I know it’s hard to believe, but there was a race or two that took place after Kyle Busch‘s over-reacting dump of Ron Hornaday Jr. in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
After being parked for the weekend, NASCAR has gone ahead and fined Kyle Busch $50k and has placed him on probation for the rest of the year, until December 31st, 2011.
If during the rest of the season, Kyle Busch does anything that…
“is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event…”
He could be suspended indefinitely by NASCAR. This, I presume, will over over Kyle for all three series.
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Going into Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, the battle for the NASCAR 2011 championship is getting interesting. At least it looks like it is.
First up, the schedule for Texas:
NSCS
- Next Race: AAA Texas 500
- The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
- The Date: Sunday, Nov. 6
- The Time: 3 p.m. (ET)
- TV: ESPN, 2 p.m. (ET)
- Radio: PRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
- Distance: 501 miles (334 laps)
NNS
- The Race: O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge
- The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
- The Date: Saturday, Nov. 5
- The Time: 12:55 p.m. (ET)
- TV: ESPN2, 12 p.m. (ET)
- Radio: PRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
- Distance: 300 miles (200 laps)
NCWTS
- The Race: WinStar World Casino 350K
- The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
- Date: Friday, Nov. 4
- The Time: 8 p.m. (ET)
- TV: SPEED, 7:30 p.m. (ET)
- Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90
- Distance: 220.5 miles (147 laps)
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The top five drivers in the standings have curiously interesting stats. Though Matt Kenseth is 36 points behind Carl Edwards with only three races to go, all it would take is a fluke of a flat tire or even some from of karma from all the fender carnage that Edwards dished out last year and suddenly, Kenseth wouldn’t be that far back!
Looking at driver ratings, here’s how the top 6 spots shake out statistically…
| Driver |
[Driver Ratings Rank] |
| Matt Kenseth |
1st |
| Tony Stewart |
2nd |
| Jimmie Johnson |
4th |
| Carl Edwards |
5th |
| Kevin Harvick |
14th |
| Brad Keselowski |
32nd |
But those are driver ratings that also score various factors like laps led, quality passes and a few other things that to me, don’t rate. To me, looking at the average finish of these drivers and see what’s going on there….
| Driver |
Average Texas Finish |
| Matt Kenseth |
9th |
| Jimmie Johnson |
10th |
| Tony Stewart |
13th |
| Kevin Harvick |
13th |
| Carl Edwards |
16th |
| Brad Keselowski |
24th |
Depending on weather, how the car unloads, and various other unknown factors, these stats could mean absolutely nothing. The above average finishing spots are only a few points apart. Nothing huge and nothing that statistically threatens Edwards.
What I’d like to see is combining these stats with practice speeds and qualifying that that may very well be quite telling.
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Today Texas Motor Speedway was the place of change and drama.
Kyle Busch found himself having issues then, through his behavioral response to the situation, had himself held up for two additional laps to make his day the perfect Kyle Busch day!
Later Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton had a fender marriage that ended both their days and wound up Jeff Gordon to the point of frustrated anger as he took it out on his fellow driver.
Other than that… well, more or less, it was another NASCAR race that saw Denny Hamlin win the race and take the lead in points, now up by 33 points over Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth in the AAA Texas 500.
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NASCAR
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At Texas Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski finished third in the O’Reilly Auto Part Challenge, clinching the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship.
Congrats to Brad.
Brad, winning the championship, brought Roger Penske his first NASCAR championship in one of the major series.
In the Nationwide race, Carl Edwards won the sprint off the start line for the final restart for a green-white-checkered finish. Kyle Busch finished 2nd, Brad was 3rd, Joey Logano 4th & Martin Truex Jr. finished 5th.
And once again, Danica Patrick found no luck in the event as she got herself caught up in yet another incident very early in the race. I tell ya, if it weren’t for bad luck, she wouldn’t be having any luck in the Nationwide Series! She ended up finishing 22nd that was three laps off the lead pace.
Texas: Results
| Standings
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On the NASCAR Sprint Cup side of things for tomorrow (Sunday, November 7th), Elliot Sadler snagged the pole followed by Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Juan Montoya, David Ragan, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Regan Smith, Mark Martin and A.J. Allmendinger rounding out the top-10 starter spots.
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Terry Labonte is returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field of competition for 3 races for the remainder of 2010. He’ll be doing it in an entry fielded by Stavola Labonte Racing (SLR). Those races will be Richmond, Charlotte and Texas.
