his crew made repairs.

Charlotte Final Practices: Johnson's Speeds Are Way Beyond Second Fastest

by M Roberts

Jimmie Johnson is at it again. During the final practice sessions for Saturday night’s NASCAR Banking 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Johnson set a blistering pace that no other driver had an answer for.

During the first session, Johnson wasn’t just good, he was off the charts good. His early lap of 187.162 mph was almost 2 mph faster than the second best time of teammate Mark Martin. That kind of speed differential rarely happens and is something he didn’t even do when he won an unprecedented five of six Charlotte races from off 2002 to 2005.

Greg Biffle was one of the drivers who was trying to keep pace with Johnson during the session - and did a decent job with the third best speed, noted that Johnson was just too quick in and out of turns three and four.

During Happy Hour, Johnson was just as good with the fastest lap of 185.478 mph early in the session followed once again by Martin with the second quickest lap. In just about all fazes of practice, Johnson dominated the day including having the best 10-lap average.

The chassis Johnson brought this week was the same one he led 17 laps with in Atlanta six weeks ago before having rear-end problems and finishing 36th. In the primary practice using race trim, Johnson was also fastest then and not so coincidentally, Martin was the second fastest then too, but not by such a wide margin.

Johnson’s dominance didn’t extend to just Friday. He was fastest in limited practice Thursday night just before qualifying. where he won the pole too. In what may be the most dominant display of consistency by two teammates, Mark Martin finished second fastest in every session including sitting on the front row with Jimmie. This is only the second time all season that one driver has lead all three practice sessions, and definitely a first for a 1-2 exacta.

A few of the areas that Johnson didn’t reign supreme at were some longer average runs. In the first session Juan Pablo Montoya - using the new chassis that finished fourth at Kansas - had the best average speed while running only 17 laps.

The driver that made a nice impression as someone who may be able to challenge Johnson was Kyle Busch who had the best 20 lap average among all drivers in the first practice session while running 43 laps, the most among all drivers. During Happy Hour, Busch was able to run the fifth fastest lap.

Busch brought his fifth place Richmond chassis this week with hopes that they can get that car dialed in like it was Memorial Day Weekend when Busch led the most laps in the rain shortened Coca-Cola 600. Despite not running well on the sister track of Atlanta in September, Kyle may be back to being a contender to win on a 1.5-mile track and he does have history on his side in Charlotte. He’s on a streak that has seen him finish in the top-6 in his last four starts.

Mark Martin leads all drivers with 17 top-5 finishes at Charlotte and brought the car that he won at Michigan with. He’s looking to take all those great practice times to the winners circle at Charlotte for the fifth time in his career, while also retaking the points lead from Johnson.

Meanwhile, Kasey Kahne, who won on the sister track of Atlanta last month comes in with good, but not stellar practice times. When he won in Atlanta, it was almost the exact same scenario where he was good in practice, but showed no signs of looking like a winning car.

Kahne should be okay Saturday based on history. He has an average finish of 3.3 in his last three starts at Charlotte with three wins overall.

Tony Stewart brought his winning Kansas Chassis to Charlotte this week and his practice times are looking very similar to what he ran in Kansas with very good average speeds.

Ryan Newman is happy to be visiting Charlotte again because it’s the site of his best start and finish of 2009. He brought his Chicagoland car, which finished sixth there, and ran sixth quickest in Happy Hour.


Friday’s Early Practice Session:
1) Jimmie Johnson 187.162 mph - AVG 24 laps @ 182.204race
2) Mark Martin 185.790 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 181.445
3) Greg Biffle 185.242 mph - AVG 25 laps @ 180.620
4) Matt Kenseth 184.805 mph - AVG 32 laps @ 179.745
5) Denny Hamlin 184.786 mph - AVG 41 laps @ 181.382
Top average speed: Juan Pablo Montoya 17 laps @ 182.509
Most laps run: Kyle Busch - 43

Friday’s Final Practice (Happy Hour)
1) Jimmie Johnson 185.478 mph - AVG 48 laps @ 181.094
2) Mark Martin 184.849 mph - AVG 44 laps @ 181.190
3) Denny Hamlin 184.685 mph - AVG 54 laps @ 181.033
4) Robby Gordon 184.237 mph - AVG 30 @ 180.198
5) Kyle Busch 183.974 mph - AVG 45 laps @ 181.211
Top average speed: Kyle Busch
Most laps run: Martin Truex Jr - 59

Top 10 Rated Drivers at Charlotte after all practice and qualifying sessions are completed. Rating will also consist of information from September’s Atlanta race along with other recent 1.5-mile races. Current state of the team will also have a slight bearing.
1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Mark Martin
3) Kyle Busch
4) Denny Hamlin
5) Kasey Kahne
6) Tony Stewart
7) Ryan Newman
8) Juan Pablo Montoya
9) Jeff Gordon
10) Greg Biffle

Johnson Wins Pole at Charlotte; His Third Pole of 2009

by Jayski.com

Johnson on pole at Lowe's:
#48-Jimmie Johnson won the Coors Light Pole Award for the NASCAR Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway with a lap of 192.376mph for his 3rd pole of the season and 22nd career pole. #5-Martin is 2nd fastest followed by #9-Kahne, #17-Kenseth, #14-Stewart, #39-Newman, #71-Bliss, #25-Keselowski, #24-Gordon and #18-Busch.
The eight non Top-35 drivers who made the race: #71-Bliss, #25-Keselowski, #02-Gilliland, #82-Speed, #87-Nemechek, #21-Elliott, #13-Papis and #08-Terry Labonte who used a past champions provisional to make the race.
The four drivers who failed to qualify: #36-McDowell, #09-Marlin, #66-Blaney and #37-Kvapil.(10-15-2009)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Lowe's Motor Speedway:
#48-Jimmie Johnson won the Coors Light Pole Award for the NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America with a lap of 28.070 seconds, 192.376 mph.
This is his 22nd pole in 286 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his third pole and 23rd top-10 start in 2009.
Johnson broke the record for fastest qualifying lap in the new car. The previous fastest qualifying lap in the new car was run by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Texas Motor Speedway in April 2008 (190.907 mph).
This is his third pole in 17 races at Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte.
#5-Mark Martin (second) posted his 17th top-10 start of 2009 and his 28th in 50 races at Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte.
#9-Kasey Kahne (third) posted his eighth top-10 start at Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte. It is his 17th in 31 races this season.
#20-Joey Logano (12th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.(NASCAR Statistics)(10-15-2009)

Read More on Jayski.com Qualifying Page....

Charlotte NASCAR Banking 500 Preview: It May Be JPM Time Saturday Night

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

After four Chase races, three-time defending Champion Jimmie Johnson has taken over the NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship lead. His win at California on Sunday was his second of the Chase in the last three races, his all-time track leading fourth overall, and fifth overall of the season.

It’s a remarkable feat that Mark Martin was able hold on for as long as he has. Hanging with Johnson is a tough feat to do. Through the four races, even with a 10-point lead and finishes of first, second, seventh, and fourth, Martin’s excellence isn’t good enough.

Carl Edwards is one driver who can relate with Martin about the dominant wrath of Johnson when it becomes crunch time in NASCAR. Last season in the 10 race Chase, Edwards had eight finishes within the top-4 that included three wins, but it still wasn’t good enough to keep up with the machine that Johnson is.

This by no means makes it over. I think we’re just so programmed into thinking that Johnson will win because he’s given us no reason to think he won’t. Winning three straight titles has only happened once so there isn’t a lot to go by as far as watching history and seeing a three-time champ fail in their bid for a fourth title. Johnson is writing history as we go right before our eyes.

Martin is only 12-points away from Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya is only 58-points out after another impressive run saw him finish third at California. Tony Stewart is 84-points out in fourth while the hard charger of the week, Jeff Gordon, is 105-points out in fifth place.

After a rough first race of the Chase for four-time Cup Champion Gordon, he’s come on strong with sixth at Dover and then back to back second’s at Kansas and California. This week he’s going to another mile-and-a- half track that he and his team should be ready for. All season long, these have been the type of tracks where Gordon has excelled the best and it’s just his luck that three of the next six races are on these type of tracks.

Of all the drivers may have a shot at catching Johnson by beating him at his own game, it could be Gordon even though he’s over 100 points behind right now. We talked about the three races he should do well at, which Johnson will too. Martinsville and Phoenix are tracks where both have run at as well. Between those five tracks, there doesn’t appear to be enough point differential for Gordon to catch Johnson.

The one major variable in the mix is Talladega, which could be described to Johnson as Superman’s kryptonite because it’s the one place he can’t control and dominate. In 15 career starts there, he’s had only four top-5 finishes including a win there in 2006. This season in his first attempt there Johnson finished 30th, one position better than he had starting the year off at the other restrictor plate track in Daytona.

If Johnson were to mirror what he’s done this year at Talladega on Nov 1, it could shake up the entire Chase. The difference between finishing first and 30th is 112 points which means that there is still hope for all the drivers, especially great plate drivers like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.

