Goodbye cookie cutter, hello Bristol

Quite appropriately Las Vegas supplied us with some false excitement last Sunday as several restarts were needed in the race's final 50 plus laps to provide us with some close battles for the lead. But really, it was just a matter of who could get out front. That's because at those cookie-cutter type 1.5 mile tracks, it's all about getting clean air. Whoever gets ahead of the pack is going to win. It's pretty simple. Other than the first lap or two after a restart, the leader in each of those scenarios pulled away. That's why we saw some guys go crazy on the restarts, they knew that was their only chance.
Now we're on to a real race track at Bristol. It's just a half-mile and is one of NASCAR's great venues. There is no such thing as clean air, especially after the first 10 or 15 laps when the leader starts lapping the slower cars, or gently or not so gently bumping them out of the way. The reactions to those bumps is one of the things that makes Bristol great. What's the over-under on the amount of helmets thrown? Three seems like the right number here for a lot of reasons. A driver has to have the right amount of aggressiveness and patience to win at Bristol.
So with that in mind, here's a rundown of picks for this week.

Kyle Busch - Yes, that Kyle Busch. Somehow he's managed to keep his cool enough to get five wins here. So, hard to ignore that.
Jimmie Johnson - If there was ever a team on a mission to get into the top 10 in points it's the No. 48. Just one win here for five-timer, but with Johnson taking the lead, this team is focused.
Matt Kenseth - He's got two wins here and has run over 5,700 laps in the top 15 at Bristol, quite remarkable. He's got that right mix of patience and aggressiveness to get back to Victory Lane again.
Kevin Harvick - Just one win here, but he's never been afraid to use his bumper to get the slower guys out of the at the short tracks.
Kasey Kahne - Yes, a bit of reach here. At some point he's got to break through and these short tracks are just like the ones he learned to race on in the Midwest.
Shoulda, woulda coulda, but didn't - Kurt Busch, yes that Kurt Busch, has five wins here. But he's not on a big-time team any longer with the one-car Phoenix Racing. His patience will be tested more than ever now.

ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP
Here's a review of last week's picks at Las Vegas and how they finished.
Matt Kenseth - 22nd. Contended for the lead all day, only to get caught in a late-race scuffle and get pushed up against the wall.
Carl Edwards - 5th. He was not in contention all day and never led a lap, but hung around and rallied late.
Kyle Busch - 23rd. He started in the back in a backup car looked to be marching to the front. After hanging around 10th and 11th most of the day, he couldn't muster the kind of finish he would have liked in his hometown.
Jimmie Johnson - 2nd. The No. 48 team could have very well won the race, but just couldn't get around Tony Stewart in those final restarts.
Mark Martin - 18th. I went sentimental here, but it wasn't meant to be. He didn't lead a lap.

Here's a look at my stats after three races and 15 picks.

O wins
4 top fives
2 top 10s

Grade for this week: C plus (a good Kenseth finish away from emerging from mediocrity)

That zero there is killing me.
Until next time

Kahne captures truck race

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Kasey Kahne did it again.

Making his first and possibly only Camping World Truck Series start of the year, Kahne cruised to a relatively comfortable win in Saturday's Too Tough To Tame 200 at Darlington Raceway.
The victory made Kahne the first driver in the Truck Series to win three of his first four starts.

Second alongside Elliott Sadler on a restart with 53 laps to go, Kahne immediately dispatched of Sadler -- who had taken two tires under the previous caution -- and never trailed again.

Kahne held on through three more restarts, including a final one with three laps to go, to take the checkered flag ahead of four-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and 2010 Darlington winner Todd Bodine. Matt Crafton and James Buescher completed the top five.

Kahne's stiffest challenge over the final laps came from Bodine, who once moved alongside before getting loose and falling into the clutches of Hornaday.

"I gave it a shot and got sucked around and got loose and all that and finished third," Bodine said.

Kahne, a full-time driver in the Sprint Cup Series since 2004, scored Truck wins at Darlington and Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2004 and finished second last year at Pocono Raceway.

Saturday marked Kahne's second appearance in the Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota normally driven by team owner Kyle Busch, who was vacationing in Cancun.

