katiek's Blog

Head west young man they said. And so they did. Tonight's race is in sunny Phoenix Arizona. The current temperature is 83 and climbing. This is a night race so the temps will be falling as the sun goes down. Temps are predicted into the high 60's which means the cars and the track will go through several changes. The team who can keep up with the changes will come out on top.

This week's predictions:

3 Hendricks cars are the favorites #48 (5-1 odds), #24 (5-1 odds) and #88 (6-1 odds).... the #48 and #24 both won races here last year...... but none of them will win tonight.

Mark martin will have a top 10 finish

Matt Kenseth starts 27th but will finish in the top 10

Toyota will win the race!

Lat week 3-1 YTD 18-7

This week the tour stops in Texas. Enough of the short tracks for now, the boys will be on a fast 1.5 mile quad oval today. Look for some good side by side racing today with plenty of room to race. You can use the top, the bottom and the middle of the track. The best thing about today's race is the length..... it's a 500 miler...the way they all were at one time.

Today's predictions:

Dale Jr. (who won his first race here in 2000) will start from the pole but it won't be his day. His almost 2 year drought will continue today. No win for Jr.

Dale Jr. will start on the pole but will not be leading by lap 25.

A Rousch-Fenway car will win today.

Matt Kenseth will bounce back today with a top 5 finish.

Last week 2-1....YTD 15-7

Forget the cherry blossoms.......forget the Nationals.... after a week off for Easter, it's time to go racing!

This week the race is at the paperclip shaped 1/2 mile track in Martinsville Va. So far there isn't a tire problem but I'm sure if Tony Stewart of Dale Jr. don't finish well...I'm sure they will blame it on the tires.

This weeks predictions:

Jimmie Johnson will not win his fourth straight Martinsville race.

Dale Jr. will not finish in the top 5.

Chevy will win the race.

Last race 4-0..... YTD13-6

Well race fans, today the boys are at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway. This is the modern day Roman Coliseum. The place holds 160,000 strong. This race and the Fall night race are sold out for years to come. This is one of the hardest tickets to get on the circuit, and for good reason. The action here is fast and non-stop. If you are not a veteran viewer of NASCAR... you probably will not like this race.... it is a litte difficult to keep up with the scoring. This is a 1/2 mile bullring style track with 36 degrees of banking. The leader of the race when he takes the green flag will be a 1/2 lap ahead of the last place car. Cars will go a lap down within the first 30-40 laps. Racing here is intense and is no fun if your car is not adjusted right.

Qualifying was rained out again this week an the field will be set by lat years owners points. Some of the cars up front will not be the fastest but will have track position. Hopefully the tire issues are behind us and this week will provide much better racing. If anything hopefully we won't have to hear Tony Stewart and Dale JR. whine after the race is over.

This weeks predictions:

Sam Hornish Jr. starts 7th but will finish at least 2 laps down.

Casey Mears starts 5th.. will end up outside the top15.

Chevy will get it's first win today..although Toyota has been strong during practice.

2 Rousch drivers will finish in the top15.

Last week 2-1....YTD 9-6...

Well the boys are back on the east coast at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. This is a fast track and fast racers dominate this place. Some things never change ... like the tire issue facing the drivers today. Some drivers are whining and others are just racing.  Will Chevy win it's first race?

Predictions for today:

Jeff Gordon starts on the pole but will not win the race.

Dale Jr. will start in second but will finish outside the top 5.

4 Rousch drivers starting the top 15 and at least 2 of them will finish in the top10.

4-0 last week's predictions

7-5 YTD

The teams are still on the west coast and today they race at The Las Vegas Motor Speedway, who unveils its new infield party zone and it's new configuration of pit road. Teams have had a hard time practicing and qualifying with the new tire combination brought to the track by Goodyear. Like always some teams have it figured out and some haven't. The ones who can't figure it out are blaming the tire manufacturer, while the teams that have figured it out are going on with business.

