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Post by labontefanboy on Mar 23, 2014 21:08:40 GMT -5
Entry List - trying out a new style so non-guaranteed drivers are more visible than before  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2014 6:22:16 GMT -5
Bobby Ricky's Fearless Predictions: Autism Speaks 400
1. Hendrick and/or Roush will dominate...again.
The past three seasons have seen a Roush driver win the spring race at Dover (Mark Martin in '04 & '05, Greg Biffle last season). Thus, I can see Roush dominating again today, especially with Biffle and Matt Kenseth, who coming his win @ Lowe's last week. The only team I see giving a true challenge to Roush is Hendrick Motorsports. Jimmie Johnson has won the fall race here for the last two seasons, but he hasn't won the spring race since his rookie season in 2002. He hasn't been so hot so far this season, but that all could change this coming Sunday! Also keep an eye out for Jeff Gordon and points leader Brian Vickers.
2. AJ Allmendinger will finish in the upper half of the field again.
Pinch-driving for 2004 Cup champ Kurt Busch seems to be working well for Allmendinger, who qualified 20th for last week's Coca-Cola 600 and ended up 21st despite being caught up in a late wreck. Even so, AJ still proved he was the right choice for the Monster Energy car, and I believe he'll impress us again this week. It won't be easy, but I have faith in him.
3. Aric Almirola will go all out starting with this race.
Earlier this week, Bill Davis surprised us all with the announcement that Steve Park would be joining his team in 2008, replacing Aric Almirola in the #22. That news came as a shock to me, but mainly because of the fact that Almirola may not have a Cup ride for the near future. After he won the All-Star Fan Vote this year, and that 10th place finish at Lowe's, I figured that BDR had its driver of the future, but I guess Mr. Davis wants somebody with more experience to continue the legacy of the car that Ward Burton drove to victory in the 2002 Daytona 500. Getting back to Almirola, since he likely won't have a home in Cup for a while after this season, he'll need to make the best of the rest of his rookie season. He has plenty of time to do it, so I expect Almirola to push his limits (just not enough to knock the #22 far enough out of the top 35 in owner's points) in hopes of ensuring that Park has a guaranteed spot for the first 5 races of his comback. Almirola might have to take it easy at some points since BDR's no longer the powerhouse it once was, but this kid's still going to have to prove himself for his Nationwide team for next season.
(P.S. I like the new style of the entry list. Very nicely done!)
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Post by Blaise Zebrataur on Mar 24, 2014 9:06:54 GMT -5
Very nice new style of entry list.
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Post by thatoneshredder on Mar 24, 2014 10:02:28 GMT -5
Almirola will be in need of a ride for 2008. After he won the All-Star Fan Vote this year, and that 10th place finish at Lowe's, I figured that BDR had its driver of the future, but I guess Mr. Davis wants somebody with more experience to continue the legacy of the car that Ward Burton drove to victory in the 2002 Daytona 500. Getting back to Almirola, since he now needs a new home for his sophomore season in Cup Almirola has a Nationwide ride for 2008, pretty sure it's been announced in the Nationwide Silly Season |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2014 12:34:29 GMT -5
Almirola will be in need of a ride for 2008. After he won the All-Star Fan Vote this year, and that 10th place finish at Lowe's, I figured that BDR had its driver of the future, but I guess Mr. Davis wants somebody with more experience to continue the legacy of the car that Ward Burton drove to victory in the 2002 Daytona 500. Getting back to Almirola, since he now needs a new home for his sophomore season in Cup Almirola has a Nationwide ride for 2008, pretty sure it's been announced in the Nationwide Silly Season Forgot about that...  I've revised my third prediction. Sorry for any confusion. Hopefully, this won't happen again. |
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Post by labontefanboy on Apr 5, 2014 16:23:04 GMT -5
I should be able to get the race in tonight, fyi. Then, I do the first ratings adjustment of '07. Considering I won't have access to a computer for pretty much all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday due to a robotics competition, it could be a while before race 14 happens. I'm also rapidly approaching the AP Calc AB and AP Chemistry exams (first full week of May) and then have to start to prepare for the SAT and ACT, which I'm taking in June. So things are definitely getting busy, but I will do my best to keep up with this.