"This is one of my favorite race tracks," said Kahne, who qualified second and led four times for 95 of the 147 laps. "I'm really glad I came. I really enjoy driving this thing."

Matt Crafton remained the series leader, stretching his advantage to six points on rookie Cole Whitt, who moved into second after three races. Whitt finished an impressive eighth after starting from the pole and leading twice for 30 laps before dropping back with a pit-road mistake and engine issue.

Whitt, 19, was making his fourth career Truck Series start, his first at Darlington.

"The track just kind of suited my driving style, and from the get-go we just kind of fell into the rhythm," Whitt said.

The race was slowed by 10 cautions, including one for a three-truck wreck involving Johanna Long, Ricky Carmichael and Nelson Piquet Jr. that brought out the red flag for 7 minutes, 37 seconds.

Notes: Kahne's margin of victory was 1.116 seconds. ... Kahne, who started second, became the fourth winner to start inside the top five. Bodine started eighth last year, and Bobby Hamilton started 14th when he won in 2003. ... Kahne's three wins tie Rich Bickle, Andy Houston and Dave Rezendes for 27th on the all-time win list.

Kahne puts the brakes on RPM and Jimmie the good guy

Kasey Kahne's comments after last week's race about his situation at RPM racing pretty much expedited his exit from the team. Kahne has had brake issues this season and he was suspecting it might have to do with the type of brake fluid the team uses, which was apparently a little cheaper than what most other teams use.
Just speculating here, but one has to wonder if the fact that Kahne was signed to join Red Bull Racing next year made working on his car a little less of priority. Not that anyone would do anything intentional to his car, but maybe when a final check was done on the car before going on the hauler, maybe his car wasn't being checked quite as good. It just seems odd that his car was the only one on the team to have brake issues when date showed he did not use his brakes out of a normal range.
At any rate, Kahne, starting with this week's race in Virginia, will be with Red Bull Racing. That's no surprise after he questioned openly questioned the team after the brake failure last week.
And one other thing, Kahne, even though he became during Saturday night's race, still got up Sunday morning and ran a 5K for his foundation. And Jimmie Johnson, yes that Jimmie Johnson, was one of the drivers who showed up and ran as well. So, like him or not, it's not something Johnson had to do, but did anyway.

Some real shocking picks here

NASCAR is on its home track in Charlotte this week, amounting to a week at home for the on-track crew and drivers. It's a week without a lot of travel that they all appreciate.
One driver who probably appreciates Charlotte as much as anyone is Jimmie Johnson. He's in the lead for the Chase for the Championship and is the favorite to win a fifth straight title. So with that in mind, here's the picks for this week.

Jimmie Johnson. Knew you'd be surprised.
Jeff Gordon. He's on the pole and if anybody needs a win, it's him.
Tony Stewart. If not for running out of gas at New Hampshire, he'd be right on Johnson's bumper.
Denny Hamlin. If he wants to truly challenge Johnson for the title, he needs to win this week on a track that Johnson has been traditionally strong at.
Kasey Kahne. He seems to run well at Charlotte, and I'm not picking all Chasers this week.

The Yellow Brick Road

The NASCAR boys are in Kansas this weekend and this, the third race in the Chase, is when we start to get more separation between the haves and have nots in the Chase.
So, with my five picks for this week (yes, I had Jimmie Johnson last week at Dover), maybe we can get a little more clarity in the Chase.

Jimmie Johnson: Yes, he's second to Denny Hamlin in the points, but he's the guy to beat.
Denny Hamlin: Probably the only driver who has the combination of consistency and win-ability to challenge Johnson.
Carl Edwards: He says he would rather win in Kansas, about 90 minutes from his hometown of Columbia, Mo., than anywhere including Daytona or Indy. Really? Well, he could use a win right now and has been pretty consistent for a while, so it might be about time for a visit to Victory Lane.
Clint Bowyer: Cheatin' Clint (I know, he has no idea what exactly the crew does to the car, but he's guilty by association here), would love to win in his home state and get a legal victory.
Kasey Kahne: He's starting up front, and as you may well know, clean air is everything with these cars

The guy I probably should have picked but didn't ... Jeff Burton. Just a hunch.

