Sprint Cup 2012: Race 12: The Coke 600 "The Long Run"

How 2012 is shaping up so far and a look at the Coke 600

With the All-Star Race completed, the Sprint Cup long drive is now underway leading to September’s showdown in Richmond that will determine the field for the chase. This provides a great opportunity to assess the season so far and perhaps make a feeble attempt at projecting who the real championship and chase contenders are.

For all the foibles at the start of the season, Jimmie Johnson sure looks poised to gain his sixth after missing the mark last year. Tony Stewart has had his ups and downs but has the reputation of being a late season spectacular, so that he has two wins already sure makes him look good. Roush has Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle in hot contention occupying the top of the standings while last year’s almost champ, Carl Edwards has struggled so far, but it’s hard to count him out. Denny Hamlin has two wins and is back in form while teammate, Kyle Busch is just beginning to get cranked up. Martin Truex Jr. can’t finish races but has consistently run well. He could be Michael Waltrip Racing’s first legit contender. Kevin Harvick still hasn’t really caught fire yet with two top 5’s and five top 10’s, he’s in the top ten in rather unspectacular fashion. Beyond that, the most spectacular of the rides outside the top ten has to be Brad Keselowski, who apart from some bad finishes, would surely be strongly in the top ten. His two wins could be enough to get him in a wild card spot. The only other driver outside the top ten with a win is Ryan Newman in 14^th. Somehow, his car seems to be a magnet for crashes this year. Clint Bowyer in 11^th has not looked nearly as aggressive as in past years. A driver to watch is Kasey Kahne in 15^th. His season could not have started off much worse, but in recent weeks, his team has come on strong and is bound to break into victory lane soon.  We neglected to mention, NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who’s in 3^rd place looking more consistent than he has in years. He’s come so close so often, a win can’t be far away.

The year’s greatest disappointment has to be Jeff Gordon, buried in 24^th place far from the top ten, the #24 team must first get into the top 20 and then chalk up some wins or it will be a major black mark for one of the most famous careers in the sport.

Joey Logano is fighting to keep his spot in Joe Gibbs Racing. His season is so far looking far more promising standing in 15^th position. He’ll need to continue to improve to assure his spot in the #20 Toyota next year.

Here’s how the current top ten and winning teams place noting teams that could also be in contention.

1. Greg Biffle #19
2. Matt Kenseth #17 (-2)
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #3 (-14)
4. Denny Hamlin #11 (-17)
5. Jimmie Johnson #48 (-39)
6. Martin Truex, Jr. #56 (-39)
7. Tony Stewart #14 (-42)
8. Kevin Harvick #29 (-50)
9. Kyle Busch #18 (-62)
10. Carl Edwards (#99) (-74)
11. Clint Bowyer (#15) (-76)
12. Brad Keselowski (#2) (-83) WILDCARD
13. Paul Menard #27 (-103)
14. Ryan Newman #39 (-104)

So how bad is it for Jeff Gordon? Go down the standings ten places to 24^th, -170 pts. Jeff Gordon would need to win at least two of the next fifteen races to make The Chase as a wildcard.

Tonight, Richard Petty has the top two cars on the pole with Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose on the front row. Gunning for them in row two are perhaps the hottest two drivers of the year right now, Jimmie Johnson (all-star and Darlington winner) and Greg Biffle (points leader). Strong competitors fill out the top 17 entries. As always, the Coke 600 is an endurance contest. Looking at previous 1 ½ mile events so far this year is not a good barometer of the likely winner. It’s hard not to look to a Rich Hendricks or Jack Roush entry to take the checkered flag.

