The Frontstretch: Tracking The Top 35: Fuel Mileage Plays Into the Hands of a Trio of Bubble Teams by Mike Ravesi -- Monday June 15, 2009

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The Breakdown:

Fuel mileage was again the name of the game for the second week in a row this past Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. As some of the top 15 teams dried up late and faded, three of our bubble teams were able to surge ahead as they went into conservation mode soon enough to stretch their gas tanks to the checkered flag. Which trio was able to ride it out to the finish? Read on to find out in this week’s edition of the Bubble Breakdown.

The Good:

David Ragan once again got the big run he needed at Michigan. Ragan, whose worst career finish at the track is 21st, played the fuel mileage game a little better than his teammate Greg Biffle and came home in the 15th position. Ragan qualified his Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion in the 23rd spot and ran right around midpack most of the day. But with about 15 laps to go, crew chief Jimmy Fennig started preaching that fuel mileage was going to be the name of the game, and if David could save him some gas they could manage to get a good finish. His big break came within the last two laps as several drivers ran out of gas, allowing David to pick up several positions for just his third top 15 of the year.

How good is it to see Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers finishing in the 16th position?! Elliott followed up his 15th place run in the Coca-Cola 600 with another strong finish in last Sunday’s Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Perhaps the start and park teams should take a page out of the Wood Brothers playbook, as running a limited schedule has produced finishes of 23rd or better in three of the team’s five events. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville started in the 15th spot and like David Ragan ran midpack all day, picking up several spots late as other drivers’ fuel tanks ran dry. While the team won’t make a run at getting into the top 35, their second straight strong run is definitely worth noting.

Fan favorite Bill Elliott put the awesome back in the Awesome Bill from Dawsonville with his 16th place finish at Michigan on Sunday.

Immediately upon exiting pit road after the team’s final pit stop, Robby Gordon came over the radio and starting talking fuel conservation. Crew chief Kirk Almquist radioed back that they should have enough, but it may be a good idea to save some. That idea allowed Robby Gordon to pick up several positions as drivers ran out of gas — without his own team being one of them. Gordon already had his No. 7 Toyota running solidly in the 20th spot with just a handful of laps left, and moved up three more positions as several frontrunners’ gas tanks ran dry. The run breaks a two-race streak where he finished 31st and 33rd, and should provide momentum heading to one of Robby’s strongest races — the road course at Sonoma.

The Bad:

Just between us, I expected Roger Penske’s No. 12 Dodge to be back on the bubble much sooner than now. But after seven straight races without a finish better than 22nd, David Stremme has finally fallen to the back of the standings. On lap 147, David’s car broke loose and slid towards pit road, hitting the water barrels that protect drivers from the outside pit wall. The damage was substantial and sent Stremme to the garage for major repairs, relegating him to a 38th place finish. David’s team falls to 31st in the owner’s standings, but is in no danger of falling out of the top 35 as they’re more than 300 points up on 36th.

Team Red Bull Racing’s No. 82 Toyota driven by Scott Speed again performed poorly and shows no signs of being able to break into the top 35. Scott spent time in the garage after coming in on lap 126 and was able to return… but was never competitive. The team finished 37th, 26 laps down, and remains in the 36th position in the owner’s standings. With the poor finish, the gap to 35th grew from 41 to 53 points.

Paul Menard had been looking forward to Michigan, having run well there historically. But things went wrong right away in Michigan, as Paul was only able to qualify the Yates No. 98 Ford Fusion 38th on Friday and never really got better throughout the weekend. The team fought the handling on Paul’s car all race long and never got it right in one of their worst runs all year. Paul eventually finished in the 34th position, three laps down to race winner Mark Martin.

The Ugly:

Perhaps I should call this section The Shameful. Once again, the start and park cars take up the last few positions as James Finch’s No. 09 Dodge, NEMCO Motorsports’ No. 87 Toyota, and the No. 37 Chevrolet of Front Row Motorsports swept the 41st through 43rd positions. Hopefully, rain doesn’t wash out qualifying next week at Sonoma and there are actually 43 cars who intend to run the whole race.

A Look Ahead:

NASCAR heads out west to the road course in Sonoma, California next weekend which is not good news for the bubble teams. With the road course events come the road course “ringers,” drivers who undoubtedly will take up some of the starting spots that are available to those who qualify based on speed. Looking into my crystal ball, though, I find one owner/driver in particular you have to root for. Of course, you have to like Robby Gordon at the road courses, as he has finished in the top 5 in nine of his 21 career starts — including sweeping both road course races in 2003. As far as who is going to struggle, Paul Menard has never finished in the top 10, and his career average finish at the races where you have to turn both directions is 28th. Also, look for Scott Speed to have a tough time, as he has never even driven at a road course in a NASCAR Sprint Cup event.

So, that’s your Bubble Breakdown for the Lifelock 400 from Michigan. Be sure to check in next week to see if the road course specialists wreak havoc upon our bubble teams, or if the bubble dwellers step up and make a good showing in California’s wine country. Also, don’t forget to look for my head-to-head bubble picks with Phil Allaway in Friday’s Frontstretch Newsletter, where we go at it to predict the best bets to break through each weekend out of the teams listed towards the back end of the top 35 in owner points.

So, until next Monday, so long from the bubble!

