A few years ago Darrell Waltrip used to call Carl Edwards, “Cousin Carl” because of his innocent looks, aw shucks attitude, and general likeability.  I think he’s done enough to shed that label.  Carl has probably turned some fans against him, and maybe has gained some fans for how he’s handled himself on the track this past Sunday.

If you haven’t seen the clips yet, you can view them on NASCAR’s website. 

Here is the clip of the initial incident that upset Edwards: http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2010/highlights/03/07/cup_atl_high_one_edwards.nascar/index.html.  It doesn’t look like Brad did much wrong to Edwards in this clip.  Edwards came down in Keselowski’s lane and clipped the front of his car and then wrecked into Joey Logano.  True, Keselowski could have given Carl some room, but he didn’t.  It’s racing, and that stuff happens.

Here’s the clip of Edwards taking out Keselowski: http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2010/post_race/highlights/03/07/cup_atl_high_two.nascar/index.html

There are a few things that I have a problem with in Edward’s retaliation:

1. It was too soon.  This isn’t like baseball and throwing at a hitter.  In baseball you may have to retaliate during the same game if you don’t play that team again that season.  Carl knows he has 32 more races with Brad, and he could have picked any of them to “accidentally” bump into him, taking him out of the race.  The fact that he did it so soon made it way too obvious.
2. Too obvious.  If you watch the clip on NASCAR.com of the wreck, at the 1:39 mark you can see Carl turn the wheel slightly right to wreck Brad.  At least while he was being interviewed after the wreck he pretty much admitted that it was on purpose.  I like that Carl owned up to it, but he shouldn’t have wrecked Keselowski in that situation.
3. Not Safe.  Why not wait for a better location on the track (like the back-stretch), or before the cars got up to full-speed on the restart, or better yet, a different track.  Atlanta is the fastest track in NASCAR.  This isn’t the track to be intentionally wrecking people.  Bristol is the next track they’re going to race on.  Why not wreck him there when he’s going ½ the speed of Atlanta?

I have to believe that Carl will be punished by NASCAR, and he should be.  He could have seriously injured Brad and the fans in the stands.  In the 2001 season Jeff Gordon pulled a “bump and run” on Tony Stewart at Bristol to get a better finishing position.  Tony didn’t like the move and spun Jeff out on pit road after the race.  Tony was fined and place on probation by NASCAR.

Carl’s wrecking of Brad is way worse than what Tony did, and I would expect NASCAR to impose a big fine, put Carl on probation (Meaning, if he does anything like this again he’ll be suspended.), and possibly dock him points in the championship standings. 

NASCAR said they’ll probably announce the punishment Tuesday afternoon.  What do you think Carl’s punishment should be?  Should he be punished at all?

This Week’s Recommendations

Chaser: Jeff Gordon
Jeff came close to winning last week in Las Vegas, and should be battling for the win again this week in Atlanta.  He has 5 consecutive top ten finishes in Atlanta along with 4 career wins.  He’s averaging a 12.3 place finish in is 35 career races at the track, along with 14 top fives and 23 top tens.  Jeff hasn’t been a dominant driver for about 10 years, but with his showing in Las Vegas, and his record at Atlanta, look for another top 5 performance out of Jeff, maybe a win.

Alternate Chaser: Jimmie Johnson
I know, I know.  I always pick him.  Well, I wouldn’t do it if he weren’t so good.  He had a career worst 36^th place finish at Atlanta in the fall race last year.  The only other time he finished outside the top 30 in Atlanta (2003) he came back with a 3^rd place finish in the next race.  Look for something similar this weekend.  Oh, and his career averaging finish position of 10.7 in Atlanta is best among active drivers.  Did I say he was good?

Kevin Harvick
No driver has been better this season than Kevin.  He’s averaging a 3.7 place finish so far this season, and leading the points race early.  Historically Kevin hasn’t been that great in Atlanta (averaging a 20.4 place finish) but of his 5 top ten finishes at the track, 3 of them have come in the last 4 races.  Maybe he’s figuring things out here, and learning how to avoid trouble.  He’s hot this year, and he should be on your team until he cools off.

