Race 17 – Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Preview

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is just over a mile long and is pretty flat. There’s only 12 degrees of banking in the turns and 2 degrees on the straight-aways. The “flat tracks” are tougher to pass on and is harder for the drivers to go fast and keep control. Hopefully we’ll see a good race, but I have a feeling that the late passing could be during the pit stops.

Four with a real shot to win
Jeff Gordon
I know, I know…I almost always pick him even though he’s having a bad year. Well, how great do you have to be for 6th place in points to be a bad year? In his last three races here Jeff has three top 5s. Look for him to keep up the trend. In is career he has 3 wins, 12 top 5s, and 15 top 10s in 26 races with an average finish of 11.6. I smell win number one of 2008.

Denny Hamlin
Denny is just a really, really good driver. In only four races here he has a win, two top 5s, and three top 10s with an average finish of 6.5. It’d be tough not to have him on your team.

Kevin Harvick
Kevin is good on the flat tracks and has a pretty good record here. In his last four races at New Hampshire he has a win and three top 10s. For his career he’s racked up eight top 10s in 14 races. He should be in the top 5 or 10 all race long.

Jimmie Johnson
One top 5 and three top 10s in 3 of the last 4 here. Two career wins, and an average finish of 10.7 at the track make Jimmie hard to ignore. He should be contending for the win on Sunday.

Two others that should do well
Kyle Busch
Kyle has two top 5s including a win in his last four at this track. He’s doing better than anyone could have expected this season, and there’s no reason that success couldn’t continue.

Jeff Burton
Jeff is the poor guy that gets no respect because Kyle is doing so well. Jeff is more consistent and is always around the top 10. He also has four career wins in New Hampshire, seven top 5s and 12 top 10s in 26 career races. Picking him is almost a sure top 10.

Dark Horse
J.J. Yeley
This season has been very rough for Yeley as he’s down in 36th place in points, but I think he can do well this weekend. In three of his last four races here he has a 8th, 10th, and 12th place finish. So far this season 25th has been his best finish (twice), which is pretty bad. Look for him to turn things around and get his first top 10 finish of the season.

Race 16 – Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway Preview

Sonoma. The first of two road courses in the NASCAR season. The good thing about this race is that you shouldn’t hear people complaining about the new car since it really shouldn’t have an affect on this race. It’s always tough to pass on this track, but there are a few places on the course that they can, and we should see some good action.

A road course also means there’ll be drivers who aren’t regulars to NASCAR in the race, trying to show their skills. (Think Boris Said, Ron Fellows, and Brian Simo to name a few.)

Four drivers with a real shot to win
Jeff Gordon
15 races here, five wins, nine top 5s, 11 top 10s, and an average finish of 9.7. He’s won two and finished 7th in three of the last four here. I know Jeff hasn’t looked real good lately, but he is an awesome road course driver. He’s probably the only NASCAR regular that could go to F1 and win. He’ll win on Sunday.

Boris Said
Boris isn’t an every week driver, but road courses are his specialty, and teams hire him just for the two road courses. He’s finished 6th, and has two 9ths in the last four here. He averages a 9.7 place finish in the races that he completes all the laps….Which means he has to avoid the wrecks and he’s virtually guaranteed a top 10 finish, and should be contending for the win.

Jeff Burton
Jeff’s career numbers aren’t great at Infineon Raceway, averaging a 19.4 place finish, but he has three top 10 finishes in the last four here. His worst finish this season was 15th last week, which was only the 5th time he finished outside of the top 10. He’ll be running up front again in this race.

Tony Stewart
Tony had a bad stretch this season starting at Darlington where he finished 18th or worse in four straight races. He turned that around at Michigan with a 5th place finish, and should get another top five finish this weekend. In nine career races he has two wins, three top 5s, and five top 10s with an average finish of 10th place.

Two others that should do well:
Greg Biffle
Greg only has five races here under his belt with two top 5s which were in the last two here. He’s starting a good trend, and it should continue this weekend.

