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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

2015 NASCAR Behind the Wall Hot Laps: Week 10

Driver Merry-Go-Round and a Driver's Comeback



By Richard Tix

Hot Laps will be a weekly article on news in the world of NASCAR. I will write these articles any weeks where I have a thought or opinion on NASCAR news that is worth sharing. So, this could be an every week thing, or just every few weeks. Its an opinion piece, so it is open to discussion and debate and would love to here your thoughts.

It has been a few weeks since we have dove into the "Hot Laps" article. It's been a busy time and some topics I just didn't want to touch on on NBTW. This week we will dive back in. For the most part we will just get a catch up on what has been going on in the NASCAR world.


Driver Carousel


This season many crazy things have happened. A lot of these things have revolved around drivers having to switch seats in Cup cars. First Kyle Busch got injured in an XFINITY race at Daytona. Then Brian Vickers again had heath scares that took him out of a seat. Those incidents moved David Ragan into the #18, Moffitt into the #34, and then Moffitt back to the #55 and Chris Buescher into the #34.

That's not even mentioning Kurt Busch being suspended to start the season and Regan Smith filling in for him or even when Kyle Larson fainted at a autograph session and Smith filling in for him. Oh, and lets not get started on when Denny Hamlin started the race at Bristol, had a rain delay, and he couldn't get back in leaving Erik Jones in the #11.

Let's just say its been a crazy season thus far...

Well, next up Michael Waltrip will make his normal Talladega start this week in the #55, but starting next week at Kansas David Ragan will step into the #55 for MWR for the remainder of the 2015 season. That leaves the #18 open again. Erik Jones will fill in for Ragan who is filling in for Kyle Busch until Kyle comes back (if he does in 2015).

That leaves the #34 a week to week ride for the rest of 2015 until they announce a plan for a full time driver IF they keep running the car week to week. It has been a crazy start to the year and all indications show it may not end soon.


Kurt Busch's Comeback


Kurt Busch's past is well documented and it came up again this season after he sat out three races to start the year. But, I am not going to get into that right here and right now. I will not focus on what he did, didn't do, or has done in his past. What is important is that this man was pretty far down even going back to last season.

2014 was his first with SHR, but he actually had a worse season than he did in 2013 with lower funded Furniture Row. Going into the 2014 season it looked like another one of his many second chances was finally going to turn his career back around. But his rough season and then off the track issues stopped him from getting back onto of everything personally and career wise.

He got back into the car at Phoenix and seemed like the only one who had much for Harvick (other than Keselowski). He was running the same set up at Harvick and looked just as fast at times. He finished PHX with a 5th place finish and rolled that momentum into a Pole at Auto Club. The next four races (including Auto Club) he led laps in each which leads us to this past week at Richmond.

At Richmond Kurt started 3rd on the day and got out front often. He ended the day leading 291 of 400 laps (which was the most in one race in his career) and took the #41 SHR Chevy to Victory Lane. No matter how you look at Kurt Busch as a person or driver, it was a come back story after a terrible 2014 season where he averaged an 18th place finish all year long. So far in 2015, Kurt has shown that he and the #41 team have a fast cars week to week so he could be a factor down the road when the Chase rolls around.


Talladega Qualifying


This week NASCAR heads to Talladega for the season's second Superspeedway race of the season. Earlier this year (obviously) NASCAR was at Daytona for the 500, which Joey Logano won. The bigger story that week/weekend might have been the qualifying debacle. With it being the biggest race of the season and the first one of the year, when things went wrong people pointed right at the qualifying format.

At Daytona, the group qualifying format was applied which NASCAR had not done to many times at the plate tracks. Things got heated early when McDowell and Bowyer got into it early in qualifying which left a bunch of carnage behind.

So, after all was said an done, NASCAR announced a few weeks later that they would switch the format on plate tracks back to a closer format to one car on the track at a time. Teams will now make two lap passes but the next car will get on the track quicker than they did before when NASCAR also did single car runs. NASCAR is hoping this reduces the risk of wrecks when drivers are in groups at these plate tracks and still speeds it up a bit.

Talladega will be the test to see how this works after a mess at Daytona. Some liked Daytona, but others hated it. So, NASCAR listened and now I will wait and listen to see if fans opinions will have changed?


2015 Week 10 Preview: Talladega

GEICO 500

Talladega Superspeedway



By Richard Tix

NASCAR leaves the short track racing being this weekend in turn for the second plate track on the 2015 season. This week NASCAR will go to Talladega Superspeedway and will test out the new rules to qualifying. No more group qualifying at plate tracks so lets see how it works and how fans react.