Remember earlier in the year when Montoya started talking about just wanting to make the Chase and he had a plan to shoot for top-10’s and if he accumulated enough of them, he should be in good shape. At the time based on the way his team had run on all the ovals, we just kind of said, “Yeah, okay, sure JP, good luck with that.”

But then he started to do it and before we knew it he had cracked the top-12 and then was entrenching himself into the top-8 and it got to a point where he was so good every week that there was never a doubt that he wouldn’t make the Chase.

Now after four races in the Chase, JPM is sitting third in points chasing down Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin for the Championship. It truly is a remarkable accomplishment. After bringing out new chassis’ for the first three races, last week they brought their Indy chassis and rolled nice. In the four Chase races, JPM has two thirds and two fourths.

After almost three full seasons, Montoya has finally become one of the good ole’ Boys. He used to be accused of conceitedness because he kept to himself. Writers and other teams thought he was full of himself because he was the International Superstar who had won at Indy and Monaco and thought NASCAR was beneath him.

But the fact was, Montoya didn’t like how was running and was somewhat embarrassed by his finishes. Plus, he wasn’t one of the guys. He didn’t come from any of their stock car series on the way up.

But now that he’s competing, he’s chit-chatting with everyone in the garage, especially those in contention, trying to pick their brains for any piece of knowledge he can extract to better himself. He’s also become more endearing with the media with his frank candidness saying whatever he’s thinking with no sugar-coating.

Welcome to NASCAR JPM, Good luck in the JJ hunt. Based on the last run he had in Atlanta, a track very similar to Charlotte, this may be the week Montoya captures his first win of the season and his first non-road course win in the series.

TOP 5 Charlotte Finish Prediction:
1) #42 Juan Pablo Montoya (14/1)
2) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
3) #5 Mark Martin (10/1)
4) #18 Kyle Busch (14/1)
5) #9 Kasey Kahne (14/1)

Johnsons’ Last Race at Lowe’s
This weeks race at Charlotte marks the final race under the track sponsorship of Lowe’s. However, Lowe’s will still be sponsoring Jimmie Johnson who will be bringing a chassis that has raced only once, a 36th at Atlanta, in hopes of winning his sixth race in Charlotte which would tie a track record.

"Without a doubt, it really would be nice to win there,” Johnson said. “It has been a great relationship with the track and Lowe's and then all the victories we have had there have been really neat. The track, I really think since it was resurfaced, it just changed the dynamic of the race for us. I had some lines that worked really well. I think our setup worked really well for the abrasive track. Rough tracks with bumps and things like that seem to work well for me with my background. It just worked. It was one of those tracks that just worked. They ground the track and it still worked well for us. We came back and it was resurfaced and we were competitive but we didn't have an advantage by any means. I really think the surface has a lot to do with it. It has made the track more forgiving than it was in the past and I think it helped close the gap. I am hoping the track hurries up and ages and gets rough and bumpy and turns back in to the track it used to be.

"We work on stuff each time we go back. This year I think we'll be better yet. The last few times we have been there, we have just been super tight and needed more front grip with the car. I think we are a little smarter even from the All-Star and the Coca Cola 600 weekend, we're smarter now than we were then and hopefully it makes a difference."

Log On to VegasInsider.com for More Driver Stats and Charlotte Race Info

Lowe's (Charlotte) Motor Speedway Facts

compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
History
• Construction began on Charlotte Motor Speedway, as Lowe’s Motor Speedway was then known, in 1959.
• The track’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on June 19, 1960.
• The first NASCAR Nationwide Series race was May 29, 1982.
• The track was repaved midseason in 1994.
• The track name changed from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1999.
• The first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at LMS was on May 16, 2003.
• The track was re-paved again before the 2006 season.

Notebook
• There have been 101 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, two races per year since the track opened in 1960. In 1961, there were two 100-mile qualifying points races held the week before the May race. The first six fall races at Charlotte were 400-mile events (1960-65).
• 37 drivers have posted poles, led by David Pearson with 14.
• Fireball Roberts won the pole for the first race, in 1960.
• David Pearson posted 11 straight poles at Lowe’s from the fall of 1973 through 1978
• Ryan Newman leads all active drivers in poles, with eight.
• Jeff Gordon won five straight poles for the spring races between 1994 and 1998.
• 42 drivers have won races, led by Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip with six each. David Reutimann became a first-time series winner in May after winning the Coca-Cola 600.
• Joe Lee Johnson won the first race, in 1960.
• Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead all active drivers in victories, each with five.
• There have been 13 back-to-back victories, including three in-a-row by Fred Lorenzen (fall 1964 and both 1965) and four straight by Jimmie Johnson (both in 2004 and 2005).
• A sweep has occurred eight times, including each season from 2004-2007.
• 13 races have been won from the pole, the last by Jimmie Johnson in the 2004 Coca-Cola 600.
• Jimmie Johnson won the 2003 Coca-Cola 600 from the 37th starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
• Jimmie Johnson is the only driver with more than one LMS race to average top 10 finishes (9.1). He comes just short of the all-time best average finish there, held by Rex White (9.0).
• A number of active drivers earned their first win at LMS: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears and David Reutimann.

NASCAR in North Carolina
• There have been 509 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in North Carolina.
• 414 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as North Carolina; 342 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
• There have been 42 race winners from North Carolina in NASCAR’s three national series; 28 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:

Jimmie Johnson Wins at Fontana & Now Leads The Chase

Associated Press

FONTANA, Calif. -- Jimmie Johnson is back in control of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.

The three-time defending Sprint Cup champion easily pulled away from Jeff Gordon following a restart with three laps left to win the Pepsi 500 on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway for his fifth victory of the year and 45th overall.

The win was Johnson's fourth at the 2-mile oval and sent a message to the rest of the contenders he has no plans of giving up his spot atop the series easily.

The native Californian took his time drinking in the moment, doing several burnouts and goofing off along the back straightaway before NASCAR officials reminded him he needed to make a stop in Victory Lane.

"I just wanted to have a little fun with it," Johnson said.

Read More on ESPN....

California Happy Hour: Mark Martin Fastest, but Hamlin Looks Best

by M Roberts

Saturday’s final practice sessions helped give a little more insight to who may win Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at California Speedway. The usual suspects, who seem to be there every week, are at it again this week.

Hendrick teammates Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson showed off again in practice each leading one of the two Saturday sessions. Johnson was fastest in the first session which only ran 18 minutes because the track was running behind on the schedule due to fog on the track.

During Happy Hour, Mark Martin jumped out front early with the fast lap of 180.293 mph and no one could top it for the remainder of the hour. The current points leader and former California winner showed everyone that he isn’t going away anytime soon in the Chase.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a great day of practices and looks to be a contender again this week, not just for points, but for the actual win. He’s been knocking on the door too many times of late having cars nearly as good as the elite. Along with the great individual laps times, he was also fastest in average speeds during Happy Hour that ran at least 19 laps as he did.

What’s kind of surprising is that Martin, Johnson, and Montoya all brought their Indy Chassis’ this week as their primary car at California. First, it’s odd that all three who were the dominant drivers in that Indy race would all be thinking the same thing. Secondly, Indy is relatively flat with tight turns opposed to California’s sweeping turns with lots of room, yet minimal banking of 14 degrees for a track so big.

At Indy, Johnson won, Martin finished second, and Montoya had the best car of the day leading 116 laps, but was caught speeding on pit row, taking what looked to be a sure win away from.

The surprise of the day came with the crew at Richard Childress Racing. They were able to place all four of their drivers within the top-16 during Happy Hour, highlighted by Casey Mears being second fastest and Kevin Harvick fourth.

Perhaps even more startling than the RCR stable doing well in practice, was that Roush-Fenway drivers didn’t impress as they always have since the track opened in 1997. Roush has won a total of seven races on the track by five different drivers.

Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth were good in the shortened first session, but in Happy Hour they didn’t show anything at all and were led by a fast lap of Jamie McMurray who was eighth fastest. It’s likely Edwards will be running for a top-5 in this race, but there’s also lots evidence that suggest maybe he won’t.

Following a series high nine wins in 2008, Edwards still is sitting on zero wins for 2009. After Roush had won the first two races of the season with Kenseth — including California — the entire team has clammed up with an output of zero wins.

It’s just practice, but it’s also a sign — among many — of how far the entire team has fallen by not practicing well on a track they have always done well at.

Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin continued his strong run from Friday into Saturday’s sessions by being second fastest during the limited early practice and followed that up with a third during Happy Hour, where he had the top average times among all drivers running at least 30 laps.

Jeff Gordon won the first race ever on this track and has three altogether. He finished second to Kenseth back in February and continues to run strong on these types of tracks, including the 1.5-mile tracks as well. He was ninth fastest in the early practice and sixth best in Happy Hour.