Kurt Busch
Kurt has finished 3rd and 5th in two of the last three here. He’s had a rough season, but he’s a pretty good driver on road courses and should be able to get a top 10 finish.

Dark horse
Elliot Sadler
Elliot has done very well in Sonoma. He has a 10th, 6th and 8th in three of the last four. In nine career races he has four top 10s. He may not get a top 5 finish, but should be around the top 10 most of the day.

Race 13 - Best Buy 400 at Dover Recap

Wow, what a boring race that was. It started out with some action when poor old Elliot Sadler had his car rammed and battered by Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. After that there was no action what so ever in the race. I fell asleep, woke up about 50 laps later, and didn't miss a thing.

I know everyone said it would take a while to figure out these new cars, but we're over 1/4 of the way through the season, and the races are getting worse, not better. NASCAR needs to admit there's a problem, and do something about the awful racing going on. Maybe the car needs tweaked or something to allow for some passing. I miss the close finishes and dramatic passing during the races. I'm sick of the lead only changing because of pit stops.

Well, on to the racing action, and how my picks fared. Not to toot my own horn, but I have to say my picks this week did pretty good. I advised you to pick the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, & 8th place finishers.
Four with a real shot to win:
Carl Edwards - 2nd place finish, and ran very strong all day
Greg Biffle - Looked like the car to beat early and came home 3rd
Jeff Burton - Solid run, picking his way through the field to finish 8th
Matt Kenseth - Proved he still has it, finishing 4th

Two others that should do well:
Mark Martin - Mark hung around early, but faded into 23rd place
Kyle Busch - The kid won again. He's amazing

Darkhorse:
Martin Truex Jr. - Solid 6th place finish. He ran a very good race

Chad's Fantasy NASCAR Recap
Buchsmoto took over the top spot from highlife, but only by 4 points! There's a 276 point cushion between 2nd place and 3rd.

Zimsracing and redvette were the big gainers of the week, jumping up 6 spots each.

ole_gordo took home the high point award with 570.

Next week's race is on Sunday in Pocono.
Good luck, and happy racin!

Race 13 – Best Buy 400 at Dover Fantasy Preview

This week’s race is at the “Monster Mile” oval in Dover, Delaware. Races here can be long and grueling on the drivers, as the last 4 have an average length of 3 hours and 37 minutes with close to 17 lead changes and 10 cautions.

So, will Kasey Kahne carry the momentum of winning the past two weekends into Dover? The short answer is no. He’s horrible at Dover. In eight career races here he only has one top 10 finish and averages a 25.2 place finish. He may get a top 10 at best, but a more realistic finish for him is in the top 15.

Four drivers with a real shot to win

Carl Edwards
Carl normally dominates on the 1.5 mile ovals, but he’s had good runs on the Monster Mile as well. Over the last three races he has a win, 3rd, 2nd place finishes. In seven career races here he has three top 5’s, and four top 10’s while averaging a 9.1 place finish. Carl is running good, and that should continue this weekend.

Greg Biffle
The Biff has been money at Dover. In his last four races here he has a 2nd, 6th, 5th, 8th place finish. In only eleven career races here he has one win, three top 5’s, and six top 10’s with an average finishing position of 12.9. Five of those top 10s came in his last six races. Greg hasn’t closed on his new contract with Roush yet, so look for him to prove how good he is to other teams interested in signing him. Qualifying on the pole is a great start to the weekend for the Biff.

Jeff Burton
Jeff definitely has experience on his side at Dover. In twenty eight career races here he has one win, six top 5’s, and 11 top 10’s with a 16.9 average finish. Early in his career it was tough to guess where he would finish. In his first four races here (1994 & 1995) he finished 20th or worse every time. In five of the next eight (1996 – 1999) he finished in the top 10, then in 2000 & 2001 20th place was his best finish.