Michigan pickers and last week

Here's the picks for this week's race at Michigan:

Kasey Kahne: He's on the pole and may be a little more relaxed after knowing he has a ride with Red Bull Racing for next year.
Tony Stewart: Always does well at Michigan and maybe wants to prove something after a disappointing (for him) seventh-place finish on a road course.
Greg Biffle: The Fords are coming on at the right time of the year and they particularly like to do well at Michigan.
Carl Edwards: He's been coming close lately, so don't be surprised to see him in Victory Lane.
Jeff Gordon: Well, the dude's got to win sometime right?

Here's a quick review of how I did last week:
Juan Pablo Montoya: We got a winner in town.
Marcos Ambrose: Third, not bad.
A.J. Allmendinger: Fourth, pretty good.
Carl Edwards: Fifth, hey a good run.
Tony Stewart: Seventh, not quite up to his road-course standards.

Debris and picks On the Road ... in California

Denny Hamlin told his story and he's sticking to it. It's long been suspected that NASCAR will find debris on the track when a driver seems to be running away with the race. And that might, or might not, have been the case with Denny Hamlin at Michigan last week. He was dominating when a yellow came out for debris. Hamlin said NASCAR used that as an excuse to bunch the field back up for the finish. Hamlin's car was too fast and he went on to win anyway.
But does Hamlin have a point?
Of course he does. With NASCAR races, especially in the late going, it's not hard to find some debris on the track. NASCAR will tell us the caution comes out for safety reasons, and often that is the case. But sometimes, the powers that be can use debris as a reason to bring the field back together. It's not entirely a bad thing, as unless it's your favorite guy leading, it's not fun watching someone run away the race.

OK, a look the picks from last week:
Kyle Busch: Not a good day and he finished 20th.
Jeff Gordon: Solid as usual with a fourth.
Jamie McMurray: 32nd. I should know better than to pick soap opera guy.
Jimmie Johnson: A solid sixth.
Carl Edwards: Did double-duty for weekend and hung in there for a 12th
Shame on me for not picking the red-hot Hamlin.

So on to this week, for the first of the two road races this year, this one at Infineon Raceway in California.

Kasey Kahne: Won this race last year, on the pole, which is big for road courses.
Jeff Gordon: Traditionally great on road courses.
Tony Stewart: Same as Gordon
Marcus Ambrose: He understands the road courses quite well.
Boris Said: I'm a closet Said Head, and this is one of two times I can legitimately pick him.

The Best Day of the Year and picks

For auto racing fans, today is the best day of the year. If you can handle watching the Formula One cars play follow the leader after they get into the first turn, there's the Turkish Grand Prix this morning. Actually, I liked it better when this race was the Grand Prix of Monaco, a top event for the Formula One guys and actually a race worth watching for that circuit.
Then at 1 p.m. today there is the Indianapolis 500. The Indy Car leaders did all they could to ruin their series in the 1990s and early 2000s by having split series, but the Indy 500 is still the Indy 500 and the winner gets over a $1 million, so you know, that's nothing to sneeze at. And Danica is in the race, so when she gets mad at somebody for cutting her off, that's always entertaining, whether it's her radio chatter or confronting them in the pits during or after the race.
Look for a Penske or Ganassi car to win there. Ganassi is trying to win the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 in the same year, which would be quite an accomplishment. And Penske and Ganassi also have an outside chance to win the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day, which would also be quite a feat.
And speaking of the Coca-Cola 600, here's a look at my picks for tonight's endurance test.
Kyle Busch - Probably not patient enough, but he's just too good not to pick.
Jimmie Johnson - He's been so good at this place, it's stupid not to pick him.
Jeff Gordon - Got his first career win in this race and it would be sort of appropriate for him to win here as he is undergoing a bit of renaissance.
Kurt Busch - Looked good in the All-Star race and if Penske wins at Indy, this would give him the Daily Double.
Kasey Kahne - A Ford has got to win a race sometime this year.