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Post by labontefanboy on Apr 6, 2014 10:09:51 GMT -5
Race 13 - Autism Speaks 400The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series trekked northward to Delaware to the site of Dover International Speedway, or what is more commonly referred to as the "Monster Mile". The speedy, high-banked and concrete one-miler always produces thrilling race action with the ever-present possibility of a wreck eliminating contenders. With this race marking the end of the first half of the 2007 regular season, teams knew it was go time. Two teams in particular seemed to get the message, combining to lead all but 3 of the 400 laps. Bobby Hamilton Jr., in his Braun-Edwards Racing Toyota stole the show on Friday with a surprising pole and led the field to the green flag, but was never a factor. It was Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon who took the lead in turn 2 of the first lap from the outside pole who dominated the first portion of the race. Gordon obliterated the field, leading the first 91 laps until making his first scheduled pit stop. While still behind a lap to the leader, however, Gordon made contact with Scott Riggs in turn 3, and Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth plowed into the spinning #91 machine. The caution trapped Gordon down a lap, and he'd never recover, eventually slipping to a 16th place finish. The restart on lap 100 saw Gordon's teammate, points leader Brian Vickers in command. He wouldn't last long, however, as another Hendrick Chevy took the lead on lap 112 as Jimmie Johnson surged to the front. Johnson, like Gordon, would dominate the race, leading until his pit stop on lap 189. Once again, a caution during the round of green flag pit stops shuffled up the running order, though, as Michael Waltrip tapped Joe Nemechek and Casey Mears into a spin on lap 191. For the lap 196 restart, it was Roush Racing's Danny O'Quinn Jr., making just his 2nd of 7 scheduled appearances this season, in the lead, as everyone else through 13th was trapped on the tail end of the lead lap. With no challengers, O'Quinn Jr. was able to control the lead for a while, lasting through two caution flags for a wreck involving Jamie McMurray and Hamilton Jr. and another for Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. It wasn't until lap 253 that Johnson was able to reclaim the lead. However, Roush Racing had established a presence at the front of the field, and it wasn't ready to let that slip away. On lap 299, Greg Biffle was able to use lapped traffic as a pick and slip by Johnson. Ken Schrader's car stalled on the backstretch just 10 laps later to bring out the final caution of the race, but Biffle would retain the lead through green flag pit stops. With a tight fuel window, many fans were held on the edge of their seats over the final 5 laps, but Biffle and most of the leaders all saved enough gas, and Biffle earned his first victory of 2007!  
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2014 13:08:35 GMT -5
Bobby Ricky's Post-Race Analysis
Well, it looks like all three of my predictions were right!
This race saw domination mainly from Hendrick and Roush, with a Roush driver making it to victory lane. Congrats to The Biff on his first win this season! And kudos to Danny O'Quinn Jr. for making an impression with those 62 laps that he lead and that 9th place finish he managed. He may not be running the full season, but he should have a bright future in store!
And AJ Allmendinger, amazing job by him as well! I didn't know what to make of him after his 34th-place qualifying run, but he snuck into the top 15 and dazzled us again!
Finally, there's Aric Almirola, who will be returning to the Nationwide Series after this season to make way for comeback kid Steve Park (Thanks to my followers for bringing that up to me after I originally forgot about it in my pre-race predictions). Surely, he wants to ensure that Bill Davis has a spot in the first 5 races next season with Park driving the 22, and he seems to be doing a good job so far. 28th place may not be something worth writing home about, but it's enough to keep the 22 in the top-35, at least for another race.
I'd also like to give credit to Bobby Hamilton Jr. for winning the pole. It's been nearly five months since he lost his father, but when I spoke with him after qualifying, he expressed confidence that this pole should be enough to give him motivation for the rest of his career. He may not have been a factor in the actual race like he was in qualifying, but I expect things to change dramatically when he joins Gene Haas' team next season.
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Post by thatoneshredder on Apr 6, 2014 13:22:00 GMT -5
"Well, this race just wasn't very fun. Our car has just been lacking speed. It's not really Aric's fault, he's doing all he can, and he's got a lot of pressure on him. We've yet to miss a race, but I think we're the lowest in points that's made every race. The guys back at the shop really need to put more into the car, and I think things will start changing once we get the R&D team to the track a little bit more. Oh well, another race we're guaranteed, hopefully we can make up some points."
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Post by labontefanboy on Apr 6, 2014 13:41:59 GMT -5
Jack Roush team statement-Very glad to have gotten the win today with Greg and I'm really excited that Danny ran so well too. Carl had a solid top 15 run going until he had to stop for a splash of fuel with a couple laps left, but they made a lot of gains from where they unloaded. It's too bad Todd had another DNF, he's gonna have another stressful qualifying session coming up especially since we haven't been to The Rock in a couple years. And Matt had a bad luck crash but he ran well before that happened. I'm disappointed and happy at the same time.
Greg Biffle post-race statement-Really happy to finally get the first win of the season and especially happy for all my boys back at the shop. This one's been a long time coming, and this whole Gander Mountain team has stepped it up week after week to get things right. We were starting to get a little worried about a letdown year after 12 races without a win, but I think sitting down and convincing each other that we were each accountable for what goes on really helped us step it up these last couple weeks. I'm thinking that we could get on a mid-summer run here and start to really post a lot of top 5s and wins.
Danny O'Quinn Jr. post-race statement-I can't believe I actually 62 laps of a Cup race *laughs*. That was a lot of fun, I know it only happened because of cautions and timing and that stuff, but it was still really cool to be up there and seeing my number on top of the scoring tower. On top of all that good stuff I learned a whole bunch too, so I think this is definitely going down as my best race in any series of my career.
Carl Edwards post-race statement-The Office Depot crew worked really hard all weekend so running out of fuel late really stings. We were junk on Friday practice but we had actually gotten decent and were close to getting a chance at a top 12 finish but we came up short, it's a little hard to accept right now.
Todd Kluever and Matt Kenseth had left the speedway prior to the conclusion of the race and weren't available for post-race comment.
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