I did it.
My Grand Slam of Prognostication has been completed.
The victory of Kyle Busch in Saturday’s LifeLock 400 at Chicagoland was the final piece of the puzzle as NASCAR’s Sprint Cup was the only series left that I needed to pick a winner for.
I’m as surprised as the rest of you, believe me. I fully expected to go without picking a Cup winner … or to go much deeper into the season before getting one right.
But one thing I found out is that my Mini Slam of Prognostication — picking the winners at Evergreen Speedway — which I thought I had completed, is in fact not yet done. Somehow, I thought I had picked a Super Figure Eight winner, but while fact checking for the recaps below I found out I had not.
Busch’s seventh Cup win of the season also helped me to jump up to No. 33 — just 12 points behind the leader — in the NASCAR Media Race to the Chase game.
Of course I didn’t fare too well in the other national series, with my pick to win the IndyCar race in Nashville, Helio “Dancing Man” Castroneves , taking the pole but finishing third behind Scott Dixon; and Clint Bowyer finishing seventh in Friday’s Nationwide Dollar General 300 behind Rowdy Busch, who went on to complete the Chicagoland sweep the next day.
Locally, I was also One-fer, with defending champion John Zaretzke battling through the field to win his Super Stock feature at Evergreen Speedway on Saturday night. My “pull a name from a hat” approach failed badly in the Bomber division as Russ Hale didn’t even show up to race.
My pick for the Mini-Stock race, defending champion Chuck Richard, finished second to last season’s rookie of the year Kris Harriss. Troy Seminar was my choice for the Super Figure Eight race but he finished fifth behind Nick Gunderson. Fifth was also where Seth Funden finished in the Stinger Eight race won by Bill Wade.
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Kyle Busch, LifeLock 400, July 12 at Chicagoland.
NASCAR Nationwide: Kyle Busch, Mexico 200 on April 20 at Mexico City.
NASCAR Craftsman Trucks: Johnny Benson, Milwaukee 200 on June 20 at The Milwaukee Mile.
Indy Racing League: Dan Wheldon, RoadRunner Turbo 300 April 27 at Kansas City.
Formula One: Kimi Raikkonen, Malaysian Grand Prix, March 22
Evergreen Speedway Super Stocks: Naima Lang, April 12
Evergreen Speedway Bombers: Jill Lang, May 31
Evergreen Speedway Mini-Stocks: Mark Weedin, April 12
Evergreen Speedway Super Figure Eights: incomplete
Evergreen Speedway Stinger Eights: Mike Middleton, May 10
1. This past weekend in Morrison, Colo., the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals were held, with the Top Fuel and Funny Car divisons running on a track shorter than a quarter-mile for the first time in the history of the NHRA.
NHRA made the decision to cut the the nitro-fuelers race to 1,000-feet as a result of the death of Scott Kalitta in New Jersey. The change, which was well-received by fans and drivers, is interim at this point as the NHRA studies the situation to see what other measures may be needed for the safety of drivers.
Shameless plug: You can watch the NHRA in person this weekend at Pacific Raceways … read my post entitled “NHRA drag racing returns to Pacific Raceways” for details.
2. I think both Joe Gibbs Racing and Tony Stewart made the right decisions. Stewart clearly wanted to be gone, and despite an initial decision to hold him to his contract through 2009, JGR decided they could afford to let him go.
Stewart is already a team owner, albeit on a lower level than Cup, but he has a good idea of what he’s getting into. And who wouldn’t take the deal he got? Haas-CNC gave him a 50 percent stake in a team that is, for all intents and purposes, a satellite of Hendrick Motorsports. He’ll be reunited with Chevrolet, and sponsorship should not be a problem. We’ll find out soon enough if Ryan Newman, who was granted a release from Penske at the end of the year, will be Stewart’s first hire. Chase in ‘09? Maybe, maybe not. In the the race every week? Definately.
JGR has a stable of young, talented drivers in Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano who will finish well and/or keep the sponsors and fans happy. There is a remote chance that JGR will decide to keep Logano in the Nationwide Series for another year, in which case look for them to pick up another Cup veteran to keep the 20’s seat warm. I think a more likely scenario is Logano spending a whole lot of time between now and February 2009 in a CoT making laps.
1. What was up with TNT going to an extended “Magic Show with Larry Mac” during the Cup race? You could sure tell it was the network’s final race of the season … everyone was loosey-goosey in the booth, the truck and the pits.
Unfortunately for me I was watching it on tape, so I couldn’t ignore the non-race stuff by turning to my computer for a RaceBuddy fix. I will say the person who emailed in the question about Kyle Petty’s tie was right on the mark — I thought he had a pink bandana knotted around his neck.
2. So the Car of Today/Tomorrow is a much safer car, right, but if you bottom out and crack the splitter — as Carl Edwards did on Saturday — your race is as good as over. Because either you lose the downforce needed to be competitive or you need a long pit stop — or several short ones — to replace the splitter as Kurt Busch’s crew did at Pocono.
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