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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March Madness NASCAR Style: Finals



By Richard Tix

The NCAA Tournament is down to its Final Four, well in NASCAR we just had ours at Martinsville. NASCAR Behind the Wall is about to finish up its Second Annual March Madness NASCAR Bracket. Now we head to the Finals at Texas Motor Speedway. What better place to hold the biggest race in the tournament then the home of the Big Haus? Everything is bigger in Texas right? Well hopefully this match-up lives up to the big expectations of the NASCAR Tournament. Lets go over the rules again, check out the previous articles, and look at our Championship match-up.


Round by Round Articles:

A refresher on the rules:

  • Brackets were decided by current standings after the race at Las Vegas. Four Divisions, top 4 in the standings got the #1 seeds, 5-8 in the standings got the #2 seeds, 9-12 #3 seeds and so on.
  • From the standings the rankings were given out serpentine style. Meaning: The driver ranked 5th (first #2 seed) started in the lowest #1 seed's bracket (in this case Joey Logano's). It continued all the way up until 3 seeds, which then went from Jr's bracket on down.
  • Here is how the rounds break down by race (first race we have two eliminations to speed it up).
    • Bristol: Round 32 and Sweet 16 (Bristol= NASCAR's Definition of Madness)
    • Auto Club: Elite 8
    • Martinsville: Final Four
    • Texas: Championship
  • The driver that finishes Highest in the race moves on (Think the last Chase Race)


Now a look at the Final Four that was decided at Martinsville:

5
Stenhouse
2
Edwards
7
Stewart
5
Vickers

5) Stenhouse Jr v 7) Stewart
  • Well Ricky Stenhouse Jr had a rough day and finished 40th overall so this one wasn't really a match. Tony Stewart actually spent some of the day towards the top ten but settled into a 17th place finish. He is limping into the Finals after two straight top 5's. Will the 7th seed finally fall in the last race?
2) Edwards v 5) Vickers
  • If you actually were watching the match-up's during the race this one was a fun one. Both drivers spent some time towards the front and ended up finishing very close to each other. Carl Edwards ended up nudging Vickers out by finishing 13th (Vickers 16th). Carl now matches up with Smoke at a track Edwards has won 3 times at.

Championship Round: Texas Motor Speedway

7
Stewart
2
Edwards

7) Stewart v 2) Edwards

Career Totals
Stats
Stewart
Edwards
Races
23
18
Wins
2
3
Top 5
6
6
Top 10
12
8
Avg Finish
13.1
15.6


Last 10 Races at Texas
Stats
Stewart
Edwards
Races
9
10
Wins
1
0
Top 5
3
3
Top 10
4
5
Avg Finish
12.9
17


Its the 2011 Chase all over again! Smoke and Carl will go head to head, this time for the NASCAR Behind the Wall March Madness Bracket. In both tables it looks like Smoke might have a slight advantage, but it is really close. Carl Edwards obviously knows how to win at Texas, winning 3 times in his 18 career starts. Smoke is no slouch either, with two career Texas wins. Over their careers at Texas are pretty close, so this Championship could be a toss up!

So, who you got? Let me know on Twitter!


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