Matt Kenseth
Mat has also been pretty good in the early going of the 2010 season, averaging a 6.7 place finish, good enough to be tied for 2^nd best.  He’s also averaging a 13.7 place finish at Atlanta over his career, good enough for 6^th best among active drivers.  He doesn’t have any wins here, but in 20 races has managed to take home 7 top fives and 11 top tens.  Matt should be solid on Sunday.

Dark Horse: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What can you say?  Dale has pretty much started 2010 off like he finished 2009.  Poorly.  Sure, he finished 2^nd at Daytona, but he always runs well there, so it almost doesn’t count.  He finds himself 15^th in points and needed another top ten run to get his confidence up.  Atlanta could be the track that he does that.  He has a great average finish here (11.9) and does have a win, 8 top fives, and 10 top tens in 21 career races.  If he can keep his focus Dale could easily finish in the top 8 on Sunday.  He may be worth taking a chance on and putting on your team.

I know this is uncreative, but I’m sticking with the drivers that have the best average finish at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. They finish in the top ten for a reason, so why not recommend them to be on your team?

This Week’s Recommendations:

Chaser: Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie’s California win should set anyone straight that was foolish enough to think his poor performance at Daytona meant he wouldn’t have a good year. Like most tracks, Jimmie has done very well in Las Vegas leading all drivers with 3 wins. His 11.1 place average finish is 3rd best among active drivers. Jimmie hasn’t finished in the top ten at Las Vegas since he won the 2007 race, so he’s due for another good run. Look for him to build on the California win and be up front all day.

Alternate Chaser: Denny Hamlin
Denny has 3 top tens in 4 career races in Las Vegas and is averaging an 11th place finish. He doesn’t have a win here, but he’s always hanging around the top 5 and could sneak into victory lane this weekend.

Kyle Busch
Kyle has been pretty quiet so far this year. A couple of 14th place finishes have been less than spectacular. Look for that to change in Las Vegas. This is his home track and he should have more family and friends in the stands making him push harder than he has in the first two races. Kyle did win the race here last year and is averaging an 11.2 place finish in his 6 career races at the speedway. Look for Kyle to drive a little more aggressively this weekend and push his way to the front.

Matt Kenseth
Like the other recommendations, Matt has a great average finish in Las Vegas; 12.4. He has 5 top tens in 10 career races with 2 wins and 4 top fives. Matt is a good driver, and is off to a solid start to the 2010 season.

Dark Horse: Jeff Burton
Jeff has started all 12 races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and has the best average finish, 9.8. He also has two wins at the track, 5 top fives, and 8 top tens. Jeff is one of the most underrated drivers on the circuit. He’s a very good driver and should probably be on your team about every week.

Since 2001 there has only been one driver to finish in the top five in points after winning the Daytona 500, and that was Jimmie Johnson in 2006; the first of his four consecutive championships.

There have only been two other drivers to finish in the top ten in points since 2001 after winning the 500; Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2004 finished 6th in points, and in 2007 Kevin Harvick finish 10th in points.

To make winning the Daytona 500 sound even worse, since 2001, there have only been 3 drivers to win more than two races all season long. In 2004, 2005 & 2006, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, and Jimime Johnson won 6, 4, and 5 races. Everyone else won two, or just the 500 all season long.

So, if the Daytona 500 winners have done so poorly in the standings and haven’t won many races the rest of the season, why do teams put so much emphasis on it? Obviously it’s because of the money. This is the richest race of the season, and for a mid to low-level team to finish highly in the Daytona 500 can make their season, increase publicity, and bring in enough money to fund a few more races. Does the big payout make some of the teams to lose focus on the ultimate goal of a Championship?

Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newan, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Gordon are all drivers that can win a championship and have won the Daytona 500 since 2005, but finished 10th or worse in the standings. Did they put too much emphasis on the 500? Is restrictor plate racing so different from the rest of the races that it just doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of winning a championship?