Just like short tracks and road courses, plate tracks open up the chance of an underdog winning. Not only is that exciting as just a simple race fan who likes to see some diversity in who wins week to week, but it also plays a huge factor in NASCAR playoff system, the Chase.

So, will someone steal a Chase spot by winning at Dega? Last season Aric Almirola stole a spot by winning a rain shortened Daytona in June (Firecracker 500), so it could happen again.



The Good
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr- Stenhouses three finishes at Dega in his career are 13th, 3rd, and 10th. Not a bad way to start out your Cup career. Now, what we know about Dega is that bad luck is bound to catch up to any driver, but right now he is on a Dega hot streak.
  • Clint Bowyer- Not many drivers are coming into this race with 3 straight top 10's at Dega. Well Bowyer is and he also has 2 wins, 6 top 5's, and 10 top 10's in 18 try's. As of late, he is as consistent as they come. 
  • Brad Keselowski- BK's first career win was at Dega in his first Talladega attempt. Since then he has won two more times including last year during the Chase when he dramatically used the win to get to the next round. He also finished 38th in the Spring, so take that into consideration.
The Middle
  • Jimmie Johnson- JJ isn't know to be as dominate on superspeedways as he is on 1.5's but he has won twice at Dega. In his last 7 he only has one top 10's, 2 top 15's, and 3 top 20's. But he also has his far share of top 10's during his career. With Dega it's a tough judgement on how the outcome will go.
The Bad
  • AJ Allmendinger- In 10 starts he has one top 5 and and average finish of 23.4. In that time he has only one top 10 to add to that less than stellar average. 
  • Aric Almirola- 10 starts and only one top 10 for Aric. It's crazy because he won at Daytona last year (rain shortened) but he doesn't seem to always get the luck. In those 10 starts he does have 6 top 20's so he isn't always finishing terribly, just not great eaither.
  • Kasey Kahne- In 22 starts Kahne only has 5 top 10's at Talladega. As it's been stated above, superspeedways are a crap shoot so take these categories with a grain of salt. In his last 5 he has 1 top 10 and 3 top 15's.

Check out the NASCAR Behind the Wall article: The Big One
  • A look at some NASCAR videos of some past "big ones" at Talladega Superspeedway