Since then (2002 onwards, a span of 12 races) Jeff has averaged a 9.9 place finish with one win, four top 5s, and six top 10s. If you take out a 33rd place finish in the fall of 2004 when he got in a wreck Jeff’s worst finish in that span is 14th.

In his career he has finished 23 races, and had an average finish of 11.6 in them. His last DNF was the fall of 2004, and he’s had a 7th, 1st, 4th in three of the last four here, so look for his string of good runs to continue.

Don't let the 38th qualifying position scare you. In eight of his races here Jeff has started 30th or worse and managed two top 5's, five top 10s, and two 11th place finishes. He's patient enough to pick his way through the field and get you a top 10 finish.

Matt Kenseth
I haven’t said much about Kenseth this year. He’s having a quiet if not disappointing season so far, sitting 16th in points. He has managed to string two top 10 finishes together over the past couple of points races. Look for him to keep that trend going this weekend.

In three of his last four here he has a win, 5th and 10th place finishes. In 18 career races he has 1 win, five top 5’s, and ten top 10’s, averaging a 15.3 place finish. In the 14 races that Matt has finished he’s averaged a 10.9 place finish. He has had three accidents and one blown engine, but if he can avoid those things, he should contend for the win.

Two others that should do well:

Mark Martin
If you want to talk about experience at a track, Mark Martin has more of it at Dover than all others. In his impressive career he’s raced here 43 times with four Wins, twenty top 5’s, and twenty seven top 10s with a 12.7 average finish. Of the 43 races he’s been in a wreck or had engine problems only nine times. In the 34 races he’s finished (no accident or engine troubles) he’s averaged a 7.9 finish and was out of the top 10 only seven times.

Mark hasn’t been in an accident or had engine problems at Dover since Spring of 2002. He’s finished 4th, 7th, and 9th in three of his last four here, so look for him to keep that going.

Mark had a poor qualifying run, earning the 30th starting position, but his career here has been like Burton's. Just because he qualified poorly doesn't mean he'll run bad. In five other races he's qualified 30th or worse, and managed to get three top 5's, so he's probably worth keeping on your team.

Kyle Busch
How could anyone bet against Kyle now? Right now the kid dominates every race he’s in. In six career races at Dover he has four top 5’s. His worst finish was 40th in the fall of 2006 when he had engine problems. I don't think he'll have engine problems this weekend, and should be in top 10 all night.

The kid continues his domination at just about everything as he qualified in the 3rd position. Look for him to challenge Biffle for the lead quickly.

DarkHorse

I almost picked Jamie McMurray for this, but I have to go with Martin Truex Jr.
Martin Truex Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. has only raced here four times, but does have one win and two top 10’s. The last two weeks have been less than impress for Truex, so he needs to turn it up, and I think he will this weekend, especially since he considers this his home track. There'll be a lot of friends and family in the stands that he wants to impress.

Race 12 - Coca-Cola 600 Review and Fantasy Recap

It took a while for the cautions to come, but once they did, they came in bunches last night. The first 200 laps or so were pretty uneventful without much passing, but the last 100 laps got more exciting and the racing action picked up. Some drivers got lucky on gas mileage and managed to salvage a top 5 or 10 finish. Overall, it was a decent raced, but hopefully the teams figure out the new car and start to learn how to pass like they could with the old car.

So, how'd my recommendations do?
Four with a real shot to win.
Kyle Busch - He ran up front all night as expected and finished a strong 2nd behind Kasey Kahne.
Jeff Burton - Jeff was in the top 10 most of the night and finished 6th.
Jimmie Johnson - Jimmie ran pretty good, staying in the top 10 or 15 most of the night, but a blown engine didn't allow him to finish the race and he took home a disapointing 39th place.
Carl Edwards - Carl was pretty quiet last night, but did manage to take home 9th place.

Two others that should do well:
Kasey Kahne - You can't do any better than winning the race. Kasey was strong all night.
Denny Hamlin - Hamlin got caught up in some of the trouble, but did manage to take home 19th place.