They expect to enter more races in the (next) 2011 NASCAR season.
Yes, I said Stavola Labonte Racing. Terry is now co-owner of the team, along with veteran team owner Bill Stavola.
Their team is partnered up with RCR and ECR. RCR (Richard Childress Racing) will give them the cars, ECR (Earnhardt-Childress Racing engines) will be providing the motors.
The sponsors for the SLR car will be Gander Mountain with the associate of American Cement. Be sure to give them your business if the opportunity presents itself! (Remember the good ‘ol days?)
[NASCAR]
Nascar Bits and Pieces on Brusimm
This weekend was a fascinating TV NASCAR experience for this writer as NASCAR was rained out at Texas Motor Speedway. As most networks are inclined to, filler content was delivered from show. But this weekend, I am not sure if I just now noticed this or if it picked up in frequency, but I’m not sure I’m that pleased with how Fox was marketing our sport.
NASCAR is supposed to be about the man, the team and the machine, pitted against 42 other teams, the weather, and the track. But Fox has another idea on what I guess they feel is the best approach for how they want to represent NASCAR to their viewers and how they hope to capture new viewers, in this time of flattened and depressed ratings.
For my take on the matter, I wrote a guest post over on one of my digital NASCAR neighbors, Working On My Redneck. See what I had to say and you can leave comments there or here, whichever you prefer! Thanks for coming by NASCAR Bits & Pieces!
Here’s the NASCAR Sprint Cup Girls Sched at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend if you’re looking to catch up with them:
SE: Sprint Experience Booth / Tent
FVH: FanView Hauler
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Friday, April 16, 2010
- 12:00PM – 2:45PM Monica at the SE
- 2:45PM – 6:30PM Paige Appearance at the SE
- 3:00 PM Plinko at the SE
- 4:30 PM Plinko at the SE
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Tony Stewart (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that I was watching Tony Stewart in that Shell sponsored “Nationwide” Series entry, but here he is, looking to make his 400th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start this weekend at Texas.
Since then, he’s made a wee bit of a name for himself.
- Two-time series champion (2002 and 2005)
- 1999 Raybestos Rookie of the Year
- At least one victory in each of his 11 full seasons
- Has finished in the top 10 in points in 10 of his 11 seasons
- Victories at 19 of the 22 active tracks, missing only Auto Club Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway
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Heading into Texas, unless something tragic happens to an engine, the top 5 in NASCAR Cup driver points are safe from that 12th place bubble spot.
Jimmie Johnson has a 36 point lead over Matt Kenseth, whose lurking in 2nd place, and Kenseth has a 56 point advantage of Greg Biffle.
As you can see, right now the top 12 has a nice mix of names but if you look at that bubble spot of 12th, there are some snug spots that could be lost or gained, depending on how things go at Texas.
| RANK |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
+ / - |
| 1 |
Jimmie Johnson |
1073 |
218 |
| 2 |
Matt Kenseth |
1037 |
182 |
| 3 |
Greg Biffle |
981 |
126 |
| 4 |
Kevin Harvick |
961 |
106 |
| 5 |
Jeff Gordon |
948 |
93 |
| 6 |
Clint Bowyer |
885 |
30 |
| 7 |
Jeff Burton |
873 |
18 |
| 8 |
Carl Edwards |
873 |
18 |
| 9 |
Tony Stewart |
869 |
14 |
| 10 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
866 |
11 |
| 11 |
Joey Logano |
862 |
7 |
| 12 |
Kyle Busch |
855 |
0 |
| 13 |
Mark Martin |
844 |
-11 |
| 14 |
Kurt Busch |
834 |
-21 |
| 15 |
Paul Menard |
811 |
-44 |
| 16 |
Ryan Newman |
802 |
-53 |
| 17 |
Brian Vickers |
786 |
-69 |
| 18 |
Denny Hamlin |
783 |
-72 |
| 19 |
Martin Truex Jr. |
780 |
-75 |
| 20 |
Jamie McMurray |
745 |
-110 |
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Office Depot is having a contest.
Between now and March 6th, anytime you make a purchase at an Office Depot, you will receive a scratch-off card that gives you chances to win cool things.
The grand prize is a VIP race experience for two with Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice team during the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series(TM) race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, plus a trip for two to Stewart’s “Smoke Show” fantasy driving experience at Texas Motor Speedway later this year.
There will also be 40 scratch-off cards that have a $100 Office Depot gift card.
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