2009 Bubble Chart After Michigan:

Pos Owner Car # Driver Points Points +/- of 35th Place
31 Richard Petty Motorsports 44 A.J. Allmendinger 1,321 +261
32 Penske Racing 12 David Stremme 1,316 +256
33 Yates Racing 98 Paul Menard 1,237 +177
34 Robby Gordon Motorsports 7 Robby Gordon 1,216 +156
35 Front Row Motorsports 34 John Andretti 1,060 0
36 Team Red Bull 82 Scott Speed 1,007 -53
37 TRG Motorsports 71 David Gilliland 999 -143
38 NEMCO Motorsports 87 Joe Nemechek 739 -276
39 Furniture Row Racing 78 Regan Smith 734 -326
40 Phoenix Racing 09 Mike Bliss 696 -364
41 Prism Motorsports 66 Dave Blaney 664 -396
42 Tommy Baldwin Racing 36 Mike Skinner 647 -413

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Doug in Washington (State)
06/15/2009 04:00 AM
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It may be that Waltrip has had some success on the road courses, but it won’t happen this year. Patrick Carpentier is driving the 55 “on the road” this year.

Managing Editor
06/15/2009 10:11 AM
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Hey Doug,

That mistake has been corrected … thanks for pointing it out and reading the Frontstretch!

Michael
06/15/2009 10:40 AM
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Regarding the ugly ( or Shamefull ) section , i’m wondering what criteria a blogger could possibly be using to determine if the listed teams were in fact “ start and park “ . After using your vast knowledge of race cars and engines you determined that no matter what reason they gave , they were in fact trying to pull the wool over the eyes of a trusting public ? That a vibration could not possibly be real grounds for pulling out of a race ( though several front running teams with vastly bigger budgets were vexed by vibrations all day long , like the 18 for instance )and thus you’ve caught them red handed . Since you couldn’t possibly know what problems or lack of problems these teams have at the beginning of a race , do us all a favor and stop libeling these guys . Its a big and complicated sport , there must be something else you can write about .

Mike Ravesi
06/15/2009 10:51 AM
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To address the previous comment I listen to the in car radios during the events and when Joe Nemechek’s crew chief tell Joe that they are packing up bring it in in five more laps and Joe comes back saying its too bad the car is running great this week, one would reasonably assume that they never intended to run the whole race. And this happens EVERY week with the same drivers. And as far as the reason for their withdrawl, I just get that from the NASCAR website, I don’t make them up. Therefore I, as do many others label them as start and park, and will continue to do so. Thanks for reading.

Michael
06/15/2009 11:13 AM
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My point exactly . You get the reasons for a car dropping out from the NASCAR website . I checked and could find no reason given as start and park . Maybe i’m looking in the wrong place huh ? I can’t say what you did or didn’t hear on the headset , but i’d be very suspicious of Joes’ crew telling him it was time to park the car . Joe owns and runs that team . Common sense would dictate that it would be Joe telling the crew that he is quitting in five more laps .
Regardless , stop slandering the teams by inferring that they’ve lied about having problems . Because again , you have no way of knowing . And while we’re on the subject , exactly what difference could it possibly make if a team does call it quits early to make some money and avoid having to repair possible damage to the car or the engine . Damage which is expensive for a small team . Is the thought of a team quiting early just too big a blow to the purity of the sport for your liking ? Then i guess teams who go to the garage to repair crash damage and then come out and cruise around to collect points and take finishing positions and money from lesser teams whos cars were too badly damaged to repair should stopped from doing so .

Will
06/15/2009 11:18 AM
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Nascar.com has Speed and Andretti in reverse order from you. Who’s correct?

Mike Ravesi
06/15/2009 12:05 PM
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When you listen to the in car radio you learn alot of interesting things about the teams. Some of those things are, A) Most drivers have no idea how many laps a race is. Robby Gordon thougth yesterdays race was 250 laps. B) What lap they are on and C) How many laps are left to go. They get that info from crew chiefs and spotters as the race goes on. My guess, and this is just my own assumption, is the Joe told his team we have enough money to run x number of laps. Therefore when they got near that mark the crew chief told him 5 to go. Joe made the decision, but his crew chief kept track of how close they were to that mark. And it also happens with the other start and park teams that don’t have drivers as owners, Joe Nemechek just happened to be the first I thought of. And when you listen to them on their way to the garage talk about how good the car was running, then they put up a “vibration” as the reason for withdrawl, it gives one a reasonable doubt as to the real reason for quitting. I really don’t want to clog up the comment board so if you’d like send me an email and I would be more than happy to converse with you about this. Again thanks for reading.

Michael
06/15/2009 01:36 PM
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I’m surprised that the radio chatter you reference would be so open about something like that . I would think the crew chiefs and drivers would be aware that they were being monitored . Maybe they forgot .
My question remains , what possible difference does any of this make even if it were accurate .
And your idea of “ clogging the board “ is everyone elses idea of how a board is supposed to function .

Carl in PA
06/15/2009 02:24 PM
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I don’t know Michael, but my guess of what the difference would be is that you just accused the writer of being a liar, and then when given evidence that proved his point, you told him to stop lying again.

Admit you don’t know what you’re talking about and move on Michael. It’s starting to be like watching DW race late in his career. Just sad.

Michael
06/15/2009 03:23 PM
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I would never never accuse anyone of lying , i just think the writer of this column is mistaken and trying too hard to prove a point that is pointless . It almost sounds like he cwas listening to the races on the radio and wrote what he thought was going on . However , if you have keen insight into this issue Carl , i’m sure we ‘d all love to read it .

Cons1
06/15/2009 03:49 PM
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Will, the reason for the discrepancy between Andretti and Speed has to do with whether you are referring to driver points or owner points. Speed has driven all the races himself so he is higher in driver points where Andretti’s car has been driven twice by Tony Raines, so for those two races Andretti did not get any driver points but the car did get points, hence stays ahead fo Speed’s car.

KenKars
06/16/2009 08:17 PM
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Anyone else catch the comment by the announcers Saturday night at the beginning of the Nationwide race where they said, “Three of the cars are not being allowed to pit because they don’t have a crew chief in their pit!” All three were start and parkers !!