Darkhorse:
Reed Sorenson - Reed got down a lap early and was unable to get competative, finishing 23rd.


Fantasy Update:
It was a big points week for several teams as browngw, rauch_racing, browere, and buckeye65 all got 700 points.

Highlife's lead over buchsmoto rose to 31 points. There's a 216 point lead over 3rd place jusmony, and 372 point lead over 4th place speedy.

Less than 200 points seperate 4th place from 15th place.

There's still 14 races until the chase begins, so everyone is still in it. Next week's race is the Dover 400.

Happy racin' and good luck!

Race 12 – Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte - Fantasy Preview

The Sprint Cup circuit has its longest race of the season this Sunday night with 600 miles/400 laps around the 1.5 mile Lowe's Motor Speeday in Charlotte. NASCAR.com says this is the longest motorsports race on an oval track in the world. Let's take a look at some drivers you should pick for your fantasy team.

Four drivers with a real shot to win:

Kyle Busch
He’s the point’s leader, and seems to be able to win at any track. Historically, Kyle hasn’t done too well here with only two top 10’s in eight races, although the top 10's were in two of his last three races here. He should be able to get another top 10 finish or better. In the All-Star race last weekend Joe Gibbs Racing experimented with a new engine package, and it didn’t work out too well for Kyle. Don’t expect that to happen again on Sunday night. Kyle should do well, and battle for the victory. ...Oh yeah, he also is sitting on the pole for the race. If it's as difficult to pass Sunday night as it was in the All-Star race, then don't look for Kyle to give up the lead for a long time.

Jeff Burton
The man running second in points struggles to get the respect he deserves, but I’ll give it to him this week. He’s done very well at Charlotte in the past. He has two wins, seven top 5’s, and thirteen top 10’s in 24 career races. Three of the top 10’s have been in the last four races. He should be a front-runner all night. A pretty good 14th place qualifying position should keep him in the lead pack to start the race.

Jimmie Johnson
Talk about pure domination at his sponsor’s track. In thirteen career races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Jimmie has eleven top 10 finishes including five wins! He averages a 6.8 place finish at the track. He qualified 10th for the race, and looks like he's ready for a good run in the race. It’d be tough to go against his career numbers at the track.

Carl Edwards
Carl dominates on the 1.5 mile ovals, and Charlotte is no exception. In six career races here he has three top 5’s and five top 10’s. He doesn’t have the wins that Jimmie does, but his worst finish was only 15th, and he averages a 7.1 place finish. Carl had a poor qualifying effort, starting in 30th, but don't panic Edwards fans...he's qualified 22nd and 28th before and was able to finish 3rd and 8th. He should be able to pick his way through the crowd Sunday night. We know there's plenty of time.


Two more that should do well:

Kasey Kahne
He won the All-Star race and is full of confidence, and it showed with a very good qualifying run earning him the outside pole. Kasey didn’t start his career out very well at Charlotte though. In his first four races here he didn’t have a top 10 finish and averaged a 23.3 place finish. The past four races have been more kind to him. He has two wins and one 8th place finish averaging a 8.3 place finish.

Denny Hamlin
In five career races at the track Denny has three top 10’s with two of them coming in his only Coca-Cola 600's. He should be solid again in this weekend’s race.


Dark Horse

Reed Sorenson
Reed has only started four races at this track, but he does have some success on it. He has twelve career top 10 finishes, two of which have come here. So far this season he only has one top 10 finish, with a 5th at Daytona. After that it’s been pretty much downhill for Reed. With last week off I think he’ll have a clear head, more focus, and compete for a top 10 finish. Qualifying in the 17th starting spot will help Reed with this.

Good luck this week, and happy racin'!

Race 10 - Crown Royal 400 at Richmond Preview

Well, this weekend the boys are running under the lights on a Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia. This is the short track that thinks it’s a super speedway. The ¾ mile track should give us a little bit of everything; high speeds, bumping, and good racing.

