I maintain we have guys that have simply had rotten luck these first two races of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season that we will hear from maybe as soon as Sunday in Las Vegas.
The best two examples I can give you are Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton.
Those two have had good race cars two weeks in a row. Unfortunately for Clint, he has been in the wrong place at the wrong time two weeks in a row. Jeff suffered a blown engine in Daytona, but Sunday in Phoenix, like Clint, he simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
These guys are definitely in a hole and it’s going to take them some time to dig themselves out of it. This is a byproduct of the new points system. It simply is going to take longer to overcome a deficit. Carl Edwards finished second at Daytona, but then went halfway back down in the hole Sunday at Phoenix.
This weekend we visit our first 1.5-mile racetrack. We go to those tracks a lot between now and November, so this weekend will be a good measuring stick for how the teams are stacking up performance-wise. I still maintain that with how close the competition is today, we are going to have to get much deeper into the season before we have a real good feel for who the 2011 contenders are.
I think at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, we'll get a real good indication of how the new nose affects these cars. The track has a fair amount of banking and these drivers will be entering the corners at over 200 mph.
This is the type of track where it takes it all to win. You have to have a good handling race car. You have to have good downforce. You have to have good pit stops and race strategy. Las Vegas is truly a place where it takes the whole package and then some.
I look for the Richard Childress Racing teams to be strong Sunday in Las Vegas. Naturally, with it being their hometown, I also look for Kurt and Kyle Busch to do extremely well.
I think Kurt, who is currently second in the standings, is someone that we will be talking about every week for that matter.
Two race teams that are showing some muscle early on in this season but that have been unable to close the deal are the Stewart-Haas cars. Ryan Newman led a ton of laps at Daytona before getting caught up in a wreck. Ryan was very good Sunday in Phoenix, too.
I didn’t agree with the call Stewart’s team made Sunday late in the race. I just felt there were too many laps to go to only take two tires and unfortunately it came back to bite him.
You can’t fault them for taking the gamble. I honestly think you will see more of that this year because of the new points system and the two wild-card slots available to race winners not already in the top 10 in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The emphasis is on winning this year, so look for these teams to really roll the dice at times.
Following Las Vegas on Sunday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams get a week off. From there we head to Bristol, which is the epitome of a “boys have at it” track. Things are certain to be exciting there.
