2013 NSCS Driver Danica Patrick on track in the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS - Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty ImagesGoDaddy Driver Finishes 29th at Tricky Triangle Date: June 9, 2013 Event: Party in the Poconos 400 (Round 14 of 36) Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile triangle) Start/Finish: 30th/29th (Running, completed...more»
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2013 NSCS Driver Ryan Newma in the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevy - Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty ImagesHaas Automation Driver Scores Second Top-Five Finish of 2013 Date: June 9, 2013 Event: Party in the Poconos 400 (Round 14 of 36) Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile triangle) Start/Finish: 23rd/5th (Running, completed...more»
Trevor Bayne Wins DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa Speedway (Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)Ford Racing NNS Notes & Quotes: DuPont Pioneer 250 (Iowa Speedway) Sunday, June 9, 2013 TREVOR BAYNE CAPTURES 200th FORD RACING NATIONWIDE SERIES VICTORY - Trevor Bayne captured the 200th all-time series victory for Ford Racing with his win...more»
Michigan Matchups: Hamlin vs. Whitt, Biffle vs. Ambrose
Sonoma Matchups: Hamlin vs. Biffle, Ambrose vs. Whitt
Kentucky Matchups: Hamlin vs. Ambrose, Biffle vs. Whitt
With a road course in the group stage, Marcos Ambrose is a good sleeper, right? Well, we're not so sure, simply based on the schedule. If you look at the two ovals, the one driver you'd put Ambrose ahead of unequivocally would be Whitt. However, Ambrose draws him at Sonoma. If Ambrose drew Hamlin, or, even better, Biffle at Sonoma, he'd be looking at a very realistic chance of 2-1 and moving out of the group. Instead, he's favored at Sonoma, just by a lot, and not favored in the other two matchups.
That's why this group looks really chalky. Biffle has been consistent enough to stay near the front and minimize bad finishes. However, given the speed Ambrose has shown at Michigan at the repave, he could keep it close at Michigan. Biffle's favored, but it's not by much. We'll say that the winner of Ambrose and Biffle at Michigan gets the second spot.
Series rookie Lewis earned his first career pole with a last-lap time of 1 minute, 27.786 seconds, 91.778 mph in the No. 98 Competition Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, taking the top spot from series leader Angel Benitez Jr. in the final minute of the session.
Group C: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3rd in points, 2 wins), Austin Dillon (15, 0), Martin Truex Jr. (24, 0), Michael Annett (30, 0)
Michigan Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Truex Jr., Dillon vs. Annett
Sonoma Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Dillon, Truex Jr. vs. Annett
Kentucky Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Annett, Dillon vs. Truex Jr.
With the way Junior's season has gone, this is his group to lose. However, the presence of Sonoma could cloud that up just a bit. Junior's not the biggest fan of road racing and his career numbers at Sonoma aren't very good. In 14 career starts he has an average finish of 21.5 and no top 10s, though he's finished 11th-13th six different times. It may be a good thing that he avoids Truex, the defending champion of the race, in week 2.
If we assume Junior makes it in, it's a tossup at this point between Dillon and Truex for the second spot despite the nine-place difference in the standings. Dillon has made his points this season avoiding bad finishes; he's finished between 15th and 20th in each of the last five races. Since being in 30th five races into the season, Truex has moved up six spots and two spots after two-straight top 10 finishes in the past two weeks. If he keeps the improvement up, Kentucky may set up as a win-and-advance week.
Projected standings: Earnhardt Jr. 3-0, Truex Jr. 2-1, Dillon 1-2, Annett 0-3
Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it's the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com.
1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 2): Before smoking the field at Dover, Johnson revealed he had hernia surgery after the banquet in December. He actually had three; bilateral hernias and one near his bellybutton. So of course, we need to ask if Johnson will have more hernias or Sprint Cup Series titles in his lifetime. (No, we don't.) Anyway, let's get back to the race. Johnson's best track statistically is Dover and after leading 272 laps on Sunday, he's now led more than 50 percent of the laps at Dover since 2009. Yeesh.
Jimmie Johnson has led 53.2% of all Sprint Cup laps raced at Dover since 2009. Unreal.
2. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): Oh man, we've got another winless points leader. How is the world going to survive this madness? As with Johnson, it's pretty obvious that Kenseth is going to get a win sometime soon. You don't run up front like he has (and lead laps late) without getting a win sooner, rather than later. But even without a win, Kenseth is in a good spot right now. He's not going to miss the Chase if he's near the top of the standings without a win.
