NASCAR 2011 season thread

Nationwide GN practice today has been delayed, officials are trying to dry the track after a good bit of rain. Hoping that's the last we see of wet weather there for the rest of the week and the weekend. I'm guessing that it'll have a knock-on effect on all the practice sessions scheduled for today.
 
Line-up for the Duels:

Duel 1

1 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2 - Paul Menard
3 - Ryan Newman
4 - Mark Martin
5 - Tony Stewart
6 - Kurt Busch
7 - Juan Montoya
8 - Marcos Ambrose
9 - Kevin Harvick
10 - Jimmie Johnson
11 - Bill Elliott
12 - A.J. Allmendinger
13 - Joe Nemechek
14 - Matt Kenseth
15 - Dave Blaney
16 - Regan Smith
17 - Kasey Kahne
18 - Bobby Labonte
19 - Brian Vickers
20 - Kevin Conway
21 - David Gilliland
22 - Michael McDowell
23 - J.J. Yeley
24 - Andy Lally

Duel 2

1 - Jeff Gordon
2 - Trevor Bayne
3 - Clint Bowyer
4 - Jeff Burton
5 - Greg Biffle
6 - David Ragan
7 - Carl Edwards
8 - Travis Kvapil
9 - David Reutimann
10 - Brad Keselowski
11 - Michael Waltrip
12 - Jamie McMurray
13 - Kyle Busch
14 - Martin Truex Jr.
15 - Joey Logano
16 - Todd Bodine
17 - Casey Mears
18 - Steve Wallace
19 - Robby Gordon
20 - Terry Labonte
21 - Robert Richardson Jr.
22 - Denny Hamlin
23 - Derrike Cope
24 - Brian Keselowski

Coverage begins on US television (Speed channel) at 7pm tonight our time. Information on where to see them can be found in post #12.
 
The grid for the CW Truck race tonight.

Noteworthy stuff:

1) Nelson Piquet Jr actually posted the 4th quickest time, but it was taken away because the roof of his KHI truck was too low. Bit harsh for him, but rules are rules and KHI's prep should have been better. Aric Almirola also had his time scrubbed because the rear of his truck was running too low. They line up 34th (Almirola) and 35th (Piquet Jr) by dint of owners points.
2) Really wasn't expecting Rick Crawford to not make the field.
3) Ditto for Mike Skinner. He was unable to use the champions provisional either, as his team didn't actually enter his truck in time. Probably the biggest shock of the session, him not making the grid.
 
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The green flag is scheduled to fly at 1:29pm ET. Can't wait!


***edit***

Command to fire the engines has been given, and we're up to the booth and one of the best commentary teams in Motorsport. Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and ol' DW. I always dread the latter half of the season and the crap that EPSN/TNT/ABC/whoever the hell ends up showing it gives us.
 
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He was scheduled to run the first five Cup events as well, so he should be at Phoenix. This article says that the Wood Brothers team is likely to add Martinsville and Texas to his schedule as well.

Just so surreal. Three years ago, the #21 didn't even qualify for this race. They don't run a full schedule any more. They hadn't won a race since Bristol '01, haven't won a Daytona 500 since '76. And the names that this kid can stand alongside now....Tiny Lund, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, Dave "The Silver Fox" Pearson....and Trevor Bayne. Guys who have won the Daytona 500 for the Wood Brothers.
 
Going to post this now in case I don't get time nearer the end of the week.

Week 2 of the NASCAR 2011 tour sees the teams go somewhere a bit more exciting than the snore-o-drome at Fontana. Instead, we're goin' to Phoenix!

Phoenix International Raceway
Phoenix
AZ

trackbg.jpg


Completed : 1964
Distance : 1 mile
Shape : Tri-oval
Banking : 11° Turns 1-2, 9° Turns 3-4, 3° frontstretch, 9° backstretch
Frontstretch : 1,179 feet
Backstretch : 1,551 feet
Seating : 76,800

In 1964, when Phoenix International Raceway was carved out of the foothills of the Estrella Mountains, it was intended to be a new jewel in the crown of American open-wheel racing.

Drivers like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and the Unsers soon came to love the 1-mile paved oval with the unique bend in the backstretch. And they really loved coming to Phoenix, where the tourism industry was just starting to grow and its Western style hospitality was second to none.

But it wasn't until 1988, when NASCAR's Cup Series racing came to PIR, that auto racing in Phoenix really became a major sporting attraction for the Valley of the Sun. New racing legends and legends-in-the-making like Davey Allison, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and the rest of the Cup stars found out firsthand what their Champ Car brethren had known for years: Phoenix International Raceway is truly a great place to race, both for the drivers and especially the fans.