Saturday’s Final Practice (Happy Hour)
1) Mark Martin 180.293 mph - AVG 37 laps @ 174.036
2) Casey Mears 179.897 mph - AVG 40 laps @ 173.661
3) Denny Hamlin 179.252 mph - AVG 39 laps @ 175.034
4) Kevin Harvick 179.131 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 174.327
5) Ryan Newman 178.434 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 173.158

Saturday’s Early Practice (Ran only 18 minutes due to being behind schedule on the day because of early fog at the track):
1) Jimmie Johnson 180.655 mph - AVG 9 laps @ 176.940
2) Denny Hamlin 180.442 mph - AVG 8 laps @ 177.343
3) Juan Pablo Montoya 180.162 mph - AVG 13 laps @ 176.153
4) Kurt Busch 179.969 mph - AVG 18 laps @ 174.651
5) Mark Martin 179.807 mph - AVG 11 laps @ 176.728

TOP 5 Rated Drivers at California based on Happy Hour, current state of team, recent past history at Cal, and this seasons performances on 1.5 and 2-mile tracks.
1) Denny Hamlin
2) Jimmie Johnson
3) Mark Martin
4) Jeff Gordon
5) Juan Pablo Montoya
6) Carl Edwards
7) Kurt Busch
8) Tony Stewart
9) Greg Biffle
10) Kevin Harvick

California Pepsi 500 Preview: Biffle and Gordon Eyeing Victory

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

The last time we visited the scenic landscape of beautiful Fontana, California for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race was a week after the season opening Daytona 500. At that juncture, Matt Kenseth had won two races in a row and it looked like Roush-Fenway Racing was going to dominate the year and win their third Championship.

Why wouldn’t we think that? The year prior, Carl Edwards had won nine races finishing a close second to Jimmie Johnson for the Championship. Greg Biffle charged hard in the Chase getting two wins and finishing third in points. Kenseth had made his fifth Chase in a row, and setting 2009 a blaze with two straight wins was unheard of. Even the youngster on the team, David Ragan, had a bright future in store because he barely missed the Chase and finished 13th.

Here we are now, 28 races later, and Carl Edwards doesn’t have a single win which would make him the biggest drop off in wins from one season to the next by a full time driver if he doesn’t win at least three more in the next seven races.

Greg Biffle has ran well, but still doesn’t have a win. Matt Kenseth, who started so fast, failed to miss the Chase for the first time in his career. David Ragan, for his climb up the ladder, has turned 2009 into a disaster sitting 31st in points just ahead of Paul Menard and Robby Gordon.

Needless to say, something has gone wrong in the Roush stable and we haven’t even discussed Jamie McMurray.

However, if there is one track that can get the Roush group going, California Speedway is it. Since 1998, Five different Roush drivers have won seven times. Of those drivers, Kenseth leads the way with three wins.

Last week at Kansas, Kenseth had a turnaround despite a DNF. During the final practice sessions for the race on Saturday, he had top-3 times in both practices which was a major change of pace because Kenseth hasn’t been fast in any practice on any track all season. Whatever they did made his car go faster and may be enough reason to think he may be able to duplicate what he did in February in Fontana.

Greg Biffle had a great run last week at Kansas finishing third and in this race last season he finished second. In the first race run there this season, Biffle finished fourth. Despite his good finish last week, he still lost a position in points to Jeff Gordon he finished just ahead of him. However, Biffle still feels pretty confident coming into this weeks race.

"I have always loved racing at California, said Biffle. “I think we could have won the last two races there. We just ran out of time last fall and I made a mistake in the pits earlier this year. The 3M team is at the top of their game and we should have had the win last weekend at Kansas. I made a decision to put on four tires at the end and it didn’t work out for us. I guess the way I’m looking at this weekend is that I owe these guys one, so I’m going to do everything I can to get the 16 car into victory lane."

Biffle has one win and four top-5 finishes at California. Earlier this season at California, Biffle was running the fastest laps on the track in second place and catching the leader when he stopped on the front changer’s air hose during a late-race pit stop. He restarted 11th with 35 laps to go and finished fourth.

Look for Biffle to have similar results this week, if not better.

Carl Edwards is the mystery driver of them all. How he fallen so far while using many of the same chassis’ from last season’s fantastic run is beyond anyone’s estimation. He hasn’t even come close to contending for a win. It’s not as and a fall as Ragan’s, but it could be considered worse just because of what he did last season. All year it seems like Edwards is battling for 11th place.

The winner of this race the last two seasons has been Jimmie Johnson. This is the site of El Cajon, CA native Johnson’s first career win. In 13 career starts, he has won three times. He had a little trouble after the last pit stop last week and saw him finish ninth after leading 53 laps on the day. He ended up losing eight points to current leader Mark Martin, sitting 18 points behind.

This week, Johnson is going to inducted into the California Speedway’s “Walk of Fame”, whatever that is. The honor comes for his excellence on the speedway where his three wins are tied with Kenseth and Jeff Gordon in all-time track wins.

Johnson will look to get win number four this week using the same chassis that he won at Indianapolis with in July.

Jeff Gordon won the first race ever on the track and has three wins overall in his 18 starts. He finished second in the first race there this season, just like he did last week.

"I feel like our mile and a half program has really improved this year," said Gordon.

"California was a track earlier in the year where I felt like we let one slip away. And I'm hoping that we can get that one back the next time we go."

With the way that he has ran on 1.5 and 2-mile tracks this season, Gordon could again be a good choice to win this week.

Juan Pablo Montoya used his third straight brand new chassis in the Chase last week at Kansas and finished fourth. The guy has completely transformed into a rock-solid NASCAR driver along with finally getting some good equipment. He currently sits third in points and with his run last week should be considered a real candidate to win.

"Three top-five finishes in the first three Chase races is huge, you know," Montoya said. "And it's what we need to do every weekend. A championship is beating everybody else. We come here to race and to win races and to win races you've got to beat everyone else. We know that we've got good cars. We know we're in a very good position but at the end of the day it's 10 races."

I’ve always been dismissive about his chances just because of his mediocre past in the series, but I have flip-flopped. When Theresa Earnhardt opens her wallet for the betterment of the team - a first since she took control of the team, I have to change my opinion. Too bad there wasn’t a road course race in the Chase.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #16 Greg Biffle (12/1)
2) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
3) #2 Kurt Busch (16/1)
4) #48 Jimmie Johnson (5/1)
5) #11 Denny Hamlin (12/1)

California Auto Club Speedway Facts: Johnson's Average Finish of 6.2 Leads Way

Compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Auto Club Speedway:
History
• Groundbreaking for California Speedway, as Auto Club Speedway was originally known, took place in November 1995.
• The first race there was a NASCAR Camping World Series West race won by Ken Schrader on June 21, 1997.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on June 22, 1997 and won by Jeff Gordon.
• September 2004 was the first night race and that was also the first year there were two races a year for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series.
• The track name was changed to Auto Club Speedway in February 2008.

Notebook
• There have been 18 NASCAR Sprint Cup races since the track opened in 1997.
• Four drivers have competed in all 18 races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Joe Nemechek.
• Joe Nemechek won the pole for the inaugural race in 1997.
• There have been 12 different pole winners, led by Kurt Busch (three). Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon each have two poles.
• 12 different drivers have posted victories. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth each have won three races.
• Rick Hendrick has won seven races, more than any other car owner.
• Nine of the 18 races were won from starting positions outside the top 10; only one has been won from the pole (Jimmie Johnson in 2008).
• Matt Kenseth won the 2006 spring race from the 31st starting position, the deepest in the field that a race winner has started.
• Four active drivers have averaged a top-10 finish: Kyle Busch (9.2), Carl Edwards (6.7), Jimmie Johnson (6.2) and Matt Kenseth (9.0).
• Kyle Busch won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole (2/05) and first race (9/05) at Auto Club Speedway.

NASCAR in California
• There have been 125 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in California:
• 406 NASCAR drivers have their home state recorded as California.
• There have been 32 race winners from California in NASCAR’s three national series.

Stewart Wins at Kansas: Gordon Hard Charging With 2nd

by Ed Hinton
ESPN.com

Maybe, as Mr. Lincoln said of his Gettysburg Address, this will be little noted nor long remembered.

Then again it might be recalled, at the end of this Chase, as Jeff Gordon's great turning point, his moment of launch.

Gordon was catching Tony Stewart by a hefty tenth of a second a lap in the waning minutes of Sunday's Price Chopper 400. This was little noted, except by ESPN TV announcers, who moved on to celebrating Stewart once he had the race won.

Nor is it much remembered a day later. Second place is, as they say in NASCAR, the first loser. The story coming off the Kansas Speedway stop in the Chase is that Stewart is back in the hunt.

Gordon never said postrace, at least to the media, what drivers usually say in such situations: that he simply ran out of laps.

"We were better than Tony there at the end, but not enough," he told reporters at the track. That is, not enough to run down Stewart in the 27-lap sprint that followed the final caution.

Read More.......

Kansas Happy Hour Review: Jimmie Johnson Fastest Again

by M Roberts

Jimmie Johnson has many in the NASCAR world saying, “oh no, here we go again” as the all-time leader in Chase wins (15) is running as good as ever in his quest for a fourth straight title. At Kansas this week, you had better brace yourself, because Johnson is dialed in.

He had a dominant first session Saturday with the fastest lap time by a large margin along with the top average speed, a sign that he’ll be tough to chase down late if doesn’t encounter any issues on the track. During happy hour, he laid down the fastest lap at 172.983 mph early in the session and continued on with his great average times which were second best while running 47 laps.

