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1. Kurt Busch: Is This His Race to Improve?
Stewart-Haas Racing has been struggling, to say the least, thus far this season. One of the major drivers struggling for the organization is Kurt Busch. Busch has a best finish of twenty first three races into the season and that was in the Daytona 500 where he spun in the late laps. He lost an engine at Phoenix and his car was lacking terribly at Las Vegas. I just have one single question for Kurt Busch and his team. Is this the race for them to improve? I firmly believe so. For one, Busch was fantastic in practice to start the weekend. He finished first in the first session of the weekend with a fast time, but that isn't the point I want to make. He struggled for the entire session, but his team put the car together and allowed him to run a fast lap. That shows to me they will be able to fix a car throughout a weekend and improve their times. Plus, he was in the top five in both sessions on Saturday with a bunch of other drivers around him. Second and finally, Busch has a great track record at Bristol. He has five Cup victories at the half mile speedway including his first ever win in Cup Series competition in 2002. It has seemed to be a place where he can run great and propel his season well. With a good run today, Busch could very well be on his way to turning his season completely around after a struggling first three races.
2. Tony Stewart: Did He Come Back Too Quickly?
I was really hoping this topic didn't come up in my thoughts this year, but it unfortunately has. If you recall, Tony Stewart broke his right leg in two places in a sprint car crash in August of 2013 while racing in Iowa. The road to recovery was long for Stewart, but he made the decision to come back at the start of 2014. Well, it hasn't worked out well at all. Stewart had fuel problems at Daytona and he walked away with a terrible finish. Phoenix brought him a best finish of sixteenth on the season and his entire team struggled at Las Vegas along with Stewart. This weekend hasn't started well either. Stewart ended up qualifying a horrendous thirty seventh and numerous sources reported he was limping badly after qualifying. The question has to be posed by me. Did Stewart come back too quickly after a terrible injury? To me, it is too early to make the call. Yes, I provided all this rock solid evidence, but we haven't hit Tony Stewart's favorite part of the schedule. When we hit the summer months, expect smoke to start flying literally and figuratively. Plus, he has to get used to driving a car again. He went about six months without driving a race car and he really didn't have appropriate recovery time, in my opinion. In a couple more weeks, expect Tony Stewart to be looking back to form and running up at the front with the rest of his fellow competitors.
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Is He Championship Ready?
This topic is something that has been boiling for the entire year thus far. If you recall, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a masterful win in the Daytona 500 this year. Then, he went to Phoenix and came home second. Last week, he walked away second at Las Vegas after he was leading the white flag lap when the tank went empty on him. Those are extremely impressive statistics for Earnhardt especially this early in the year. It has raised a single question in my mind for Earnhardt. Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally championship ready? I fully believe he is. For one, I have seen a complete attitude change from Earnhardt this season. The past few years, he just hasn't acted like he was in the race at all. I mean, two years ago at Las Vegas if he had finished second, he probably would have sounded depressed because he didn't win the race. This year, he was completely ecstatic about finishing second and keeping his momentum wave going. At Daytona, when he won the 500, you could see it too. He was driving along the frontstretch waving to the fans and he was just happy to be there. That just speaks volumes about the meaning of this season to Junior and the rest of his team. Secondly and finally, Junior has been fast every single week. If there was one thing the team lacked the past few years, it was speed on all types of tracks. They seemed to be one of the worst Hendrick Motorsports teams on some tracks and they would be second or third on others. It just seemed like they were never the best. This year, it has been totally different. They have been the fastest Hendrick car in all three races this season and Junior has the best finish at all three tracks for the historic organization. Whatever it is, they have it figured out in Steve Letarte's last season on top of the box. With the same exact finishes they had to start the year, Junior could be the major contender for the championship come Homestead in a good many months.
4. Qualifying Changes: Did They Work?
NASCAR made rather significant changes to their new qualifying system this week before the Bristol race. If you recall, NASCAR implemented a new qualifying system this year. The system consists of two or three rounds depending on the track and certain drivers move on after each round to decide who will win the pole. The system was providing a lot of action in qualifying, but it was actually very dangerous because NASCAR didn't let the teams cool the cars on pit road and, thus, drivers were riding slowly on the apron of the track to cool down. NASCAR decided to change that. They allowed two crew members over the wall for each team and each team can use a cooling system plugged into one of the cowl flaps to cool the car. They tried it at Bristol and the thing is this: did it work? It absolutely worked great. I'm going to be honest here. It was really dangerous at Las Vegas one week ago with the cars riding slowly on the apron. I mean, several times it looked like there would be a high speed crash. Luckily, there wasn't and NASCAR was able to fix the system. The main reason this worked is teams were able to make several runs at qualifying. Before hand, teams were making pretty much one run in every session and that was there best chance to make a fast lap. Now, they can make several runs and, depending on tire wear, they can pick up time on their laps. Hopefully, these changes continue to help the budding qualifying system and it still remains a very action packed part of the race weekend.
5. My Pick to Win
Picking Bristol races is sometimes like picking restrictor plate races. It is nearly impossible to pinpoint one single driver at Bristol. Think about last year's Spring race. Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and others were in the battle for the win, but most of them had a problem on track and fell out. Kasey Kahne ended up walking away with the victory, but there were times when he wasn't the best driver on track. It just goes to show that Bristol races are unpredictable because of the amount of changing variables. Lap traffic, track conditions, strategy, restarts, and so many other things can change the absolute picture of a race. That is why today I am going to give you guys a few drivers to look at as possible winners. Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski look like drivers to watch today. There are also a few dark horses to look at today. Casey Mears, David Ragan, and David Gilliland have shown a lot of promise this weekend and if they have the opportunity, they could very well take the win. I plan on writing about today's Food City 500, but the weather might be a factor today. Hopefully, the weather stays away and we get another great Bristol race underway. Well, that is all I have for today and until we meet again.
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