Teams need to put more emphasis on other tracks in the off-season. They shouldn’t spend almost all of their time preparing for a race that counts for 1/36th of the season, and uses a restrictor plate. Restrictor plates are only used in four races, and create a much different racing condition than you normally see.

Every other race of the season, no matter the payout, is worth the same amount of points as the Daytona 500. Have the team get the 1.5 and 2.0 mile ovals down first and they’ll be able to start to contend for the title.

Ask Jimmie Johnson and his four consecutive championships what he’d rather do; win the 500 or win a championship. I think you know what his answer would be.

This Week’s Recommendations:

Chaser: Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie had a bad day at Daytona finishing 35th, but that’s nothing for him. California is a whole different story. He has dominated at this speedway with a NASCAR best, 4 wins and 5.8 place average finish. In the last 6 races here he has 6 top tens, 5 top fives, and 3 wins. Simply amazing. Jimmie is easily the favorite to win the race on Sunday.

Alternate Chaser: Carl Edwards
If you don’t want to go with the obvious choice of Jimmie as your chaser, then you need Carl on your team. His 6.6 place average finish is 2nd best at the Auto Club Speedway. He has 10 top ten finishes in 11 career races here. He’s pretty much a guarantee to finish in the top ten. If Jimmie isn’t on your team, then Carl has to be.

Matt Kenseth
I’ll stick with the drivers with the great average finishes at this track by picking Matt. He has the 3rd best average finish here with a 9.3. He’s tied for the 2nd most wins (3) at the speedway with Jeff Gordon. Matt has finished in the top ten in 8 of the last 9 races here. Over the past 4 or 5 years he’s been automatic.

Kyle Busch
Kyle has the 5th best average finish at the track with a 10.5 average. He has 8 top tens in 11 career races, and has one win at the track. He looked pretty good at times in Daytona, and ended up finishing 14th. I know he wants to get out of the gates with a good start to the 2010 season, so look for him to be determined on Sunday in California and take home a top 5 finish.

Dark Horse: Kevin Harvick
I know he’s 5th in points right now, but since I’m using the final standings from last season, and he finished 19th, he qualifies as a dark horse. Kevin had a very good race in Daytona and should be able to follow it up with another strong effort at the Auto Club Speedway. He does have 3 top tens in the last 4 races here, and 10 top tens in his 15 career races. After the good run in Daytona, Kevin’s confidence should be up, and will carry him to another top 10 finish.

With the new bump drafting restrictions gone it should make for more physical racing and more fun to watch racing. Because of the potential physical nature of the race I don’t think the rookies, or even 2nd or 3rd year drivers will fare too well. Look for the veterans to perform well at Daytona.

Reminder of how I recommend the teams:
All recommendations are based on the rules of Chad’s Fantasy NASCAR. I’ll select one chaser, and an alternate chaser, in case you don’t like the chaser I picked. I pick three other drivers that did not make the chase last season, one of them being a dark horse. In order to be a dark horse the driver must be 16th or worse in the points standings. For the first 5 races of the season I’ll use the standings from 2009 to pick the dark horse.

This Week’s Recommendations:

Chaser: Kurt Busch
Kurt has been the most consistent at Daytona over the last 5 races finishing in the top ten each time with 3 top fives. For his career (18 races) he’s finished in the top ten 10 times and top five 9 times. Last year he showed that he was still a top tier driver, and I expect him to show it again this season. Kurt should get off to a good start by contending for the win at Daytona.

Alternate Chaser: Tony Stewart
No one could have predicted the year that Tony Stewart would have in 2009. The first year team owner got it done on the track and was in the points lead for much of the season. There should be no let-up this season, especially at Daytona where he has won 3 races. Tony hasn’t won the Daytona 500 yet in his career, but this year count on him running in the lead pack and having a chance to pull it off at the end.