Today, Phoenix International Raceway has a tradition that is unmatched in the world of racing. The IndyCars have made 58 visits to PIR, and the annual fall NASCAR weekend, including Cup, Nationwide, Truck and Featherlite Southwest Series races, is one of the biggest events in the entire state.
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Qualifying is very important for the Cup race here. You don't often see a car come from outside the top 10 in qually to win - maybe twice in the last ten races here? And in four of those ten races it's been the polesitter who has gone on to win IIRC.

That doesn't mean that the racing here doesn't offer much action. Far from it. The braking zone into Turn One is a good place for an overtake, if you can do the last-of-the-late-brakers job well enough. And by the end of the race, someone will be running short on braking power if the race stays green for much of the time!

Suspect that there are going to be rather more Trevor Bayne fans in the crowd this time out! :D
 
SKILL said:
it'll be interesting to see as from my limited knowledge (and a small amount of iRacing experience) it's quite a different proposition, especially places like Pheonix, Bristol and potentially Martinsville that he'll be doing.
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Your "limited knowledge" and iRacing experience are exactly right. Martinsville is basically two drag strips with a hairpin at either end, very little banking and very close racing. Bristol since the re-pave a while back is a full two-lane track, about the same length as Martinsville but with steep banking and higher speeds. Phoenix is a 1 mile intermediate oval, unique in that the dog-leg turn is on the back straight, a multiple-groove racetrack with many possible lines to get around it. None of these is anything like Daytona, even this new Daytona :)

By the way, I found the proper details for his schedule this year - he's doing the full Nationwide season for Roush-Fenway (*spit*), and 18 races now for Wood Bros in Cup.

From here:

Even though NASCAR would have allowed Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne to change his eligibility for the championship from the Nationwide Series to the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne announced Tuesday he is sticking with his plans to run for the Nationwide title.

As tempting as switching to Sprint Cup would have been -- with NASCAR saying he would become eligible to run for rookie of the year and that his win at Daytona would count toward a possible wild-card entry into the Chase -- Bayne showed he either is mature beyond his 20 years or has gotten some excellent advice -- or both.

Weighted most heavily in his decision is the plan to run a partial schedule on the Cup side -- even with the Daytona 500 win. At this point, barring additional sponsorship, Bayne plans to run 18 races in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and a full Nationwide schedule for Roush Fenway Racing.

"The only thing that changed is that we get to be the Daytona 500 champions, which is really, really incredible," Bayne said on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters. "But I think that we're still going to have an awesome year at Roush Fenway, running for that Nationwide championship.

"Obviously, they [Roush] have still got a blank car, and I'd love to get some partners on it, but as for now, we're still running full time, and the Wood Brothers only have 18 races. ... I don't regret any of our decisions there. We're off to a good start in both series with a 10th [in Saturday's Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide event] and a first."
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Smart kid. Even with what happened on Sunday, there's no sense rushing into a full Cup season. Especially since the Wood Brothers team haven't really got the resources to stretch to a full campaign. Must have been hugely tempting for all concerned, mind....

I suppose if they had a sponsor come to them right now and say "we've seen enough, here's the cash for a full tilt at the Sprint Cup" then it'd be a different story. But the sun has set on the days when stuff like that could happen.

He finished 10th in the Nationwide race at Daytona. Lose the non-points cars, and that puts him 5th in the table with a four-point gap below him and only a single point behind the 4th place driver. There are plenty worse ways to start a Nationwide campaign. And if he finishes well up the standings in the series this year (and has a few more good runs in the Wood Bros car as well!) he's going to look very attractive to sponsors for a full Cup run in 2012.
 
Some notes.

1) Bayne caught the wall in practice, and has had to go to the backup car. The left front brake locked up going into T3, the front-right was doing nowt - didn't lock, didn't brake, didn't do a damned thing. End result, he went into the retaining wall at a good lick. A shame, but he doesn't seem to be stressed over it which is a good sign.
2) As I type this, the current three fastest in Nationwide practice are Cup drivers. I think it might be time for the NASCAR hierarchy to acknowlege that their changes to the points system might not have the desired effect....
3) Joe Menzer (a NASCAR.com journo of long standing) reckons that Jimmie Johnson will win the Cup race this weekend. Not going to bet against that myself.
4) Truck race broadcast starts around 8pm ET - that would be 1am for us. I might stay up, or I might just *cough* grabthetorrentfromRUinmildlyillegalfashion *cough*, haven't decided yet.
 
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