Kyle Busch
With the win last week Kyle Busch trimmed Jeff Burton’s points lead 58 points, down to just 22. Kyle has done really well at Richmond in his career. In six races he’s only finished out of the top 5 once (20th last year). Even though his two worse finishes of the season came on the short tracks at Bristol (17th) and Martinsville (38th), don’t look for him to finish that bad in Richmond. The D shaped track should fit Kyle’s aggressive style, so he should continue to do well.

Denny Hamlin
The third year driver has been having a solid, but fairly quiet year so far. He’s fourth in points with six top 10s, four top 5s and one Win. In four career races at Richmond he’s finished in the top 10 three times. His worst qualifying position has been 7th, so look for him to do well and run up front most of the night.

Kevin Harvick
Harvick’s career started out kind of rough at Richmond. In his first eight races (2001 – 2004) he only finished in the top 10 twice. Since then he has six consecutive top 10 finished with three top 5s. It’ll be hard to bet against those numbers.

Jeff Burton
Not much gets said about the Sprint Cup points leader and his chances to win races. It seems that Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, or the Hendrick drivers take a lot of the spotlight. Jeff has had a solid season so far with one Win and his worst finish being 13th in Daytona. Unfortunately I don’t think that success will translate to Richmond. Since 2004 (a span of 8 races) Jeff has only finished in the top 10 once. In the eight races before that (2000 – 2003) he had finished in the top 10 six times. That’s quite a drop off in performance. He may do okay and finish in the top 15, but I don’t see him challenging for a victory.

Tony Stewart
Smoke needs to start heating up. After the crash in Talladega and a 38th place finish Stewart dropped to 9th in the standings. Historically he’s done well at Richmond, and should have a shot at success on Saturday night. He has twelve career top 10s and three Wins at the track in 18 races. Look for him to be aggressive and push to the front.

4 with a real shot to win
· Kyle Busch – He’s been hot all season, and he does well in Richmond.
· Jimmy Johnson – Won last two, and is looking more like the Jimmy that dominated last year
· Denny Hamlin – He has a 6th, 3rd, 2nd in 3 of the last 4 in Richmond.
· Kevin Harvick – Six consecutive top 10s at a track is hard to ignore.

2 others that could do well
· Tony Stewart – 2nd, 8th, 6th in 3 of last 4, and ready to make up points after last week’s wrecks
· Jeff Gordon – Finished 4th in the last two races here, looking to get back in the top 12

Sleeper
· David Ragan – He’s only had two career races at Richmond, but finished 3rd in last fall’s race. He may be able to get another top 5 or 10 finish this weekend if he can avoid wrecks.

Race 8 – Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix Preview

Well, let's hope the racing action in Phoenix is better than Texas. Last week was a snoozer of a race. The "experts" think that Phoenix will have 2 and 3 wide racing, giving it more action than the last couple of races. I don't know if I believe them or not. Texas was suppose to be an exciting race too, but it was far from it. ...on to the driver selections.

Jeff Burton is leading the points chase and historically he does pretty well at Phoenix. In his last six races here his worst finish has been 15th, so look for him to have a solid run this week.

Greg Biffle has been struggling lately finishing 20th and 39th in the last two races. Can his team turn it around? They’re usually hit and miss at this track. Over his last 6 trips to the track he’s finished as high as 2nd, and low as 41st. What’ll he do this week?? Who knows, but I won’t pick him for my fantasy team.

Can Jimmy Johnson continue his run of top 5 finishes? In the past two weeks he’s moved up 7 spots in the standings to 6th. Will be able to continue the momentum on Sunday? I think so. He’s finished in the top 10 in his last four races here, and top 5 in 3 of them.

Four drivers with a real shot to win
· Kevin Harvick – 6th, 10th, 1st, 1st in last 4. He qualified 17th, which isn’t great, but with his record at Phoenix you can’t go against him.
· Jimmy Johnson – 1st, 4th, 2nd, 7th, in last 4 here. After qualifying 7th, you should expect him to be in the lead pack all day long.
· Matt Kenseth – 3rd, 3rd, 5th in 3 of last 4. He qualified 27th and will need to get off to a good start, but he should be able to. If anything, his pit crew should be able to keep him on the lead lap for an extended period of time until the car is dialed in.
· Tony Stewart – 4th, 2nd, 2nd in 3 of last 4, qualifying 12th.