Coke 600 Starting Line Up:

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED
1	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	U.S. Air Force	192.940
2	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	DEWALT	191.598
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's Patriotic	191.374
4	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Fastenal	191.259
5	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	191.198
6	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron's Armed Forces Foundation	191.171
7	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Quaker State	191.130
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	190.887
9	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Menards / Serta	190.597
10	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing	190.456
11	22	AJ Allmendinger	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	190.329
12	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard 'An American Salute'	190.302
13	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Auto Center	190.268
14	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Budweiser Folds of Honor	190.201
15	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	190.194
16	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	190.054
17	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's Red, White & Blue	190.034
18	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King Real Fruit Smoothies	189.987
19	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	Dollar General	189.707
20	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Fastenal	189.607
21	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	189.574
22	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Wheaties	189.520
23	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	189.076
24	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	188.871
25	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	188.363
26	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Kingsford	188.344
27	74	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	Turn One Racing	188.324
28	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	188.206
29	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	187.924
30	34	David Ragan	Ford	Al's Liners / Scorpion Coatings	187.656
31	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Arctic Cat	187.526
32	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	Presbyterian Healthcare System	187.487
33	26	Josh Wise*	Ford	MDS Transport	187.259
34	33	Stephen Leicht*	Chevrolet	Little Joe's Autos / Precon	187.169
35	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	186.143
36	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	SealWrap	186.111
37	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Dr Pepper	186.085
38	195	Scott Speed	Ford	Jordan's Truck Sales	185.976
39	38	David Gilliland	Ford	ModSpace	185.810
40	10	Danica Patrick+	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	-
41	32	T.J. Bell+	Ford	Green Smoke	-
42	51	Kurt Busch+	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction Services	-
43	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	Global Barter Corp	185.784
Did Not Qualify
-	249	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	America Israel Racing / JPO Absorbents	-
-	119	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Humphrey Smith Racing	-
-	173	David Reutimann	Toyota	Burger King	-
-	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	-

Sprint Cup 2012: Race 11 -- DARLINGTON!!!!

Darlington is one tough place to play. NASCAR's oldest track being an asymmetrical oval and narrow in the curves makes it truly as the slogan says, "too tough to tame."  Some body's favorite driver will be exiting a heap of twisted metal before the race is close to a conclusion. The big media story is that this will be Danica Patrick's second Sprint Cup race having started with the Daytona 500, talk about hazing a rookie. She did well finishing 12th in Nationwide competition, but now it's life with the big boys. Amother big story is the Hendricks' team's quest for win 200, while Jeff Gordon is buried deep in the standings having a miserable season, 70 points out of the top ten with the summer stretch ahead. Who'd think that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be the team's most consistent, highest performing driver.

Greg Biffle sits on the pole but two Hendricks' cars are in 2nd and 3rd ready to make a statement, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne. Anxious to show his remarkable win last year was no fluke, Regan Smith starts in the top 10, 9th, to seek a 2nd trophy for the Furniture Row team. One can't look at tonight's starting line up from 29th down to 43rd without seeing how much pure garbage is on the track with marginal and fraudelent teams that simply do not belong in the sport's most elite series. We'll consider the BK racing and Front Row teams as legit, but beyond them, how many of these teams have any prospect of ever being competitive teams? Tonight's race could set the record for "start and park" entries if they don't HOPEFULLY wreck first. If bounty were ever desirable in a sport, it would be wrecking start and park cars before they can sneak off the track. This has to be the absolute dumbest practice in any major sport except perhaps the tolerance for fighting in the NHL.

Here's the link to tonight's starting lineup. 
Darlington Lineup

Sprint Cup 2012: Race 10 -- Talledega's Hot Plate Special

Talladega provides the most unusual of challenges where NASCAR looks for challenging ways to slow cars down ever since Bill Elliot’s 212 mph lap and Bobby Allison’s car launching like a rocket into the stands in the late 1980’s ushering in the restrictor plate era for the sport’s two longest tracks. Meanwhile, no matter what limitations are thrown at the competition, the teams always search for ways to out pace their competitors finding more speed up against the limits, the latest is the pop-off valve – a sneaky little innovation that is designed to punish excellence – as in two cars paring up together to blow away the field.