Johnson won this race last season and has a total of five top-10 finishes in his seven career starts. He brought his chassis from the last Atlanta race where he started third but finished 36th after suffering a broken axle. The car was brand new for that race and Johnson was fastest in the more relevant practice prior to the race. He’s only 10 points from points leader Mark Martin, and much to the dismay of many, it’s possible he could take the lead for good this week.

Matt Kenseth is watching the Chase from afar for the first time since it was introduced, but Kansas has seemed to reinvigorate the slumping team. He finished fifth there last season and has led 98 laps combined over the last two seasons. He’s not usually a driver that tops the speed charts during practice, especially this season, but he looks very strong this weekend with great runs in both sessions Saturday. He was third fastest in both.

Juan Pablo Montoya brought a new Chassis for this race, as he’s been the last few weeks showing the seriousness of his organization to improve upon their third place status in points. In the first session, Montoya had the 17th quickest lap but was second only to Johnson in average speeds. During happy hour Montoya laid down a big lap with the fourth fastest time and was fastest overall in average speeds even though he ran half the laps as most with only 23.

David Reutimann’s best runs this season have been on the 1.5-mile tracks this season and based on his practice runs Saturday, Kansas will be no different as he was fourth fastest in the first session and 11th in happy hour, where he ran the most laps of the late session with 64.

This season Ruetimann has finished fourth in Vegas, 11th at Texas, 12th at Chicago, and won the rain shortened Charlotte race. He was equally as good on the 2-mile tracks of California and Michigan this year, which because of the similar banking are similar to the setup needed for Kansas. He may not win, but he should have a car capable of running near the top-5 this week.

Jeff Gordon has won twice at Kansas and has finished in the top-5 in his last two starts. Of all drivers with at least four starts on the track, Gordon leads with an average finish of 9.8. In the first session, Gordon was eighth quickest with great average times. During happy hour, Gordon came right back another great run with the sixth quickest lap.

Mark Martin is sitting on his seventh pole of the season this week using the chassis that he won with at Darlington and Chicagoland. Of all the 1.5-mile tracks, Chicago is probably the most similar to Kansas which may spell bad news for everyone chasing him this week. Martin was sluggish in the first practice with the 19th fastest lap, though he had great average times. During happy hour, he came strong with the second fastest lap in the 20th minute and had the third best average times.

Clint Bowyer has an average finish of 7.7 in three starts at his home track and came out with the fifth quickest lap in happy hour. He brought the same chassis that finished 18th at Indianapolis.

Kasey Kahne was 10th quickest in the early session and 12th best in happy hour, but should be considered to be rated higher on the basis of his Atlanta win and finishing third at Chicago.

Top 5 - Saturday’s Early Practice Session:
1) Jimmie Johnson 173.388 mph - AVG 23 laps @ 168.765
2) Denny Hamlin 172.574 mph - AVG 22 laps @ 168.287
3) Matt Kenseth 172.552 mph - AVG 30 laps @ 168.037
4) David Reutimann 172.079 mph - AVG 32 laps @ 167.029
5) Tony Stewart 172.079 mph - AVG 8 laps @ 169.919

Best Average Speeds: Jimmie Johnson & Juan Pablo Montoya (min. 20 laps)

Top 5 - Saturday’s Final Practice (Happy Hour)
1) Jimmie Johnson 172.983 mph - AVG 47 laps @ 168.085
2) Mark Martin 172.855 mph - AVG 35 laps @ 167.083
3) Matt Kenseth 172.205 mph - AVG 38 laps @ 167.404
4) Juan Pablo Montoya 172.018 mph - AVG 23 laps @ 168.214
5) Clint Bowyer 171.161 mph - AVG 40 laps @ 167.349


Top 10 Rated Drivers at Kansas based on Saturday’s practice sessions, past performances at Kansas, Chicagoland, Michgan, and California, current state of team, with a mix 2009 runs on the 1.5-mile tracks.

1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Mark Martin
3) Jeff Gordon
4) Juan Pablo Montoya
5) Matt Kenseth
6) Denny Hamlin
7) Kasey Kahne
8) David Reutimann
9) Clint Bowyer
10) Brian Vickers

KANSAS PREVIEW: Gordon Likes His Chances This Week

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

NASCAR rolls into Kansas this week for the third race of the Chase for the Championship. Kansas is a track that runs similar to a lot of the modern day cookie cutters, but is unique on it’s own because of its flatter 15 degree banking in the turns.

If there was one track it resembles, it would be the old configuration of Las Vegas Motor Speedway before their fantastic changes to the facility. Of the existing configurations, Chicagoland, California, and Michigan may be the closest.

The only driver with two wins on the track since its debut in 2001 is Jeff Gordon. Gordon won the first two races ever on the 1.5-mile track, but finds himself down 122 points in the Chase after the first two races were run.

Of all the tracks on tour, Kansas fit’s the mold as being a player in the chase who could perform best for Gordon using his 1.5-mile track experience this season. He’s been pretty solid on all occasions.

"I think our chances are really good," Gordon said about this weeks race at Kansas. "I've been really excited about the mile and a half’s in the final 10 races in the Chase. I feel like that's something that we have really done a great job with improving from last season, and I feel like that's where this championship can really get turned around for us in the DuPont Chevrolet."

"I feel like we learned a lot from Chicago earlier in the year," Gordon said. "Obviously Mark Martin is very strong in Chicago and I look for him to be strong again in Kansas but I feel like we have a great shot at winning there."

In the final eight chase races, Gordon is looking at five of those races that fall under the 1.5-mile to 2-mile tracks that he should be on a higher plateau than most based on this season.

"California was a track earlier in the year where I felt like we let one slip away. And I'm hoping that we can get that one back the next time we go. Martinsville I feel like is a great track for us but we have been getting beat by Jimmie and a couple other guys have been doing a little bit better than us there. So we have got to make some improvements."

A for the remainder of the season, Gordon feels pretty confident based on their past performances that he can legitimately win the title, especially after getting his first career win at Texas in the spring.

"I feel like Talladega is a great track for us," he said. "I feel like Texas, I can't wait to get back there after the win earlier in the season; it's totally changed our attitude about being able to go and win at Texas. I feel like we have been really good at Homestead, not a winning car but I feel like we have been a Top 5 car and maybe we can make that into a winning car."

Gordon’s odds will vary at different bet shops, bet he be expected to be around the 8 to 1 range as the third or fourth choice to win. He looks like nice value this week.

Last years Kansas winner was last weeks winner at Dover, Jimmie Johnson, who swept the Delaware season. He’s ten points behind Mark Martin for the season lead.

Despite all of Johnson’s greatness coming in, Martin has been just as effective in only one more start at the track. Each have one win on the track and each also have two top-5’s.

It was a bit disappointing that Greg Biffle didn’t finish better last week, but he’ll back on the prowl this week again after having an unsatisfactory finish at Dover last week. Biffle is a former winner at Kansas and has a total of four top-5 finishes in his seven starts on the track making him one of the top rated drivers in NASCAR‘s loop data timing.

Not quite sure what has gotten into the Juan Pablo Montoya squad, but they are putting some quality cars out there for the former Formula-One star. They have been right up there the last few weeks with the best of NACAR competing for a win each week. Look for his style to drop a notch this week, but yet still be competitive with his fellow Chasers.

Clint Bowyer is from Kansas and has shown how important it is to win on his hometown track by having the best finish among all drivers at the track with a 7.7 average finish. Chances are, Bowyer will not be as good as the top drivers of the day, but he could squeak out a top-10.

Another driver from the area who considers Kansas his home track is Carl Edwards who is sitting a miserable 11th in points. In five career starts he has two top-5 finishes. He hasn’t been close to what he showed last season on the 1.5 mile tracks and is still looking for his first win of the season.

Look for Jeff Gordon to take control of the race late as he hangs around and battles teammates Martin and Johnson for most of the race. Gordon needs this race to catapult him higher from his seventh position in points.

Top 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
2) #48 Jimmie Johnson (6/1)
3) #5 Mark Martin (8/1)
4) #16 Greg Biffle (12/1)
5) #11 Denny Hamlin (18/1)

　

Kansas Speedway Data

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Kansas Speedway:
History
• Groundbreaking was held on May 25, 1999.
• The official opening of Kansas Speedway was in 2001, with the first events being an ARCA race and a NASCAR Camping World Series West race on the same day – June 2.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was Sept. 30, 2001.