Two others that should do well:
· Jeff Burton – 9th, 10th, 9th in 3 of last 4. Qualifying 39th doesn’t help, but his average starting position this year is 21.4, and he usually ends up doing OK.
· Jeff Gordon – 10th, 1st, 4th in 1 of last 3 and qualified 11th.

Samsung 500 Review and Fantasy Recap

Carl Edwards was the car to beat, and dominated all day long. Kyle Busch and Jimmy Johnson tried to keep up with him in the race, but couldn’t get it done in the overtime laps.

The surprise finish of the race had to be Ryan Newman in 4th. This was only is 2nd top 5 finish of the season.

The drivers I said had a real shot to win did pretty bad.
Matt Kenseth did the best, finishing 5th.
Martin Truex Jr. had a top 10 run until his engine gave out with a few laps left.
Jeff Burton finished 6th.
Jeff Gordon was bad all day, and finished dead last.
Kevin Harvick did alright finishing 11th.

The two others that I said should do well, didn’t do so well
Jamie McMurray had a solid top 15 finish, placing 14th, helping him stay securely in the top 35 in standings.
Denny Hamlin had a good run finishing 5th.


On the fantasy side of things nascar_nug got the high point total with 580, moving up to 30th place. Buchsmoto is still leading the league by 45 points over highlife. Jusmony and Speedy both moved up 7 spots, to 3rd and 4th place.

jj24, who didn’t play the first week, and got 0 points, has overtaken Hessler for 48th place. Good job jj24! Hessler, you’re not so good.

7 races down, 19 to go until the chase begins. Check back on Friday or Saturday for a preview of the next race. As always, don’t be afraid to post your comments or send some mail through the website to talk some trash to the other players.

Race 7 – Samsung 500 Preview

For those people that keep track of the tire issues you’ll be happy to know that the much complained about tire used in the Atlanta race won’t be used in this race at Texas. Usually Goodyear uses the same tire, but this year they decided not to since there were so many complaints. The track owner is obviously happy about this, since the tire their going to use produced two great finishes last year.

After a 3rd place finish last week Jeff Burton jumped up 3 spots in the standings to take the lead. Over the past four races Jeff is averaging a 4.75 place finish, with one win. Texas is a track that Jeff has done well at over the past couple of years. He’s taken home two 6th place finishes and a win. With the hot streak he’s on, and the fact that the does well at Texas should be good news for Burton fans. Don’t let his 35th place qualifying effort scare you away. He’s only qualified better than 20th twice in Texas, and has done very well. This is a wide track that allows for some good racing. Jeff should be able to make his way to the front of the field.

Jeff Gordon had a good run last week and moved up to 9th in points, and looks to continue the trend at Texas. In the first four races at this track Jeff Gordon did horrible, not finishing better than 25th. The next four races he averaged a 3.25 place finish, but the three races after that (when they started having two races per year in Texas) he didn’t finish better than 14th. The good news is that over the last three races he’s averaged a 6.67 place finish. So, what does this mean? Well, it looks like Jeff is streaky here. He’s had three top 10 finishes in a row, is he now due for a run of bad luck in Texas? Jeff will start out in 18th, which isn’t great, but if they can perform some in race tweaks he should make it to the front.

With his win last week Denny Hamlin moved up the most spots in the championship standings, 7 places, up to 8th. He’s done well at this track in his career with 4 top 10’s in 5 tries. Look for him to continue to climb in the standings as his 14th place qualifying spot should let him get into the top 10 quickly and run there all day.

