Randomness of plate racing makes Jimmie Johnson a contender at Daytona

Jimmie Johnson is 25/1 to win Saturday at Daytona.

Jimmie Johnson on racing at Daytona:
“Heading back to Daytona in the summer is usually really toasty. We got a big taste of that last weekend in Chicago. The biggest difference between the 500 Speedweeks is that there is less grip and track position seems to be more important. From a car build standpoint, we have a different approach – but it’s still plate racing and anything can happen, at any time.”

PLATE WINS: Jimmie Johnson is currently second on the list of active drivers for most restrictor-plate wins with five, behind only Brad Keselowski's six. He has won three times at Daytona International Speedway and twice at Talladega Superspeedway. Johnson’s most recent win at Daytona came in 2013, when he won both the Daytona 500 and the 400-mile race in July before going on to win his sixth NASCAR Cup Series championship in the same season.

PLATES AND TEAMMATES: On three occasions at Daytona, Johnson has been involved in a Hendrick Motorsports one-two finishing effort. In July 2015, Johnson finished just behind former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. In February 2013, Earnhardt was in Johnson’s rear-view mirror as the driver of the No. 48 Chevy cruised to his second win in the "Great American Race." Johnson finished in the runner-up position in July 2004 as NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won the 400-mile event.

RECENT HISTORY: In this race a year ago, Johnson started and finished 12th, leading four laps during the 163-lap event. He suffered misfortune earlier this season as he was taken out of the Daytona 500 in a multiple-car incident in the last lap of the first stage, ending his day on Lap 59.

TEAM CHEVY STAGE: Johnson will make an appearance at the Team Chevy stage on Saturday, July 7, at 4:15 p.m. local time for a question-and-answer session.

SEEKING 84: Johnson's next trip to Victory Lane will be his 84th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series win. He secured his 83rd in June 2017 to tie NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough for sixth on the all-time wins list. An 84th win would tie Hall of Famers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for fourth all-time. Johnson is currently 10 wins behind former teammate Jeff Gordon, who has 93 victories and is third on the list. Johnson has the most wins of all active drivers and Knaus has the most wins of all active crew chiefs with 81.

2018 NASCAR All-Star Race to feature restrictor-plates

Restrictor-plates are definitely a way to slow Harvick down on 1.5s.

NASCAR will use an aerodynamic package for its May 19 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway that will include an engine restrictor plate and front aero ducts that will move the air to the side of the car before it hits the front wheel.

The package, which also includes a six-inch spoiler equipped with additional six-inch "ears" at the ends, was used in the 2017 Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis. The Xfinity Series will use the package at Michigan, Pocono and Indianapolis this year.

By restricting air flow through the engine (the restrictor plate with holes of 7/8ths of an inch will cut horsepower by about 250) and creating more drag with the rear spoiler (which is normally just 2.375 inches high), NASCAR hopes to create a drafting dynamic similar to Daytona where drivers can be threewide or fourwide and run a similar speed.

"The yearly Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race is an opportunity to see your favorite drivers compete under a unique and exciting format and rules package," NASCAR executive vice president Steve O'Donnell said. "The positive feedback following last year's Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis gave us the foundation to implement this dynamic package for the All-Star Race.

Read More Here......ESPN

Tandem Plate Racing a Refreshing Change of Pace

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Loving the two car tandem racing more and more (Getty)

The first seven races of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season has given all types of racing in one nice little gift wrapped for all the fans to enjoy. Even though the final 10-races on the schedule are supposed to matter more because they are the Chase for the Championship races, we’ll be hard pressed to match what we have seen already, and what’s about to happen in the next two at Richmond and Darlington.

NASCAR makes a lot of knee-jerk changes and most of the time get ridiculed for it, but the changes made to the front and rears of the cars this season have kind of backed them unknowingly into a marvelous display of racing for restrictor-plate races. Of course, I am in the minority with my thoughts as quite a few disagree.

Several people I regularly talk with about NASCAR -- who know it well -- have said they liked the older style of pack racing at Daytona and Talladega. Some don’t like the sick speeds obtained for a half-a-lap by the two-car tandems, while others just liked edge of your seat racing with the packs.

But since this is my forum, I’ll just explain why I like what happened at both Daytona and Talladega this season. We have 32 other races a year where it’s pretty clear cut among 8 to 10 driver who is going to win. In the four plate races, all 43 drivers have a chance. I’m not sure if I would like it for 36 races, but giving David Gilliland, Trevor Bayne and Dave Blaney a legitimate chance with all cars really being equal seems fair enough.