Notebook
• There have been eight NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Kansas
since the track opened in 2001.
• All of the races have been scheduled for 267 laps.
• 13 drivers have competed in all eight races at Kansas.
• Jeff Gordon won the first two NASCAR Sprint Cup races.
• Jason Leffler won the first pole in September 2001.
• Six different drivers have won poles, led by Jimmie Johnson with two.
• Seven different drivers have posted victories, led by Jeff Gordon (two).
• There have been six different winners in the last six races at
Kansas Speedway.
• Five of the eight races have been won from a top-10 start.
• Two drivers have won from the pole: Joe Nemechek in 2004 and Jimmie Johnson last season.
• The furthest back in the field that race winner started was 21st, by Tony Stewart in 2006.
• Denny Hamlin made his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup start at Kansas – a 32nd-place finish in 2005.
• Three drivers with more than one start have averaged a top- 10 finish: Greg Biffle (9.9), Clint Bowyer (7.7) and Jeff Gordon (9.8).
• Jeff Gordon leads all drivers in top fives (five) and top 10s
(six).Gordon’s only two non-top 10s were a 39th in 2006 and
a 13th in 2004.
• Three of the last four races that ended under green had a margin of victory under one second. The 2007 race ended under caution.

NASCAR in Kansas
• There have been eight NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Kansas, all at Kansas Speedway.
• 15 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Kansas, including Jim Roper who won the very first NASCAR Sprint Cup race – Charlotte in 1949.
• There have been two race winners in the top three NASCAR series from Kansas:

Johnson Wins at Dover; His Title to Lose

by David Newton
ESPN

DOVER, Del. -- The Detroit Lions won a football game for the first time since the 2007 season, ending a stretch of 19 straight losses. Cincinnati, Iowa and Kansas are undefeated and ranked among the Top 25 in college football. Tiger Woods lost a golf tournament from the final pairing to a player who wasn't even in the final pairing.

The world of sports is upside down. Ah, but in NASCAR, all is normal. Three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson dominated Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway for his fourth victory of the season.

And nobody -- if history is an indication -- is going to stop him from winning a record fourth straight title.

"It makes you feel a little sick," Carl Edwards said after limping home to an 11th-place finish. "I didn't realize he won until I saw him doing burnouts."

Read More.....

Dover Happy Hour: Kahne Fastest but not Driver to Beat

Kasey Kahne has never had a top-5 finish at Dover and he‘s coming off a blown engine last week at New Hampshire, however, on Saturday he reeled in the fastest lap in happy hour making his chances look pretty good for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Dover.

Kahne ran the fastest lap of 152.014 on is third lap during the final practice session at Dover and is looking to elevate himself in the Chase for the Championship along with just having simply a good run at Dover.

In 11 starts at Dover, Kahne has done much worse than better. He’s had seven finishes out of the top 20 as opposed to finishing only four times in the top-20. The great practice run that saw him 14th best in the early session and finish best in happy hour ought to be encouraging for a team that hasn’t fared well in Delaware. In his first run this season, Kahne finished sixth.

Juan Pablo Montoya is debuting a chassis this week, again, and whatever the team is doing is making him better. Where was all that technique throughout the season? All of a sudden, Montoya is one of the major players every week.

Montoya was second fastest in both sessions on Saturday and has baffled many around the garage how he can be so good, so quick, and so timely since making the chase and excelling throughout the chase in Jimmie Johnson fashion.

Following the two heavyweights of Happy Hour, Joey Logano joined Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, and Kurt Busch as the top performers of the day.

This is the track where Logano made his NASCAR debut in the Nationwide series and to make it special they brought a brand new car.

Kurt Busch, despite no input from lame duck crew chief Pat Tryson, is running a brand new chassis. It would seem that a top contender for the title would need their chief in a new scheme of any kind, but team Miller Lite appears to be pretty good with the change.

Mark Martin is bringing the same chassis that brought him victory at Darlington. He finished 10th earlier this season at Dover and could be the driver to beat again.

Top Speeds at Dover Happy Hour:
1) Kasey Kahe 152.014 mph - AVG 37 laps @ 149.048
2) Juan Pablo Montoya 151.502 mph - AVG 37 laps @ 148.399
3) Joey Logano 151.057 mph - AVG 49 laps @ 148.415
4) Mark Martin 151.013 mph - 49 laps @ 149.309
5) Jimmie Johnson 150.981 mph - 53 laps @ 148.528
6) Greg Biffle 150.981 mph - 44 laps @ 148.416
7) Kurt Busch 150.031 mph - 56 laps @ 148.416

Top 10 Rated Drivers at Dover based on final two Dover practices, runs earlier tin the season at Dover, and current state of organization.
1) Greg Biffle
2) Jimmie Johnson
3) Kasey Kahne
4) Kurt Busch
5) Juan Pablo Montoya
6) Ryan Newman
7) Mark Martin
8) Kyle Busch
9) Carl Edwards
10) Jeff Gordon

Dover AAA 400 Preview: Greg Biffle Looks Poised To Win

by Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

NASCAR points leader Mark Martin kicked off the Chase to the Championship last week with a win at New Hampshire, the 40th win of his career, giving him a little breathing room as the Series rolls into Dover, Delaware this weekend.

This will be the second time the Series has visited Dover this season, In the first episode, Jimmie Johnson led the most laps in winning his fourth career race at Dover, but he had to battle Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle down the stretch making the winning pass with only three laps to go.

The one-mile concrete oval is a fast high banked track that doesn’t really resemble any track on the circuit. Some of the crew chiefs will bring their Bristol chassis’ from a few weeks ago because the set-up requirements are similar since Bristol changed it’s layout a few years ago.

For Martin, Dover has been a place he’s had lots of success at. In his 47 career starts, he has 29 top-10 finishes that include four wins - the last coming in 2004. Martin has become the NASCAR Nation overwhelming choice to win it all just because of the 50 year old is just an all-around good guy.

How can you not root for a driver that has stood the test of time with excellence throughout his career, but has never won a title. He’s finished second in points on four separate occasions with the last coming in 2002. His support comes from his regular long time fans, but down the stretch he’s finding fans from all over, in particular, the Junior Nation.

The massive allegiance of supporters who followed Dale Earnhardt and the current army of Dale Earnhardt Jr fans have all jumped on board the Mark Martin wagon. That good ole’ boy down home quality Martin exemplifies has endeared both old school and new school NASCAR fans to his side.

Martin’s success story has even crossed over into other realms because of his age. He’s finding new fans from all over who are inspired about his ability despite not knowing much about the sport. I’ll bet that Pfizer wishes they still had their logo on his hood for this type of marketing dream sweepstakes.

Drivers who will contend for the win this week begin with Greg Biffle who now in ninth place, 92 points behind Martin. Biffle won this race last season and has finished in the top-3 in his last four starts. Overall, Biffle has two wins on the track.

"I will be disappointed if we are not in contention for the win this weekend at Dover, Biffle said. We led several laps there in the spring and won this race last year. Our pit crew is at the top of their game week in and week out. I was at the shop this week going over our notes from Dover with Greg (Erwin) so we would be ready to hit the ground running as soon as we unload. Dover is a great racetrack, the racing is good and as a driver, it’s a fun place to race. We need a good finish there to keep Mark Martin in our sights. If we can keep gaining a little every week, we’ll be right there in contention for the title at Homestead."

Biffle and Erwin will be bringing the chassis that they ran at both Pocono races.

Carl Edwards is still winless this year, a major shock since he won nine races last season. He has the best average finish at Dover at 7.6 and did just that in the earlier race this season with a 7th place finish. Edwards is 11th in points, 113 points behind.

Tony Stewart started his career out doing very well at Dover, capturing two wins and nine top-5’s and then he went into four year slump with no top-5’s. In his first outing with at Dover with his new team, he finished second and would have won had the race been 397 laps. Look for Stewart to be top contender to win this week. He’s now sixth in points after leading for much of the season.

Kyle Busch isn’t in the Chase, but should be a good candidate to do well based on his record at the Dover and his recent success at Bristol. Busch’s last win of the season was at Bristol, similar in ways to Dover, and his last Dover win was last year. No pressure on Busch now, it’s all about wins and finishing the season strong, something that evaded him down the stretch last year.

Kurt Busch has not had the best of success at Dover over his career. He’s only had three top-5’s in his career, but he did have one those top-5’s this year. Even though his crew chief Pat Tryson is in lame duck status, and only allowed into Penske headquarters for Tuesday meetings, Tryson still wants that Championship attached to his resume before he leaves.

Jimmie Johnson won at Dover earlier in the year, but is bringing the chassis he drove at Michigan that led 133 laps before running out of fuel late in the race. The chassis he won with at Dover will serve as a back-up. He is favored, not just because of his wins on the track, but more so because of how dominant he’s been in Chase races winning a NASCAR record 14 times.

This week was supposed to be the debut of betting NASCAR at the track of Dover, Delaware, something that not even Las Vegas has. Sports betting was approved in Delaware a month ago, but a crusade led by the NFL stopped straight betting and wagers taken on other sports. The only thing that can be bet in Delaware now is parlays on NFL games which has drawn far less action over the first two weeks than expected.