Matt Kenseth
This weekend Matt will try to pull off back-to-back Daytona 500 wins. I don’t know if he’ll be able to do it, but he should be in the top ten. He’s finished there in 4 of the last 5 races in Daytona.

Kevin Harvick
Kevin doesn’t have the best record at Daytona with only 6 top tens in 17 races, but he looked pretty good for the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night. I’m adding him to my team because of this, and because he’s my pick as the Comeback Driver of the Year. Kevin is too good of a driver to have back-to-back seasons finishing out of the top 15 in points.

Dark Horse: Elliott Sadler
Elliot finished 26th in the point standings last year, which unfortunately for him is about average. The good news for Sadler fans is that he runs well at Daytona. He finished 5th in last year’s 500, and 9 of his 68 career top ten finishes have come at this track. In 6 of the last races here he’s finished in the top ten. Those look like pretty good numbers to me.

Here are some of my predictions for the season. We’ll see how well I do in nine months time.

Champion: Jimmie Johnson
How can you go against Jimmie right now? I didn’t think that Jimmie would win 3 championships in a row, and last year I didn’t think he’d win 4 in a row. I’m not going to doubt Jimmie again. I have to see someone dethrone him before I pick someone else to win the Championship.

Most Disappointing: Greg Biffle
I don’t think Greg will have an awful year, but of the drivers that made the chase last year he has a lot of expectations to do better. I feel that he’s one of the weaker drivers that did make the chase, and there are better drivers that will make it this year, possibly bumping him out of the chase.

Most Surprising: David Ragan
2007 was David’s first full season in Sprint Cup and he finished 23rd in points. 2008 was a strong sophomore season and he finished 13th. He regressed in 2009 finishing 27th with only 2 top tens. I don’t think David will make the chase, but he should finish in the top 15 this season. With the resources of Roush Fenway Racing behind him there’s no reason David can’t have a bounce back season. If he doesn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets let go.

Rookie Of The Year: Terry Cook
To be honest I think there’s only one other guy officially entered for Rookie Of The Year considerations (Kevin Conway). I’m not too familiar with either driver. The only reason I’m picking Terry Cook is he’ll be at Daytona and Kevin won’t. If he can make the race it’ll be an advantage for Terry.

Comeback Driver: Kevin Harvick
Kevin had a poor 2009, finishing 19th in points with only 9 top ten finishes. This was his worst showing since 2002 when he finished 21st with 8 top tens. He came back to finish 5th in 2003, and I expect him to do something similar for 2010. He hasn’t won a race since the Daytona 500 in 2007. I expect him to break the winless streak, get a couple wins, and make the chase.

Most Wins: Jimmie Johnson
He’s the champ, and he led the series with 7 wins last season. Like I said earlier, until someone can prove they’re better than Jimmie, I’m going to pick him.

Have predictions of your own? Leave a comment and let everyone know.

“… there’s an old saying in NASCAR: ‘If you ain’t rubbin’, you ain’t racin’. I think that’s what the NASCAR fans bought into and what they expect.” said NASCAR president Mike Helton.

We’ve heard NASCAR say similar things in the past. Before the 2008 season NASCAR said that they wanted to let the drivers’ personality show, and would let them be more colorful off the track. Back then I let you know what I thought about the new stand, (http://blog.chadsfantasynascar.com/2008/02/09/does-nascar-really-want-the-drivers-to-display-their-personalities/) but ended with one question. “Will NASCAR let the drivers be themselves, and will they let more physical racing take place on the track?” That obviously didn’t happen and the racing got more boring, and the drivers acted more like androids giving the same rehearsed message in every interview without much emotion.

Will it be different for the 2010 season, and NASCAR actually let the drivers drive the way they did back in the 90’s and very early 2000’s? Back then everyone said rubbin’ was racin’, and we saw exciting finishes with drivers banging their cars door-to-door on the final lap. Will that style of racing make a return? I sure hope so, and I think NASCAR is more serious about it now than they were a couple years ago.

