TheOldProgrammer
March 26th, 2011, 8:45 AM
Auto Club 400
By Yahoo! Sports Staff
March 24, 2011
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Auto Club Speedway for Sunday's Auto Club 400. The event is the only Cup race there this season.
Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner.
Who Will Win?
Biffle Biffle Greg Biffle: The Biff had one of the three fastest cars at Las Vegas but was derailed by a fueling issue. Before Bristol, Ryan Dextraze, Biffle's former catch can man, was installed as the fueler for the No. 16. It says here that Biffle has another fast car on an intermediate track and that pit stops won't be his undoing at Fontana. – Nick Bromberg
Carl Edwards: : Hard not to go with Cuzzin' Carl here. He's been one of the drivers to beat every race this season (and who else can say that?), he's led in three of four races (Daytona, where he finished second, being the only exception) and he already has a win on an intermediate track, which Auto Club Speedway is. It may be the obvious pick, but it's so freaking obvious I can't ignore it. – Jay Hart
Tony Stewart: Everybody on earth is picking Jimmie Johnson, but it's too early to panic and go with a safety pick like that. Me, I'll take Tony Stewart, who won here in the fall and is riding a streak of four straight top 10s there. It's a little early for Smoke to be hitting his stride – that usually doesn't come until the weather turns – but were it not for some unfortunate accidents not of his own making, he'd own this early season. – Jay Busbee
Three things to watch for at Auto Club Speedway:
Dallenbach Roush 1. How many fans will show up? Because it wasn't drawing very many fans to two races, Auto Club Speedway is back to just one event a year. But will it matter? The speedway has a published capacity of 90,988. If there are 70,000 at Sunday's race it will be a success.
2. Will Roush dominate? The top four qualifiers at Las Vegas three weeks ago were Fords. Three of them came from the Roush stable. And if David Ragan hadn't spun during his qualifying lap, odds are Roush would have had four of the top five positions. That means they have speed. Kenseth won the pole, Biffle was blazing until his gas man failed to gas his car and, of course, Edwards went on to win the race.
3. And will Hendrick struggle? Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the highest-finishing Hendrick driver at Las Vegas. Yes, we're basing a lot on that Vegas race, but that's all we have to go on so far. Jimmie Johnson was 16th, Mark Martin was 18th and Jeff Gordon, after wrecking, wound up 36th. As a team, they led exactly 0 laps.
Johnson won this race a year ago. He heads in this year as a major question mark.
Top storyline
Earnhardt Earnhardt • It's make-or-break time for some fast starters. Paul Menard has an average finish of 26.5 at Fontana, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. "boasts" an average finish of 22.3. Both have been targeted as rising stars this season, but both have, so far, been on comfortable tracks. If you're going to succeed in NASCAR, you can't have giveaway tracks, and the way Menard and Earnhardt run this weekend will answer a lot of questions about how seriously we should take them in 2011. – Jay Busbee
• Is it finally time for Juan Pablo Montoya to get that win on an oval? He hasn't had great results at Auto Club Speedway, but he has had great races, leading a bunch of laps in two of the last three races there. He finished third in Las Vegas, which I expect means he'll be fast this weekend. He will qualify up front, but can he stay there? – Jay Hart
• Engines. The race at Auto Club Speedway is now 400 miles and won't be run in the 100 degree temperatures that had become a little too familiar over Labor Day weekend. But two engine-related storylines should dominate the day. Will the Ford horsepower be as dominant as it was at Las Vegas when it took the top four qualifying spots and will the engines at Joe Gibbs Racing make it through the entire race after having engine issues on three of the first four Cup weekends? – Nick Bromberg
From The Source
Jeff Burton: "With the new Chase format, if we're not in the top 10 in points, then the only other way we'll get in the Chase is to win races. I'm not thinking about winning races for any other reason than that."
:smoke
By Yahoo! Sports Staff
March 24, 2011
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Auto Club Speedway for Sunday's Auto Club 400. The event is the only Cup race there this season.
Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner.
Who Will Win?
Biffle Biffle Greg Biffle: The Biff had one of the three fastest cars at Las Vegas but was derailed by a fueling issue. Before Bristol, Ryan Dextraze, Biffle's former catch can man, was installed as the fueler for the No. 16. It says here that Biffle has another fast car on an intermediate track and that pit stops won't be his undoing at Fontana. – Nick Bromberg
Carl Edwards: : Hard not to go with Cuzzin' Carl here. He's been one of the drivers to beat every race this season (and who else can say that?), he's led in three of four races (Daytona, where he finished second, being the only exception) and he already has a win on an intermediate track, which Auto Club Speedway is. It may be the obvious pick, but it's so freaking obvious I can't ignore it. – Jay Hart
Tony Stewart: Everybody on earth is picking Jimmie Johnson, but it's too early to panic and go with a safety pick like that. Me, I'll take Tony Stewart, who won here in the fall and is riding a streak of four straight top 10s there. It's a little early for Smoke to be hitting his stride – that usually doesn't come until the weather turns – but were it not for some unfortunate accidents not of his own making, he'd own this early season. – Jay Busbee
Three things to watch for at Auto Club Speedway:
Dallenbach Roush 1. How many fans will show up? Because it wasn't drawing very many fans to two races, Auto Club Speedway is back to just one event a year. But will it matter? The speedway has a published capacity of 90,988. If there are 70,000 at Sunday's race it will be a success.
2. Will Roush dominate? The top four qualifiers at Las Vegas three weeks ago were Fords. Three of them came from the Roush stable. And if David Ragan hadn't spun during his qualifying lap, odds are Roush would have had four of the top five positions. That means they have speed. Kenseth won the pole, Biffle was blazing until his gas man failed to gas his car and, of course, Edwards went on to win the race.
3. And will Hendrick struggle? Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the highest-finishing Hendrick driver at Las Vegas. Yes, we're basing a lot on that Vegas race, but that's all we have to go on so far. Jimmie Johnson was 16th, Mark Martin was 18th and Jeff Gordon, after wrecking, wound up 36th. As a team, they led exactly 0 laps.
Johnson won this race a year ago. He heads in this year as a major question mark.
Top storyline
Earnhardt Earnhardt • It's make-or-break time for some fast starters. Paul Menard has an average finish of 26.5 at Fontana, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. "boasts" an average finish of 22.3. Both have been targeted as rising stars this season, but both have, so far, been on comfortable tracks. If you're going to succeed in NASCAR, you can't have giveaway tracks, and the way Menard and Earnhardt run this weekend will answer a lot of questions about how seriously we should take them in 2011. – Jay Busbee
• Is it finally time for Juan Pablo Montoya to get that win on an oval? He hasn't had great results at Auto Club Speedway, but he has had great races, leading a bunch of laps in two of the last three races there. He finished third in Las Vegas, which I expect means he'll be fast this weekend. He will qualify up front, but can he stay there? – Jay Hart
• Engines. The race at Auto Club Speedway is now 400 miles and won't be run in the 100 degree temperatures that had become a little too familiar over Labor Day weekend. But two engine-related storylines should dominate the day. Will the Ford horsepower be as dominant as it was at Las Vegas when it took the top four qualifying spots and will the engines at Joe Gibbs Racing make it through the entire race after having engine issues on three of the first four Cup weekends? – Nick Bromberg
From The Source
Jeff Burton: "With the new Chase format, if we're not in the top 10 in points, then the only other way we'll get in the Chase is to win races. I'm not thinking about winning races for any other reason than that."
:smoke