If action on the NASCAR race had been allowed on site, the figures would have blown away what they are currently writing on NFL parlays. Imagine three days of racing on a track holds 100,000. Figure that at least half of them would wager an average of maybe $50 with the house expected hold of about 40%. It would have a been spectacular for the fans and also the state of Delaware who is now going to have a tough time matching their lofty budgeted goals.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:
1) #16 Greg Biffle (11/1)
2) #18 Kyle Busch (9/1)
3) #14 Tony Stewart (7/1)
4) #48 Jimmie Johnson (6/1)
5) #5 Mark Martin (8/1)

Dover Facts

by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Dover International Speedway:
History
• The official opening of Dover International Speedway, then called Dover Downs International Speedway, was in 1969.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on July 6, 1969.
• The first two races at Dover were 300 miles. The race length was changed to 500 miles in 1971.
• The track surface was changed to concrete in 1995.
• The race length was changed to 400 miles beginning with the second race in 1997.
• The track name was changed to Dover International Speedway in 2002.

Notebook
• There have been 79 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Dover International Speedway since the track opened in 1969.
• There was one race in 1969 and 1970. There has been two-a-year since 1971.
• Richard Petty won the track’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
• There have been 34 different pole winners, led by David Pearson (six). David Reutimann won his first Dover pole in this season’s May race
• David Pearson won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in July 1969.
• Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman lead all active drivers, each with four poles.
• 32 different drivers have posted victories led by Bobby Allison and Richard Petty, each with seven.
• Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson lead all active drivers, each with four victories.
• Hendrick Motorsports has 11 wins, more than any other car owner.
• 47 races at Dover have been won from a top-five starting position; 17 races have been won from a starting position outside the top 10.
• The furthest back in the field a race winner started was 37th, by Kyle Petty in 1995.
• In his Dover win earlier this season, Jimmie Johnson scored a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0. He led 298 laps in May.
• Several active drivers had their first start at Dover, including Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, David Ragan and Tony Raines.
• In addition, Matt Kenseth (2002) and Michael Waltrip (1991) earned their first pole at Dover. Martin Truex Jr. won his first race there (2007).
• Three of the last four races have ended with a margin of victory under one second.

NASCAR in Delaware
• There have been 79 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Delaware, all at Dover International Speedway.
• Eight drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Delaware, though none have posted victories.

Nice Guys DO Finish First: Martin Wins at Loudon, 5th Win of Season

by Ed Hinton
ESPN.com

LOUDON, N.H. -- Mark Martin fought it out for this one, slugged and clawed and widened his points lead at the outset of the Chase for a championship he has never won. And at long, long last, there was controversy over how he won a race.

"Mark just screwed me out there," Juan Pablo Montoya said of the driver esteemed by his peers for more than two decades as NASCAR's cleanest, fairest driver.

Martin, of course, had a gentlemanly and credible explanation for the dogfight that ended Sunday's playoff-opening Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

But first, let's let Montoya let 'er rip. It's not every day - or year, or decade - you get to hear someone complain about Martin's tactics.

"He always does run very clean," Montoya said, "so I was kind of surprised when he did that. I know it's the Chase and everything, but he just …"

Montoya clearly had the strongest car all afternoon, and had led 105 of the 300 laps. So, on a double-file restart with only three laps left, and Martin and Montoya starting on the front row, Martin looked cooked.

more....
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=4489647

New Hampshire Practice: Montoya Fastest Again, and Again, and Again!

by M Roberts

On Friday Juan Pablo Montoya won his second pole position of the season and also the second of his career. Saturday, Montoya picked up right where he left off during the final practice sessions in preparation for Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Montoya not only led Friday’s early practice geared towards qualifying - then took the pole, but he carried those blazing speeds into Saturday and was fastest in both sessions. In each practice, Montoya was the only driver to pass he 130 mph barrier on a lap. During happy hour he laid down the quickest lap of the day at 130.376 mph.

Montoya brought a brand new chassis this week and with it, became the only driver this season to sweep all three practice sessions prior to any given race, a rarity considering race conditions on separate days and having two different set-ups in race and qualifying trim.

Montoya will look to improve upon his career average of 20th at New Hampshire in the first race of the Chase on Sunday. His 12th place finish In the June race was already a vast improvement over what he did in his first two seasons on the track, and now with the beast of a car he has this week, he should be able to improve upon his best even further.

Kurt Busch is a three time winner in New Hampshire and was very impressive in Saturday’s practices. He was seventh fastest in the early session while running the most laps and then came out in happy hour and was second fastest behind Montoya while running the third most laps. Busch brought the same chassis that a great run in the June race finishing third.

It should come as little surprise that points leader Mark Martin had a great pair of practices because he brought the same chassis that won at Phoenix earlier this year which was also run last week at Richmond finishing fourth.

The correlation between Phoenix, New Hampshire, and Richmond has always been strong over the years with several drivers winning multiple races during a year on those tracks using the same chassis for each. Despite the three tracks being vastly different in configuration, the length and banking make them similar in crew chiefs minds.

Martin’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, has also been the beneficiary of having dominant rides on all three tracks over his career. He brought the same chassis from June’s race that led the most laps before the rain came. During practice, Johnson showed that his car is just as good now as it was then with the fifth fastest lap in each session while running the most laps of the day.

Martin Truex Jr brought a brand new car, just like his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and the results were very similar in practice. He was second fastest in the early session and third fastest in happy hour. Loudon has traditionally been one of Truex’s best tracks. His poor finish in June ended a streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes on the track. He’s a great dark horse this week to spoil the Chase party.

Other drivers that had great runs Saturday who aren’t in the Chase were Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Harvick had the ninth fastest lap in happy hour using the same car that was very racey last week in Richmond. The best sign for a good run from Harvick was that he had the third best average times in the final session.

Earnhardt Jr was sixth fastest during happy hour using the same chassis that ran 13th in June’s race. The positive note for Junior is that his car was been able to run completive speeds with the leaders, something hasn’t happened very much in practice for him all season.

Final Practice session (Happy Hour)
1) Juan Pablo Montoya 130.376 mph - AVG 39 laps @ 128.337
2) Kurt Busch 129.843 mph - AVG 61 laps @ 128.035
3) Martin Truex Jr 129.843 mph - AVG 45 laps @ 128.270
4) Mark Martin 129.820 mph - AVG 56 laps @ 128.004
5) Jimmie Johnson 129.758 mph - AVG 67 laps @ 127.955

Second Practice session:
1) Juan Pablo Monyoya 130.131 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 128.208
2) Martin Truex Jr 129.922 mph - AVG 31 laps @ 127.590
3) Mark Martin 129.688 mph - AVG 43 laps @ 128.053
4) David Stremme 129.639 mph - AVG 32 laps @ 126.453
5) Jimmie Johnson 129.595 mph - AVG 46 laps @ 128.037

See the Jayski.com practice page link for complete list of practice times

TOP 10 Rated Drivers for New Hampshire based on Saturday’s practice sessions, current state of team, last weeks Richmond race, with a mix of Phoenix and June’s Loudon race.

1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Juan Pablo Montoya
3) Kurt Busch
4) Mark Martin
5) Denny Hamlin
6) Tony Stewart
7) Martin Truex Jr
8) Jeff Gordon
9) Kevin Harvick
10 Dale Earnhardt Jr

Montoya Wins Pole at New Hampshire; Second Pole of NASCAR Career

by Jayski.com

Montoya wins pole at New Hampshire:
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a speed of 133.431mph for a new track record [the old record was 133.357mph by Ryan Newman set six years ago]. This is the 3rd track record broken in 2009 after 27 races. The pole is Montoya's 2nd pole of the season and 2nd career pole.

#14-Stewart was 2nd fastest followed by #2-Busch, #11-Hamlin, #99-Edwards, #12-Stremme, #1-Truex Jr., #71-BLabonte, #18-Busch and #24-Gordon. Points leader #5-Martin will start 14th. The fastest 43 cars made the race and the two slowest failed to qualify.

The non Top-35 drivers who made the race: #71-Labonte, #66-Blaney, #87-Nemechek, #82-Speed, #64-Wallace, #37-Raines, #09-Almirola and #36-McDowell.
The two drivers who failed to qualify: #75-Cope and #51-Bean.

See the starting lineup, qualifying results & order, pole progreession and more on the New Hampshire Starting Lineup/Qualifying Page.(9-18-2009)

New Hampshire Preview - Green Flag to the Chase

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

The 12-driver field in the Chase for the Championship has been set and this Sunday in Loudon, New Hampshire, the NASCAR playoffs begin.

It’s important for drivers to get out of the gate quickly, but also play it conservative along the way. Last season was one of the best Chases ever with two drivers, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards, battling like a classic 15-round heavyweight title match.

Johnson ended up winning because he stayed consistent throughout and had flashes of dominance during the 10-race stretch that’s saw him three times. His worse finish down the stretch was a 15th.

Edwards was equally dominant winning three times and finishing in the top-4 a total of eight times in the 10 races. His downfall, which ultimately cost him the title was finishing 29th and 33rd in race four and five of the Chase. Any other year, against any other driver, and Edwards would have won.

Last season, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards finished 1-2-3 at New Hampshire. After the 10-race Chase, the final top three in the standings not surprisingly ended up with Johnson, Edwards, and Biffle as the top three finishers.

In 2004, the first year of the Chase format, Kurt Busch kicked it off with a New Hampshire victory. He didn’t win again during the Chase but that Week 1 win proved critical – he edged Jimmie Johnson for the championship by only eight points.