The big story as the Sprint Cup tour descends upon Talladega, Alabama for the Aaron’s 499 is one that will become increasingly louder until the feat is accomplished, car owner, Rick Hendrick’s, 200^th win with the subtext of when two of his all-star drivers, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will break their long winless streaks mindful that their last win was in Kansas, last October, with Jimmy Johnson. To that end, Jeff Gordon, one of Talladega’s most successful drivers sits on the pole for tomorrow’s contest. Kasey Kahne also has a top ten starting spot lining up in 5^th while Earnhardt in 18^th and Jimmy Johnson in 19^th will have to work through the field to put themselves in a position to win.

A.J. Allmendinger, surely the series’ best driver never to win a race, starts second in the Penske #22 Dodge while the rest of the top ten looks like a Ford feast with only Tony Stewart added to the top starters in the #14 Chevrolet in 8^th. Meanwhile, the “Blue Ovals” are dominating the top spots with Richard Petty’s drivers Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola in 3^rd and 4^th then the Roush in 6^th and 7^th, Biffle and Edwards. 10^th and 11^th are Fords too, Matt Kenseth and part-time Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne. Michael Waltrip running one of his limited scheduled races gives Mark Martin the weekend off starting in 9^th as the top Toyota.

Another observation is that with 44 entries for 43 spots, how many entries are pure garbage that really don’t belong in the field – between the customary “start and park” rip-offs and some other extremely marginal teams, once again NASCAR shows a crying need to reduce the starting field to a more competitive number of entries. Certainly anywhere from five to ten reductions would make for a much more dynamic starting lineup with all teams either contenders or hard at work to sneak in a win. Considering the surge of the 1990’s and early 2000’s and that the 43 car starting line-up was not mandatory at all tracks until 1988, it is realistic that the sport dial back to what should assure the highest quality racing at the top level and even more so for the Nationwide Series which aside from moonlighting Sprint Cup rides, has only a handful of genuinely talented regulars, a field littered with “has been’s” and pathetic “wanna-be’s.”

Teams will be running with the cooling system pop-off valves designed to make cars overheat if they race in two car tandems just like what was done for the Daytona 500; however, much hotter weather could make this even more of an issue. Look for the big packs fans have come to expect at the great Indian burial ground.

Tomorrow’s entries line up as follows:

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED
1	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont 20 Years	191.624
2	22	AJ Allmendinger	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil-AAA	191.111
3	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Stanley	191.039
4	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Verifone Sail	190.981
5	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	190.772
6	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M / O'Reilly Auto Parts	190.586
7	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	190.586
8	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	190.476
9	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	Aaron's "Color your way to Talladega"	190.245
10	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Best Buy	190.200
11	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	190.170
12	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target / Kraft	190.140
13	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	190.072
14	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats	190.064
15	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	189.958
16	26	Josh Wise*	Ford	Morristown Driver's Service	189.958
17	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Turtle Wax / Menards	189.906
18	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Diet Mountain Dew	189.864
19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's	189.797
20	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Rheem	189.785
21	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	189.691
22	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	189.680
23	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats	189.601
24	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	Aaron's / Alabama National Champions	189.556
25	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	189.477
26	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	189.354
27	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Stock Car Steel and Aluminum	189.331
28	32	Terry Labonte	Ford	C&J Energy	189.182
29	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	189.100
30	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	Dollar General	189.073
31	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	189.051
32	34	David Ragan	Ford	Front Row Motorsports	189.021
33	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction Services	188.984
34	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	188.902
35	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	Curb Records	188.630
36	97	Bill Elliott	Toyota	NEMCO Motorsports	188.171
37	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves	188.012
38	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	Golden Corral	187.625
39	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	Toyota	North Texas Pipe	186.710
40	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	186.293
41	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	186.206
42	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Bush's Baked Beans	185.790
43	33	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	Little Joe's Autos	186.529

J.J. Yeley, car #49 failed to qualify.