Yesterday the Nationwide series set a new track record for the amount of cautions thrown on the track. Most teams lost control of their cars in turn 3. This has been the site of numerous wrecks during practice and qualifying also. Look for the track to have a little bit more grip today due to a couple of factors. The Nationwide series put 300 miles (rubber) on the track yesterday and the weather forecast is a bit cooler today only in the low 60's. Most of the accidents happened while temperatures were in the high 70's which made the track a bit slippy. One thing to look for today is the wind...which could play a factor... 25-35mph gusting to 41......

Since the series is in Vegas this week.... here are the favorites according to the big board:

Jimmie Johnson: 7-1

Jeff Gordon : 8-1

Matt Kenseth: 8-1

Notables: Carl Edwards 12-1

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 13-1

Two drivers have won this race in the last 5 years... 3 for Jimmie Johnson and 2 for Matt Kenseth.... One of which Jimmie Johnson beat Matt Kenseth at the line by a bumper. 

On to the picks:

Since NASCAR ruined qualifying this week by letting all the scrubs qualify at one time at the end of the session (when track conditions are optimal for speed) I will concentrate on them :

Scott Riggs who starts 7th... (7th?) will not finish in the top 10.

Patrick Carpentier who starts 12th..... will finish outside the top 15

Sam Hornish Jr. who starts 20th will finish outside the top 20

And of course.... Rousch will have 2 cars in the top 10 again!

YTD picks 3-5

Well, it's a cross country trip from Florida to California this week. The temperatures may be the same but the rain is putting a stop to all the action.

Teams that had a tough weekend at Daytona were looking to rebound at Fontana but with rain cancelling practice and qualifying they will have to depend on their early season practice session.

Without any practice I am going to have to make predictions on just gut feelings:

Rousch will have 2 cars in the top 10.

Jeff Burton will finish in the top 10.

Jeff Gordon will bounce back and finish in the top 5.

This may be a Monday race! 

Well hello race fans from sunny DAYTONA BEACH...... What can I say ...it's the 50th anniversary of The Great American Race. It's finally here and I am pumped.

What a great feeling to leave behind the miserable rainy/sleet conditions of the D.C. area and escape to sunny Florida. Not to rub it in but the weather here today was in the high 70's...with the forecast for Sunday.... mid 80's.....ahhhhhhh nice!

On to the race. As I blogged earlier this year when testing began, JGR (Gibbs racing) was very strong here and boy have they showed it the last couple of days. Even though the god (Jr.) won the first qualiying race on Thursday of this week..... TOYOTA posted their first win in the Cup Series with Denny Hamlin winning the second qualifying race. Team TOYOTA backed that up today with another win by Tony Stewart in the Nationwide Series (formely the Busch Series).  I have a feeling that Team TOYOTA will be in victory lane again tomorrow.

Any of you that followed my blogs through the entire season last year know that I usually post a few predictions for each race. Recently when our beloved FOX 5 of D.C. felt they had to break into the coverage of the Daytona 500 qualifying session to bring you the BREAKING NEWS that Jim Zorn was named head coach of the floundering Skins.... I was glad to see all the NASCAR fans vent their anger on these blogs. Here are my predictions for the Daytona 500.... I know you guys are out there so how about some feedback from you?

Here we go:

TOYOTA will win the race tomorrow.

Matt Kenseth will finish in the top 10.

Juan Pablo Montoya will not finish on the leap lap.

2007 race winner.. Kevin Harvick will finish outside the top 10.

And yes this one is for you cowboysfan.... Jr. will not win and finish outside the top 10. ( I am thinking a cut tire or over aggressive driving.)

There you have it.... LETS GO RACING BOYS!

Sorry but no pics or animation for this blog... I am forced to send it from my phone.

This is really unbelievable. The BREAKING NEWS is now lasted 30 minutes.... When you air Daytona 500 qualifying it would be nice to be able to actually watch it.

Thanks for the tiny split screen... might as well not have the split screen.

BREAKING NEWS: You need the audio the hear what is going on!

Oh finally back to the qualifying session... or as Maureen Umeh (or whatever her name is) says: Back to the Daytona 500.... way to go genius!