In 2007, Clint Bowyer, who was given little thought to be a real contender, got his first career NASCAR Cup victory to open the Chase – and rode that momentum to an eventual third-place finish in the final standings. ?

This year looks to be much of the same as it’s been the last three seasons, which is more of Jimmie Johnson. The guy is a machine and when it comes down to business, no one is better. He has more wins (14) and top-5 finishes in Chase races than anyone else by a large margin. He gets into a prime-time mode like a Joe Montana or John Elway late in games and it’s almost a given that he will not fail in the crunch.

To see who will do well for this weeks race at New Hampshire, looking back at who did well in both Richmond races, Phoenix, and the first New Hampshire race prior to the rain is helpful. Many of the teams use the same chassis’ from those races if successful and use them on all three tracks because the banking and distances are similar, despite the configuration being vastly different on all three.

Over the years there has been a strong correlation between winners at one doing well on the other two, and sometimes winning multiple times.

We can look back at last week’s race as a quick refresher to who those candidates are because they did well all season on these type of tracks. Denny Hamlin won last week at Richmond after nearly coming close on several occasions in the past. Mark Martin has been stellar on all the tracks and claims a Phoenix win.

In the rain shortened Loudon race won by rookie Joey Logano, the dominant driver was Jimmie Johnson who led the most laps prior to the rain. Look for Johnson to start the Chase in style with a great run and possibly a win this week. He doesn’t want to dig himself a hole by getting too racey and finding trouble, as Kyle Busch did last year, but his car should be good enough to capture his third New Hampshire win overall and propel him to the top of the standings.

Johnson is also bringing that same exact chassis that led the most laps the first time around in Loudon.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:

1) #48 Jimmie Johnson (6/1)
2) #5 Mark Martin (10/1)
3) #11 Denny Hamlin (10/1)
4) #18 Kyle Busch (9/1)
5) #14 Tony Stewart (7/1)

New Hampshire Facts

Compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
History
• Groundbreaking for New Hampshire International Speedway, as New Hampshire Motor Speedway was originally named, was Aug. 13, 1989.
• The official opening was June 5, 1990 with the first race a NASCAR Nationwide Series race on July 15, 1990.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was on July 11, 1993.
• The first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race was on Sept. 9, 1996.
• The track was renamed New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2008.

Notebook
• There have been 29 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway; one per year from 1993 through 1996 and two per year since.
• Four drivers have competed in all 29 races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Joe Nemechek.
• Mark Martin won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole.
• Rusty Wallace won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
• There have been 15 different pole winners, led by Ryan Newman (four).
• 19 different drivers have posted victories, led by Jeff Burton (four).
• In June, Joey Logano became the all-time youngest NASCAR Sprint Cup race winner at 19 years, one month and four days.
• Jimmie Johnson (2003) and Kurt Busch (2004) are the only drivers that have posted season sweeps. Those are also the only back-to-back winners.
• Roush Fenway Racing has won seven races, more than any other organization.
• The deepest in the field that a New Hampshire race winner started was 38th, by Jeff Burton in 1999.
• The last race winner to win from the pole was Clint Bowyer in 2007.
• There have been nine consecutive different race winners.
• Jeff Burton led all 300 laps raced in the 2000 fall race.
• Clint Bowyer led 222 laps and scored a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0 in the 2007 fall race.

NASCAR in New Hampshire
• There have been 29 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in New Hampshire, all at NHMS.
• 13 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) are listed as New Hampshire natives.
• There has been one race winner from New Hampshire in NASCAR’s three national series: Jamie Aube. Aube, from Manchester, won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Oxford Plains Speedway in 1987.

The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup

• 22 different drivers have made the Chase, including Brian Vickers and Juan Pablo Montoya, who each made their first Chase this season.
• There will be 3,152 laps and 4,095.48 miles run during the 2009 Chase.
• Only one driver has made all six Chases for the NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jimmie Johnson
• Three drivers have made five Chases: Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth. Kenseth has made all five previous Chases, but missed this year’s after finishing the regular season 14th in points.
• In the 50 Chase races, Jimmie Johnson has won a series-high 14 races. He’s followed by Carl Edwards (six), Greg Biffle (six), Tony Stewart (four) and Jeff Gordon (three).
• Jimmie Johnson is the only driver to average a top-10 finish in Chase races (8.7).
• In the 50 Chase races, Greg Biffle has an average finish of 14.4. But in the 20 Chase races where he was in contention for the championship, Biffle has an average finish of 9.6.
• Three drivers have notched more than 20 top-five finishes during Chase races: Jimmie Johnson (26), Jeff Gordon (22) and Carl Edwards (20).
• Nine drivers have more than 20 top-10 finishes during Chase races: Jimmie Johnson (36), Jeff Gordon (34), Carl Edwards (29), Tony Stewart (26), Kevin Harvick (25), Kurt Busch (25), Matt Kenseth (23), Greg Biffle (22) and Jeff Burton (22).
• Since the inception of Loop Data in 2005, two drivers have a Driver Rating of at least 100.0: Jimmie Johnson (108.8) and Carl Edwards (100.0).
• Ryan Newman’s average starting position in Chase races is 10.9, which ranks second to Jimmie Johnson’s 9.5. But in the 20 Chase races Newman has been in contention for a championship, he has an average starting position of 5.1.

Chase Drivers Past History at Loudon, New Hampshire

compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

Below is a look at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series top 12 going into the first race of the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 20.

1 – Mark Martin (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 98.7
2009 Rundown
• Four wins, nine top fives, 14 top 10s
• Average finish of 15.6
• Led 17 races for 707 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Eight top fives, 13 top 10s; two poles
• Average finish of 11.1 in 47 races
• Has led 397 laps
• Average Running Position of 11.9, sixth-best
• Driver Rating of 93.4, seventh-best

2 – Tony Stewart (No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 101.6
2009 Rundown
• Three wins, 13 top fives, 18 top 10s
• Average finish of 9.1
• Led 14 races for 275 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Two wins, 11 top fives, 13 top 10s
• Average finish of 12.3 in 21 races
• Has led 976 laps
• Average Running Position of 9.5, second-best
• Series-best Driver Rating of 115.8
• Series-high 253 Fastest Laps Run
• Series-best Average Green Flag Speed of 124.397 mph
• 2,130 Laps in the Top 15 (79.9%), third-most

3 – Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 110.3
2009 Rundown
• Three wins, nine top fives, 15 top 10s
• Average finish of 12.7
• Led 21 races for 1,252 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Two wins, four top fives, 10 tops 10s
• Average finish of 9.9 in 15 races
• Has led 274 laps
• Average Running Position of 10.1, third-best
• Driver Rating of 105.3, third-best
• 206 Fastest Laps Run, third-most
• Average Green Flag Speed of 123.976 mph, fifth-fastest
• 2,240 Laps in the Top 15 (84.1%), second-most
• 277 Quality Passes, fourth-most

4 – Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Toyota)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 101.6
2009 Rundown
• Two wins, nine top fives, 14 top 10s
• Average finish of 12.3
• Led 12 races for 992 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• One win, two top fives, five top 10s
• Average finish of 8.3 in seven races
• Has led 52 laps
• Average Running Position of 10.3, fourth-best
• Driver Rating of 100.1, fifth-best
• Average Green Flag Speed of 124.037 mph, fourth-fastest
• 1,691 Laps in the Top 15 (81.9%), eighth-most

5 – Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 89.0
2009 Rundown
• Two wins, five top fives, 10 top 10s
• Average finish of 13.9
• Led six races for 180 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• One top five, five top 10s
• Average finish of 16.0
• Has led 49 laps
• Driver Rating of 82.3, 17th-best

6 – Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 100.4
2009 Rundown
• One win, 12 top fives, 18 top 10s
• Average finish of 10.9
• Led 14 races for 698 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Three wins, 13 fives, 16 top 10s; three poles
• Average finish of 11.3 in 29 races
• Has led 1,205 laps
• Series-best Average Running Position of 7.0
• Driver Rating of 109.4, second-best
• 240 Fastest Laps Run, second-most
• Average Green Flag Speed of 124.380 mph, second-fastest
• Series-high 2,413 Laps in the Top 15 (90.5%)

7 – Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 99.7
2009 Rundown
• One win, seven top fives, 14 top 10s
• Average finish of 14.0
• Led 13 races for 391 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Three wins, six top fives, eight top 10s
• Average finish of 14.8 in 17 races
• Has led 326 laps
• Driver Rating of 88.1, 14th-best
• Average Running Position of 14.6, 12th-best

8 – Brian Vickers (No. 83 Red Bull Toyota)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 87.8
2009 Rundown
• One win, four top fives, 13 top 10s
• Average finish of 14.9
• Led 10 races for 101 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• One top five; one pole
• Average finish of 23.1 in 10 races
• Has led 53 laps
• Driver Rating of 79.5, 19th-best

9 – Carl Edwards (No. 99 Aflac Ford)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 91.0
2009 Rundown
• Seven top fives, 11 top 10s
• Average finish of 14.0
• Led nine races for 159 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Two top fives
• Average finish of 13.5
• Has led 63 laps
• Driver Rating of 87.2, 15th-best
• Average Running Position of 14.5, 10th-best