Talladega Superspeedway
Race
Date
Cars
Winner(s)
St
Car
1969-44
9/14/1969
36
Richard Brickhouse
9
'69 Dodge
1970-10
4/12/1970
40
Pete Hamilton
6
'70 Plymouth
1970-35
8/23/1970
50
Pete Hamilton
4
'70 Plymouth
1971-18
5/16/1971
50
Donnie Allison
1
'69 Mercury
1971-37
8/22/1971
50
Bobby Allison
2
'69 Mercury
1972-11
5/7/1972
50
David Pearson
2
'71 Mercury
1972-21
8/6/1972
50
James Hylton
22
'71 Mercury
1973-10
5/6/1973
60
David Pearson
2
'71 Mercury
1973-20
8/12/1973
50
Dick Brooks
24
'72 Plymouth
1974-10
5/5/1974
50
David Pearson
1
'73 Mercury
1974-21
8/11/1974
48
Richard Petty
3
'74 Dodge
1975-10
5/4/1975
50
Buddy Baker
1
'75 Ford
1975-19
8/17/1975
50
Buddy Baker
2
'73 Ford
1976-10
5/2/1976
40
Buddy Baker
12
Ford
1976-19
8/8/1976
40
Dave Marcis
1
Dodge
1977-10
5/1/1977
41
Darrell Waltrip
11
Chevrolet
1977-19
8/7/1977
40
Donnie Allison
2
Chevrolet
1978-10
5/14/1978
41
Cale Yarborough
1
Oldsmobile
1978-19
8/6/1978
41
Lennie Pond
5
Oldsmobile
1979-10
5/6/1979
39
Bobby Allison
12
Ford
1979-20
8/5/1979
41
Darrell Waltrip
8
Oldsmobile
1980-10
5/4/1980
42
Buddy Baker
2
Oldsmobile
1980-20
8/3/1980
41
Neil Bonnett
2
Mercury
1981-10
5/3/1981
40
Bobby Allison
1
Buick
1981-20
8/2/1981
42
Ron Bouchard
10
Buick
1982-09
5/2/1982
40
Darrell Waltrip
2
Buick
1982-19
8/1/1982
40
Darrell Waltrip
2
Buick
1983-08
5/1/1983
42
Richard Petty
15
Pontiac
1983-19
7/31/1983
40
Dale Earnhardt
4
Ford
1984-09
5/6/1984
40
Cale Yarborough
1
Chevrolet
1984-19
7/29/1984
40
Dale Earnhardt
3
Chevrolet
1985-09
5/5/1985
39
Bill Elliott
1
Ford
1985-17
7/28/1985
42
Cale Yarborough
2
Ford
1986-09
5/4/1986
42
Bobby Allison
2
Buick
1986-17
7/27/1986
40
Bobby Hillin, Jr.
13
Buick
1987-09
5/3/1987
41
Davey Allison
3
Ford
1987-17
7/26/1987
40
Bill Elliott
1
Ford
1988-09
5/1/1988
41
Phil Parsons
3
Oldsmobile
1988-17
7/31/1988
42
Ken Schrader
7
Chevrolet
1989-09
5/7/1989
41
Davey Allison
2
Ford
1989-17
7/30/1989
41
Terry Labonte
5
Ford
1990-09
5/6/1990
40
Dale Earnhardt
5
Chevrolet
1990-17
7/29/1990
42
Dale Earnhardt
1
Chevrolet
1991-09
5/6/1991
41
Harry Gant
2
Oldsmobile
1991-17
7/28/1991
41
Dale Earnhardt
4
Chevrolet
1992-09
5/3/1992
40
Davey Allison
2
Ford
1992-17
7/26/1992
40
Ernie Irvan
7
Chevrolet
1993-09
5/2/1993
41
Ernie Irvan
16
Chevrolet
1993-18
7/25/1993
42
Dale Earnhardt
11
Chevrolet
1994-09
5/1/1994
42
Dale Earnhardt
4
Chevrolet
1994-18
7/24/1994
42
Jimmy Spencer
2
Ford
1995-09
4/30/1995
42
Mark Martin
3
Ford
1995-18
7/23/1995
43
Sterling Marlin
1
Chevrolet
1996-09
4/28/1996
43
Sterling Marlin
4
Chevrolet
1996-18
7/28/1996
42
Jeff Gordon
2
Chevrolet
1997-10
5/10/1997
43
Mark Martin
18
Ford
1997-29
10/12/1997
42
Terry Labonte
6
Chevrolet
1998-09
4/26/1998
43
Bobby Labonte
1
Pontiac
1998-29
10/11/1998
43
Dale Jarrett
3
Ford
1999-09
4/25/1999
43
Dale Earnhardt
17
Chevrolet
1999-30
10/17/1999
43
Dale Earnhardt
27
Chevrolet
2000-09
4/16/2000
43
Jeff Gordon
36
Chevrolet
2000-30
10/15/2000
43
Dale Earnhardt
20
Chevrolet
2001-09
4/22/2001
43
Bobby Hamilton
14
Chevrolet
2001-31
10/21/2001
43
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
6
Chevrolet
2002-09
4/21/2002
43
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
4
Chevrolet
2002-30
10/6/2002
43
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
13
Chevrolet
2003-08
4/6/2003
43
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
13
Chevrolet
2003-29
9/28/2003
43
Michael Waltrip
18
Chevrolet
2004-09
4/25/2004
43
Jeff Gordon
11
Chevrolet
2004-29
10/3/2004
43
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
10
Chevrolet
2005-09
5/1/2005
43
Jeff Gordon
2
Chevrolet
2005-29
10/2/2005
43
Dale Jarrett
2
Ford
2006-09
5/1/2006
43
Jimmie Johnson
16
Chevrolet
2006-30
10/8/2006
43
Brian Vickers
9
Chevrolet
2007-09
4/29/2007
43
Jeff Gordon
1
Chevrolet
2007-30
10/7/2007
43
Jeff Gordon
34
Chevrolet
2008-09
4/27/2008
43
Kyle Busch
5
Toyota
2008-30
10/5/2008
43
Tony Stewart
34
Toyota
2009-09
4/26/2009
43
Brad Keselowski
9
Chevrolet
2009-33
11/1/2009
43
Jamie McMurray
22
Ford
2010-09
4/25/2010
43
Kevin Harvick
4
Chevrolet
2010-33
10/31/2010
43
Clint Bowyer
2
Chevrolet
2011-08
4/17/2011
43
Jimmie Johnson
2
Chevrolet
2011-32
10/23/2011
43
Clint Bowyer
3
Chevrolet
2012-10
5/6/2012
43
Brad Keselowski
13
Dodge
2012-30
10/7/2012
43
Matt Kenseth
15
Ford
2013-10
5/5/2013
43
David Ragan
19
Ford
2013-32
10/20/2013
43
Jamie McMurray
9
Chevrolet
2014-10
5/4/2014
43
Denny Hamlin
34
Toyota
2014-32
10/19/2014
43
Brad Keselowski
5
Ford


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