3. Jeff Gordon (LW: 1): The handling on Gordon's car flat disappeared late in the race and his finish of 15th is not indicative of the speed he had all day. Before he started falling to the back, he worked his way up into the top five and was fifth on the next-to-last restart. Suddenly he started falling back and never recovered. No points lead is no big deal, especially because Gordon has the Kansas win, but do you really think he wanted to lose it?
4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 3): Another fast car, another something that went wrong for Harvick. This time it was a flat tire that derailed him while he was leading. It necessitated a green flag pit stop and Harvick lost laps that he was never able to recover. The bad finishes Harvick is piling up with fast cars are a bit of a double-edged sword. He's not wondeing about his car's speed on a weekly basis, which is a great thing. But at the same time, he's wondering what could go wrong next.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 7): Pick a driver, any driver! We're going to go with Junior after hie finished ninth, one spot ahead of Joey Logano, five spots ahead of Carl Edwards and a whole bunch of spots ahead of Kyle Busch. While Junior is likely content with another top 10 finish, he may be happier about his Tuesday morning eBay purchase.
Missing rare fender and rear bumper trim to complete restoration on 1988 s10 @RayEvernham is working on. Found new on @eBay. #doublefistpump
6. Carl Edwards (LW: 5): With every week of no news about Edwards' contract status, the speculation about his future is only going to increase. And based off previous timing of Roush announcements, we may not know for a few more weeks at least. When Edwards re-upped with Roush in 2011 it was announced in August and when Kenseth departed for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 he was announced at his new team in September after informing Roush he was leaving in late June.
7. Brad Keselowski (LW: 10): Brad sure tried like craszy to catch Jimmie Johnson over the final laps of the race, but there was just no way he was going to do there. You could tell how aggressively he was driving his car into the corners, but the aggressiveness was sapping his corner exit speed. For the space he gained on Johnson into the corners for the first few turns, he lost it all (and then some) as Johnson cruised away from him on acceleration. Yeah, the No. 48 team had a really, really good car.
8. Joey Logano (LW: 8): Similar to Charlotte, Logano had a good car but not a great one, and hovered near the front of the field all day, even if he wasn't "at" the front. It was Logano's seventh top 10 of the season and he's looking like he's heading towards a second straight season of a better than 50 percent top 10 rate. In four seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing he never did that.
9. Jamie McMurray (LW: 9): McMurray was very fortunate that he was able to avoid smashing into the backstretch wall after the chunk of Dover concrete ate the front splitter of his car. And the people in the pedestrian bridge above turn 2 were also incredibly fortunate that the piece of concrete that cracked a window up there wasn't big enough to pierce it and hurt someone. But props to Dover's track crew for getting the track patched in such a quick fashion and that the patch held so well.
10. Kyle Busch (LW: 6): Had Busch gotten to Clint Bowyer's bumper and retaliated against him after the two wrecked, what do you think the punishment would have been for him? It was reminiscent of what happened in 2007 between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart at Dover. Heck, it was almost the same type of incident. Kurt Busch shut the door on Stewart, though he got the worst of the crash.
You may remember that after the wreck, Busch and Stewart had some shenanigans on pit road and Busch was parked for the rest of the race after a crew member of Stewart's had to avoid his car. In addition to the parking, Busch was docked 100 points later in the week. Had Kyle crashed Bowyer (and given what happened at Texas in 2011), it's not much of a stretch to think that a parking would have been appropriate Sunday.
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): The two drivers at the bottom of Power Rankings last week had problems so it's time for two new faces. Hamlin moved up a couple positions on the final restart of the race thanks to a two-tire pit stop. He was the first car to come down pit road for tires and was able to make up some ground, finishing fifth. And despite missing a race, Hamlin is ninth in the standings. Yes, with just four top 10s and one missed race, Hamlin is in the top 10. Avoiding bad finishes will do that to you.
12. Kyle Larson (LW: NR): Anyone else not going to miss a certain NASCAR TV analyst's fascination with Larson? There's not one person who doubts his talent, especially after he's won two Nationwide Series races this year. But much like Chase Elliott in the Nationwide Series, it's OK to give him some space and let him develop. The accolades will (and already have) arrive. There's no need to douse them with hyperbolic lighter fluid. And he, on the space note, it looks like Larson has a lot of it now in his new house.
The Lucky Dog: Martin Truex's sixth-place finish was the higest of his season so far. While you wouldn't have guessed Furniture Row would repeate the excellence it had with Kurt Busch, did anyone think Truex would be 25th through 13 races?
The DNF: Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got Allmendinger'd, though Allmendinger said Stenhouse came down on him.