Just in time to see the last 5 cars qualify.

Thanks jack@@@es!

Well the first 3 days of testing is over and looks who's at the top of the speed charts. The retirement of Joe Gibbs from the Washington Redskins and his return to NASCAR looks like it has motivated his race teams already.

Kyle Busch (the new driver for team JGR) predicted on Thursday a victory this year for Team Toyota and Team JGR. Toyota has not won a race in the top division of NASCAR yet but Kyle Busch said "it's only a matter of time".  Busch said he is already more comfortable a JGR now than he ever was racing for Hendrick Motorsports. Between Kyle Busch who has won at least one race per year, Tony Stewart who has an average of two victories per year and Denny Hamlin who has won 3 races in just 2 years of his young career, one of these drivers will secure a win this year fo Toyota. Kyle Busch is not only a strong racer in the Cup series but has multiple wins in the Truck and Busch series.

Toyota took the 2 top speeds in Wednesdays practice sessions for the Daytona 500. Kyle Busch had the top drafting  speed @ Daytona this week with a speed of 188.830. Matt Kenseth was second with a speed of 188.494.

2007 champ Jimmie Johnson draft speed put him in 13th overall with a speed of 187.149 however Johnson had the fastest overall single car speed of 184.782 which will be key in the Daytona 500 qualifying. While Johnson led the overall average for single cars on the track, Kyle Busch led both practice sessions for single cars on Wednesday morning with a speed of 187.786.

HANG ON..... AND WATCH OUT FOR JG RACING

This upcoming Daytona 500 may be historic in two ways .... the 50th anniversary of the race and Toyota's first win! 

Gibbs is gone just after 4 years. Who really thought he was going to come back next year?  Gibbs went 31-36 to finish his second reign as head coach for the Skins. It's time to rebuild for 2008... This will raise a whole new crop of questions..... Will Jason Campbell be here next year? Will the Skins clean house? 

So much for your commitment for the 5 year term. GOOD RIDDENS!

Gibbs will be in sunny Florida in just 6 weeks to run his new TOYOTA race teams....

Danny boy will need to sell more pretzels to afford the 10 million +  a year salary for  the coaches out there....

WHAT A GREAT DAY !

OK...The table is set for a good old fashion NFC Eastshowdown...    

          vs                     

 N.Y. Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys... this should be a good match up but Vegas sees it a little different.. the early line is the Boys by 8 with an over under of 48..

What do you think Cowboy fans or how about a Giants fan?  

35-14 = 21 wow I guess it works both ways.....

Well the clock struck midnight and Cinderella's carriage has turned back into a pumpkin. The dream is over... the season is done. Time to reflect on what could have been.

Some much for all the stats..

Joe Gibbs has never lost a wild card playoff game.... WELL NOW HE HAS!

The skins were undefeated when leading in the second half of a payoff game... NOW THEY ARE NOT!

BACK TO LIFE BACK TO REALITY!

Time for Collins to rot on the bench for another 10 years .... Good Luck.

I was actually rooting for the skins this time so it would have set up the rematch in Dallas... but I guess I'll have to wait.

Don't you just love the morons selling their Cowboy/Redskin tickets? Eary in the week they were worth more than gold...or so they thought. As game time aprroaches the prices are falling. What once was a $1000.00 pair of tickets are now worth half that! What will they be worth at 3:00pm?

How about the morons that buy them at a $600.00 a pair in the upper deck?

Have fun in the rain...................

Well race fans it's only 60 days away.... the 50th Daytona 500... This track has come along way since the days of racing along the beach in the sand at Daytona... The teams will be testing in only 19 days. They will be testing with the COT which now will be the only car used by NASCAR at all the events this year.... (finally). 

It is going to be interesting to see how the Hendrick team fares with the wonder boy (Jr.) now on the team and how Joe Gibbs racing will do pushing the Toyota emblem around the track.. Will Tony Stewart get along with (shrub).. Kyle Busch??? How long till these guys are at each others throats?

Can't wait!