Once again, it's time to get deep inside the numbers of the Chase racers as they approach their upcoming track, in this case the super-fast, 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.
You know, we used to preface every Texas race by talking about Jeff Gordon's career-long struggle there and we'd crow about how it was one of only two NASCAR tracks where he hadn't visited Victory Lane. So what did he do during our last visit there in April?
He visited Victory Lane. (His last remaining oh-fer track? Homestead-Miami, home of the season finale.)
As always, I rank the 12 Chasers in the order of who I think has the best chance of winning this weekend, based on their career numbers at TMS, recent momentum and how they ran in the spring. Two immediate observations: (1) It's amazing how many different Chasers have won there; (2) It's even more amazing how bad the average finishes are for so many of those winners. Current points rankings are in parentheses.
* Samsung 500, won by Jeff Gordon
** Driver Rating has been compiled by NASCAR since 2005
Speed Mail
Dear Ryan,
I know everyone is sick of talking about Talladega, but I can't shake the image of all those cars snaking around in a single-file line up by the wall for what seemed like hours. Is that the most boring Talladega or Daytona race we've ever seen?
Thanks,
Jack J. in Kansas City, Kan.
Dear Jack J.,
Yes, I have seen plenty of superspeedway races that were worse than the oft-maligned Amp Energy 500. The first that comes to mind is the 2000 Daytona 500, which was victimized by some restrictor-plate changes and aero-tinkering. Dale Jarrett won from the pole and led 89 of 200 laps. We had (yawn) nine lead changes, most of which came during pit stops, and the race ended under caution. Holy snoozefest. How bad was it? Ask Dale Earnhardt. I felt sorry for Jarrett, who had to spend his national media tour apologizing for the race being so bad. These days, fan sentiments get magnified because of the Internet, which a much smaller percentage of people had access to 10 years ago. There were a few message boards, but no one had heard of a blog, Twitter was still years away and there certainly wasn't a 24-hour NASCAR radio channel for people to call and raise hell on all day and night. One day in the not-too -distant future, when talking about Talladega people will remember only Ryan Newman's flip and Jimmie Johnson's title-clinching run from the back. At least I hope so ... I'm tired of talking about it.
Dear Ryan,
Settle a bet between me and my father-in-law. We know you're a Petty fan like us. He says that Kyle Petty's first career Cup win came at Daytona, when he was a rookie. I say he's remembering it wrong and that the Daytona win he's thinking about was in a Busch Series race. We have a month of free race-day pizzas riding on this.
Luke in Wilmington, N.C.
Dear Luke,
First, does he ever look at you and say in a deep voice, "Luke ... I am your father ... in-law"? Second, you're still going to be splitting the pizza bill because you're both wrong. Kyle and his mustache did earn their first career stock car win at Daytona, but it wasn't a Cup or Busch Series race. It was an ARCA race held during Daytona Speedweeks in 1979. He was a teenager, had just gotten married, and he and Pattie Petty celebrated their honeymoon by rooming with the family at Daytona Beach and competing in his first stock car race ever. His first Cup win wouldn't come until years later. Remember the famous "Battle of Richmond" closing-laps wreck between Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip in '86? Few remember who actually won the race after they crashed out. It was Kyle Petty. See the finish here. And here's how the story is remembered, by the greatest NASCAR writer to walk the surface of this planet, Tom Higgins.
The "Why We Call Richard Petty 'The King' " Fact Of The Week
His Royal Fastness retired five years before the Texas Motor Speedway opened, but that doesn't mean he didn't ride roughshod over the Lone Star State.
The 2-mile Texas World Speedway in College Station hosted eight Cup Series events between 1969 and '80. Petty won three of them, which was three times the number of his next closest competition. A bum clutch relegated him to a 21st-place DNF in '69, but his average finish for the remaining seven was a super-cool 2.6. Even with the DNF factored in, his career average of 4.9 is still tops all-time at the track, which still exists, though only as a test facility.
Ryan McGee
