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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