10 – Ryan Newman (No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 81.6
2009 Rundown
• Five top fives, 12 top 10s
• Average finish of 14.0
• Led 11 races for 157 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Two wins, five top fives, nine top 10s; four poles
• Average finish of 14.2 in 15 races
• Has led 537 laps
• Driver Rating of 90.3, 10th-best
• 96 Fastest Laps Run, ninth-most
• 1,696 Laps in the Top 15 (63.6%), seventh-most

11 – Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Target Chevrolet)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 89.4
2009 Rundown
• Two top fives, 12 top 10s
• Average finish of 13.8
• Led six races for 164 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• Average finish of 20.6 in five races
• Has led six races
• Driver Rating of 74.4, 20th-best

12 – Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M Ford)
• Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 89.2
2009 Rundown
• Eight top fives, 12 top 10s
• Average finish of 14.5
• Led 11 races for 432 laps
New Hampshire Motor Speedway Outlook:
• One win, four top fives, five top 10s
• Average finish of 18.1
• Has led 85 laps
• Average Running Position of 14.6, 11th-best
• Driver Rating of 88.8, 13th-best
• 73 Fastest Laps Run, 12th-most

Hamlin Wins on Home Track at Richmond

by Jayski.com

Hamlin wins at Richmond: #11-Denny Hamlin won the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond International Race for his 1st win at Richmond [his home track], 2nd win of 2009 and 6th of his career. #2-Busch finished 2nd followed by #24-Gordon, #5-Martin, #18-Busch, #33-Bowyer, #83-Vickers, #77-Hornish Jr., #29-Harvick and #39-Newman.

Points leader #14-Stewart finished 17th. #17-Kenseth finished 25th and fell out of the top 12 and for the first time since The Chase started in 2004, Kenseth will not be in The Chase. #83-Vickers got in to the Chase, beating #18-Busch by 8 points. There were 10 cautions for 56 caution laps and there were 16 lead changes among 5 drivers.
Scheduled Race Re-Airs: ESPN2: Sunday, September 13 at 3:30am/et; ESPN Classic: Sunday, September 13 at 11:00am/et; SPEED, Wednesday, September 16 at 12:00pm/et.
For race results, awards and more, see my Richmond Race Results Page.(9-12-2009)

Richmond Practice: Montoya Fastest, Hamlin Looks Best

by M Roberts

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest in Friday’s final practice session for Saturday Night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond. Montoya reeled out the quickest speed of 124.412 mph near the end of the session while in qualifying trim.

Prior to the changes set up for qualifying, Montoya still had solid times in the few laps he ran. During the first session, Montoya 13th quickest while running 47 laps in race trim.

All Montoya has to do is finish 18th or better Saturday and he’ll make his goal come to fruition by qualifying for the Chase to the Championship. If looking at his career average finish at Richmond of 27th, it may seem a bit dicey. However, he’s brought the same chassis he raced to a Richmond career best of 10th in May.

Richmond’s weekend schedule of events is similar to what Atlanta did last week with two practice sessions followed by qualifying all in one day. Because most drivers used the final session for the qualifying set-up, it can be treated like a normal race schedule first practice.

The most telling practice this week in regards to how they may run in race conditions was the first practice. There a few exceptions such as drivers that ran more than 30 laps during happy hour like Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, and Tony Stewart.

In the first practice almost everyone was in race trim and ran several laps. The fastest or those drivers was Greg Biffle followed by Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer.

Biffle brought a brand new chassis for this week and hopes to clinch a position in the Chase. He could take matters into his own hands by finishing 11th or better and make it regardless of what anyone else does.

Kyle Busch needs a lot more help, but has to feel confident coming to a track where he has the best average finish of anyone (6th) and where he claimed one of his four wins this season. Busch brought a chassis that finished 23rd at Michigan, kind of a perplexing move since he won in the spring at Richmond. Why not bring that car?

However, the last time they did something that appeared awkward like that and not bringing the winning chassis from the Spring, he won at Bristol a few weeks ago. He needs to gain 17 points on Vickers and 37 on Kenseth to make the Chase. It should be fun watching him try.

Clint Bowyer had the third best average times in the first practice among drivers that ran at least 35 laps. Bowyer’s may be a bit more impressive than first and second best times of Kevin Harvick and Mark just because he ran many more laps than they did with 62.

Bowyer won the spring Bristol race last year thanks to some hard racing in front of him while he was running third. In all, Bowyer has been brilliant at Richmond with an average finish of 10th. Bowyer brought his Chicagoland chassis that he finished ninth with.

Virginia native Denny Hamlin was as good as ever in both practices running a total of 109 laps between the two sessions. In the first practice he had the fifth best time then he ran a ton of laps in the final practice with top speeds and then put his qualifying trim on and was sixth quickest overall.

Hamlin has had at least two instances where he probably should have won on his home track, but has still had quality runs in just about every one of his seven starts. Only Kyle Busch has a better Richmond average finish than Hamlin’s at 9.6. Look for Hamlin to let it all hang out and go for the win to better his position in the Chase, but more importantly to him, get that elusive Richmond win.
Tony Stewart was the King of Richmond when he first arrived, winning as a rookie and then two other times giving him three wins in his first seven starts at the track. Since then, he hasn’t won any, but he has run very well getting second place in three of his last four races there.

Stewart ran the second most laps (76) in the first practice and was 12th quickest. During happy hour, Stewart ran 47 more laps and had the 11th best time while in qualifying trim. Stewart will be in the same race mode as Hamlin looking to move up the Chase ladder for start position by getting a win.

Jimmie Johnson has been hit or miss at Richmond. Despite winning there in three of the last five races, he has only one other top-10 finish there in his 15 career starts. Four top-10’s for Jimmie Johnson at any track would be considered struggling, as would his 18th average finish position.

Fortunately for Johnson, he looks to be trending upward at Richmond even though he finished 36th there in the spring. Based on what he’s done on the similar set-ups required at Phoenix and New Hampshire since the COT was introduced, not many are better.

Johnson was second fastest in happy hour while in qualifying trim and 11th best in the first practice while running the most laps (79). Johnson brought the same chassis that he ran with at Richmond in the spring.

Brian Vickers needs to gain 21 points on Kenseth to get the final Chase position while attempting to hold off Busch. Tough task, especially when considering his average finish position of 27th throughout his career on the track. The good news for Vickers is that he had a solid 15th place finish in the spring, his best run there since he was a rookie with and 8th.

The bad news for Vickers, other than Busch, is that both his practice sessions went poorly in race trim and qualifying trim. It’s quite unusual for Vickers to struggle in qualifying trim, but he was only able to mange the 21st quickest lap in happy hour. In the first session, he was only 36th quickest running 69 laps.

Fortunately, the Red Bull team does have the luxury to tinker some more in the garage prior to the race, but they won’t be able to test it until the race.

Mike Bliss had two good practice sessions in the No. 71 despite running limited laps. Bliss only gets brought up just because of the fact that the car he’s driving this week was bought from the Richard Childress stable of cars. Richmond has been one of the better tracks for Childress in both the old car, and the COT.

The regular driver of the No. 71, David Gilliland, is filling in for Robby Gordon in the No. 7 while Gordon takes the NASCAR race weekend off so he can participate in the off-road event in Primm, Nevada.

First Richmond Practice - Top 5 Speeds:
1. Joe Nememchek 122.867 mph - AVG 12 laps @ 120.325
2. Greg Biffle 122.594 mph - AVG 60 laps @ 117.378
3. Kyle Busch 122.482 mph - AVG 48 laps @ 118.464
4. Clint Bowyer 122.410 mph - AVG 62 laps @ 118.533
5. Denny Hamlin 122.288 mph - AVG 53 laps @ 118.197

Best Average Speed among drivers running at least 35 laps: Kevin Harvick 39 Laps @ 118.699
Most laps run: 79 each by Ryan Newman (10th) and Jimmie Johnson (11th)

Final Richmond Practice (Happy Hour) - Top 5 Speeds:
1. Juan Pablo Montoya 124.412 mph - AVG 12 laps @ 121.414
2. Jimmie Johnson 124.390 mph - AVG 14 laps @ 121.301
3. Mark Martin 124.218 mph - AVG 11 laps @ 122.013
4. Jeff Gordon 124.836 mph - AVG 33 laps @ 117.536
5. Kasey Kahne 123.836 mph - AVG 58 laps @ 117.536
Best Average Speed among drivers running at least 30 laps: David Reutimann 34 Laps @ 119.119
Most laps run: 64 by Jeff Burton (22nd fastest)

Top 10 Rated drivers for Richmond based on First Practice session, some of Happy Hour, current state of team, and a mix of the three 2009 races at Phoenix, New Hampshire, and Richmond.
1) Denny Hamlin
2) Tony Stewart
3) Clint Bowyer
4) Jimmie Johnson
5) Kyle Busch
6) Greg Biffle
7) Ryan Newman
8) Mark Martin
9) Jeff Gordon
10) Kevin Harvick