Johnson's win was still a surprise ending (Getty)

Even when Jimmie Johnson won Sunday it didn’t seem like a favorite won. Sure, he was only 15-to-1 in Las Vegas -- still much higher than the 6-to-1 he is for most other tracks -- but it was unexpected. Who wants to go see a movie when you know how it’s going to end, and that’s how most of the races are.

In Johnson’s case, he only had one career Talladega win and that was only because of Hendrick’s dominance at the time in plate races. For the last five seasons, he essentially only raced hard in the spring race while just trying to stay out of trouble in the fall race while points racing for the title. His win Sunday was an upset of sorts considering he hadn’t even won in 2011 yet.

NASCAR has created a different dimension of racing that is refreshing where we see two superstars teaming with each other for the duration of the race, relying and depending on each other. Usually it’s always been about just the driver and his team or manufacturer, but this type of racing becomes more about alliances created and broken throughout a race that is absolutely gripping.

Why do we like a tag-team wrestling where two stars unite as one, or doubles tennis where you combined all the strengths and weaknesses of each player into one unit? Who doesn’t love the superstar duet at the top of the billboard charts?

And now NASCAR, with their own tag-team, where we get to see the Busch brothers team up together on a united front instead of the lasting image of Kyle wrecking Kurt in the All-Star race. Isn’t the alliance factor why shows like ‘Survivor’ are so popular with the American public?

Another welcomed aspect is having drivers communicating with one another during the race with it all being there for everyone to listen to. It makes long green flag runs more tolerable than ever just to hear the strategy and then see it unfold with the pusher switches to the front. It’s definitely not the NASCAR we’ve all been accustomed to, but it is one of the most unique things NASCAR has done for it's racing in years.

For four races a year, I love it and can’t wait until the Firecracker 400 at Daytona.

NASCAR's New Rule Changes Not Good For the Bettor - Gatorade Duel Picks

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

NASCAR has made a few changes in the requirements to cars since Saturday after first witnessing speeds of two-car tandems hit 206 mph. After a few changes geared towards making the car overheat quicker should a car stay in the two-car caravan for very long, Wednesday they announced a reduction in the size of the restrictor-plate of 1/64 of an inch which will reduce the speeds by at least 10 mph and cut RPM’s by 100.

Saturday night these cars were hitting 9,700 PRM’s and it surprising that we didn’t see more failures. The reason we didn’t may have been because It was a short race with an interval after the first 25 laps before the final 50 laps. Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be 200 laps with no interval. Even with the plate reduction, you better believe that there will be a few engine failures over the longer distance.

By closing the front grille opening a little more and installing a pressure-relief valve on the water system at 33 psi, there is going to be even more strain on the car and brings down the operating limits of the car.

For safety reasons, the changes were necessary and had to be made, but I don’t like the timing of it all. These teams spent all off-season maximizing their potential under the given NASCAR rules to win NASCAR’s Super Bowl and now they have to go back to the drawing board with some major changes, given only a few days before their biggest race of the season. All the time, money, strategy and effort spent has been thrown out the window.

It’s insane to assume that the drivers can stay away from each other in a restrictor-plate race. There is no clean air unless being up front. Even if they try to run alone, they can’t, which is going to end quite a few cars day before the race ends due to overheating.

Plate racing is volatile enough as it is with cars taking each other out at high speeds going three-wide, but now we have NASCAR rules in place which should take care of a few themselves.

Because of these changes, I’m feeling less and less comfortable about wagering too much on this race. It was already hard enough to pick a winner in a plate race and with so much shuffling of positions during each, betting driver matchups is almost unbettable. With these changes, it makes every car vulnerable to a DNF like never before.

Of course I’m going to watch it, are you kidding? It’s still the Daytona 500, but as a bettor, a top rule is always money management and betting on this type of racing with so many unknown variables, it’s a poor investment.

On a normal weekend of racing, the player can have a real edge in matchups and odds to win by narrowing down the top five cars after the final practices making the profit margin higher for the player than any casino game. This years Daytona 500 is a huge house adavantage making betting on which dollar bill will land on the casino’s big money wheel seem like a fairer player edge.

Still, I've already bet and will bet a few more because my strategy is already underway with having already taken five drivers and at least five more to come, but my unit plays will be less than the 32 other non-plate races.

Gatorade Duel Top 5 Finish Prediction - Race 1
1) #48 Jimmie Johnson (8/1)
2) #5 Mark Martin (20/1)
3) #29 Kevin Harvick (3/1)
4) #39 Ryan Newman (15/1)
5) #27 Paul Menard (30/1)

Gatorade Duel Top 5 Finish Prediction - Race 2
1) #31 Jeff Burton (10/1)
2) #56 Martin Truex Jr. (20/1)
3) #2 Brad Keselowski (30/1)
4) #18 Kyle Busch (3/1)
5) #1 Jamie McMurray (7/1)