Front-running Dale Jr. Leading Hendrick Pack
As Dale
Earnhardt Jr. took the lead on Lap 1 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, fans
who packed the frontstretch grandstand stood. And stood. And stood some
more.Earnhardt led the first 43 laps (and 70 overall), stamping his name yet again in the top 10. He’s up to fourth in points, and currently the flag bearer for Hendrick Motorsports. Earnhardt led all of 52 laps last season, and never more than 17 in a single race.
He’s already off to a faster start than last year, a rebound season that ended with a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup spot. Last season after three races, Earnhardt was 10th in points.
In short, things are looking up for the driver, who continues to watch his wins drought grow to its current state of 132 races.
Regardless, Earnhardt seems a prime candidate among his four HMS brethren to nab the team’s oddly elusive 200th victory. Will he outrun teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne this weekend? A breakdown …
Pros: His Bristol record shows promise. The most laps Earnhardt has ever led in a single race was 295 – and that was at Bristol in 2005. His recent record is one of attrition – a key to Bristol success. Earnhardt has finished on the lead lap in each of the last six Bristol races, finishing 16th or better in all six. And, finally, his overall short track record is strong. In 73 short track starts, Earnhardt has 35 top-10 finishes.
Cons: After a bumpy first few races, Johnson and Kahne have stabilized. Gordon stumbled a bit at Phoenix, but a 12th-place finish still launched him up five positions in the points to 17th. At Bristol, the results are varied. After starting his Bristol career all over the map, Johnson has become a must-watch. He won in 2010, and has finished in the top five in three of the last five starts. Kahne’s recent Bristol runs have resulted in in solid finishes. Last August, he finished 11th. In last year’s spring Bristol race, he finished ninth. His best run: a runner-up finish in 2007 that saw him lead 305 laps. Gordon finished third in last year’s night race, a welcome return to the top five. Going into that race, Gordon has finished outside the top 10 in four consecutive Bristol starts.
Hendrick Motorsports has nine Bristol victories.
Biffle Credits Team Leadership With Ascent To NSCS Points Lead
To say it’s been awhile since Greg Biffle has been atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings depends upon your perspective.Six-plus years isn’t long for many. To a top-tier stock car driver, however, it can seem an eternity.
With three consecutive third-place finishes, his most recent last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the 42-year-old driver of Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 16 Ford reclaimed a position he last held in June 2005 following the series stop at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
Biffle, with new crew chief Matt Puccia, opened the year vowing to put a disappointing 2011 season in the rear view mirror – a year in which he missed the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ and failed to win a race for just the second time in his nine years on the tour.
"Just plain and simple, Matt Puccia is the reason why we’re running and competing and finishing the way we are," said Biffle. "This team needed leadership. He was willing to step up and take the task one. [He’s] done a fantastic job so far."
Biffle finished eighth in last year’s Food City 500 and, with a best finish of third, the Washington driver continues to pursue his first victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Food City 500 Winner Has Qualified For Chase Four Years Running
Not every Food City 500 winner makes the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™, but a victory in Bristol Motor Speedway’s spring race certainly improves a driver’s chances.Each winner since 2007 – Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson – has qualified for the postseason.
Two Food City 500 winners during the Chase era have gone on to become champions: Johnson in 2010 and Kurt Busch in 2004.
Jeff Gordon is the last competitor to win Bristol’s spring race and the championship in back-to-back seasons. The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup titleholder accomplished that feat in 1997-98.
Gordon and the Busch brothers are Bristol’s active win leaders with five apiece. None is likely to challenge Bristol’s all-time resident of Victory Circle, Darrell Waltrip, who won 12 times, including seven in a row between 1981-84 behind the wheel of NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson’s Chevrolets.
Defending Food City 500 winner Kyle Busch has won the race three times, including 2007 in the debut of the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s new car.
Stewart-Haas Doesn’t Miss A Beat With New Crew Chief Addington
Stewart-Haas Racing mystified many by releasing championship crew chief Darian Grubb at the conclusion of last season, especially when Grubb and his new driver, Denny Hamlin, won the recent race at Phoenix International Raceway for Joe Gibbs Racing.Any questions about where Stewart and SHR go from here were emphatically answered over the weekend in Las Vegas when the team’s new hire, Steve Addington, backed Stewart to his 45th career victory – and sixth in the last 13 races.
Personnel moves should benefit all parties. Grubb and Addington are in agreement with both their drivers currently ranked among the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s top 10 in points, Hamlin third and Stewart seventh.
Stewart’s victory, interestingly enough, was Addington’s first with a driver not named Busch. The 47-year-old Spartanburg, N.C., native won 12 times with Kyle Busch while at JGR and more recently four races with Kurt Busch and his most recent employer Penske Racing.
Stewart, meanwhile, erased another track from his "to-do list," which contained only three stops where the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has yet to win. He can complete the sweep later this year with victories at Darlington Raceway and Kentucky Speedway.
The latest victory erased a tie for 15th on NASCAR’s all-time win list, a ranking Stewart shared with Bill Elliott. Next in Stewart’s sights are former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions Buck Baker (46 wins) and Herb Thomas (48 wins).
Only two active drivers, Jeff Gordon (85) and Jimmie Johnson (55), have won more races than Stewart.
Dodge Bids To Boost Winning Manufacturers To Four At Bristol
For NASCAR Sprint Cup Series manufacturers it’s three down and one to go.Ford won the season opening Daytona 500. Toyota went to Victory Lane in Phoenix. Defending champion Tony Stewart gave Chevrolet its first victory of the 2012 season over the weekend in Las Vegas.
Dodge hopes to make it four-for-four in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway where the brand is the track’s most recent winner. Brad Keselowski won last August’s Bristol night race. It was Dodge’s first victory in Thunder Valley since 2006 and just the third win there by the automaker in more than three decades.
Chevrolet is the current NASCAR SPrint Cup Series Manufacturers Championship points leader by two over Ford. Chevrolet won its ninth consecutive title - and 35th championship overall - in 2011.
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