Drivers with a real shot to win
· Matt Kenseth – 2nd, 2nd, 2nd in 3 of last 4 and qualified 8th this week
· Martin Truex Jr. – 3rd, 7th, 8th in 3 of last 4, qualified 12th this week
· Jeff Burton – 6th, 1st, 6th in 3 of last 4, qualified 35th this week
· Jeff Gordon – 7th, 4th, 9th in last 3, qualified 18th this week
· Kevin Harvick – 10th, 3rd, 5th in 3 of last 4, qualified 21st this week

Two others that should do well:
o Jamie McMurray – 9th & 5th in last 2, qualified 32nd. He’ll have to make some moves early to get up in the standings, but his confidence has to be up after last week, and he should do well.
o Denny Hamlin – 9th, 4th, 10th in 3 of last 4, qualified 14th

California Review and Fantasy Recap

First some pre-race notes from way back on Sunday when the race first started:
- Seeing ZZ Top play a couple of songs was pretty cool. Look for NASCAR to continue those type of performers as they try to get their “core” fans back.
- Did anyone besides me notice Mark Martin’s hat he was wearing in the interviews? It had #8 on the side, but on the back it looked like it still had a Dale Earnhardt Jr. signature embroidered on it. Am I wrong, or was that really what I saw?
- Did anyone ever hear who the guy was walking around the pit area in his pajama bottoms, bath robe, drinking coffee during the rain delay? That was funny stuff.

Now onto the race…
It started off pretty good and had nice action. The Casey Mears wreck was unexpected, but I never though he was a good driver, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. Gordon had the dominant race car, and if they could have ran the race yesterday, he probably would have won it running away, but mother nature wouldn’t let that happen. He still had a good car today, but Carl was just a little better than Jeff and Jimmy.

The favorites for this race came through and did well. Hendrick rebounded with Jimmy Johnson finishing second, Jeff Gordon 3rd while Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were taken out in an early wreck.

As expected, Ryan Newman had a solid follow-up to his Daytona 500 victory with a 10th place finish.

Of the Four drivers I gave a real shot to win, Edwards did win the race (no one picked him for their fantasy team), Jimmy Johnson was 2nd, Kyle Busch 4th, and Matt Kenseth 5th. Too bad they were all in the chase last season, so you could only choose one of them for your fantasy team.

The other two recommendations, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Burton did pretty good also. Kahne finished 9th and Burton 12th. 38% of the fantasy owners had Kasey Kahne. Good pick up by those folks.

Jusmony won the high point total of the week award, and with it took first place from browere. Those two have put some early distance between them and 3rd place speedy, but will they continue to pick the right drivers and build on the gap to third place?

California - Auto Club 500 - Preview

Since qualifying was rained out the race lineup is a bit jumbled as they start in the position they finished last season…for the most part.

One of the main story lines will be if Hendrick racing can bounce back from the bad showing in Daytona. Outside of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick racing had 27th, 35th, and 39th place finishes. Look for them to do better today and get a couple of top 10 finishes.

Another story is Ryan Newman. He took advantage of the opportunity in Daytona to take the win, now can he keep that momentum and get a top 5 or 10 finish? California is a wide open track, which suites his style, so look for him to stay focused, avoid crashes and have a good finish.

As I stated, this is a wide open track that gives the drivers lots of room to maneuver. There are a lot of guys that do well here, but below are 4 drivers that have a real shot at the win.
· Matt Kenseth - He’s been great at California in his last 4 races with two wins and two 7th place finishes
· Kyle Busch – He has finished in the top ten in the last 4 races in California, and had the top car in Daytona. Look for him to continue the good runs.
· Jimmy Jonhson – Don’t forget about the defending series champ. He’s finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in 3 of the past 4 races here.
· Carl Edwards – Cousin Carl has 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes recently and is looking to rebound from a somewhat disappointing 19th place finish at Daytona

Others that should do well:
o Kasey Kahne - finished 1st, 4th, 10th in 3 of the last 4
o Jeff Burton – two 4th place and one 5th in 3 of last 4