Why do I think 2010 will be different than 2008? For the same reason most people and organizations change. Money. NASCAR is struggling just like everyone else. Attendance is down, TV ratings are down, and good drivers are struggling to find sponsors. What better way to get attendance and ratings up than to revert the rules back to “the good ole days” when people rubbed and bumped until someone crashed?

For the past 8 or 9 seasons NASCAR has been trying to make everything safer and has made tremendous strides in this area. The only downfall to that is boring racing. Yes, the HANS device, softer barrier walls, and some features of the new car are great and have no or little effect on the racing. (The wing on the new car is dumb though, and I’m glad that the spoiler will be back.) What really killed the racing were the rules limiting or restricting bump drafting and “aggressive driving”. How ridiculous. You want to make racing boring, don’t let any of the cars touch each other.

Finally, NASCAR has listened to the fans, but more importantly they have felt the financial impact of being too cautious. Auto racing is a dangerous sport. That’s a big reason why people watch. If you dull even the most exciting sport down, people will quit paying good money to watch it, and won’t pay attention to it on TV. This is the reason I believe NASCAR is serious about letting the drivers drive. 2010 should be a year filled with good, entertaining NASCAR races.

What do you think?

This past weekend I was at the 25th annual Cubs Fan Convention in Chicago. I had a chance to see most of the current players, and some of the fan favorites of years past. There is an organized system for getting autographs for all of the players, games/events that are Cubs related, and many other opportunities to interact with the players and management.

I don’t know of anything like this in NASCAR. Sure they have the year-end awards ceremony, but I don’t think that was really made for the fans to attend, and it’s only one night. NASCAR needs a weekend long event to celebrate the fans. After all, NASCAR is always saying that we fans are the most dedicated, most loyal fans in all of sports. As one of the past commercials stated, it’s not a sport, it’s a lifestyle.

So, what’s my proposal? Here’s an outline of what a NASCAR Fan Convention weekend could look like. (Yes, I copied a lot of ideas from the Cubs convention, but hey, a good time is had by all.)

Friday:

• Exhibit floor/Souvenir stands open from afternoon to close of convention for the night. We all know that there is a ton of cool NASCAR stuff out there to buy. Let vendors rent some space for their booths to sell their cool stuff.
• 5pm –Driver introductions. Introduce one-by-one our favorite drivers from the past and present.
• 6pm – NASCAR themed game (Bingo is a possibility) with cool NASCAR prizes for the winners. Maybe give away autographed die-casts, photos, and flags. Could also give away old gear from the teams, maybe a sign-board used along pit road. The possibilities are endless.

Saturday and Sunday:

• Exhibit floor/Souvenir stands open from morning to close of convention
• 8 or 9am – Begin autographs. There could be 6 or 7 booths/stages set up to get autographs from the various drivers. NASCAR or the individual teams could set times that each driver will sign, and at what booth/stage. Fans could then know ahead of time who’s going to be where an plan their day based on that.
• Throughout the day there could be other events to allow the fans to interact with the drivers, owners, and top brass of NASCAR
  • Meet the owners: Give the fans a chance to meet the NASCAR team owners. Have them tell their story of getting to the big time, and open it up for questions afterwards.
  • Meet NASCAR’s management: Allow the fans to meet the Helton’s and France’s. Give us a chance to ask the questions we’ve always wanted to.
  • NASCAR Driver/Team Trivia: Fans play a game to answer trivia questions about drivers and teams, and the actual drivers are on hand to let the players know if they’re right or not, and can tell stories to elaborate on the trivia.
  • Kids only events/press conference: Kids always ask the best questions. Let them loose on the drivers, NASCAR management, and the team owners. That would probably be worth seeing.
  • Future of NASCAR: Get the people that NASCAR has working on future rule changes/improvements in the sport and give us fans an update on this first hand.
  • Silent Auction: NASCAR isn’t short of stuff that could be auctioned off for a good cause. Fans would love the opportunity to purchase authentic race used stuff.
• Also throughout the day you would need other interactive activities.
  • The obvious is a driving simulator, or video game to have the fans compete. The winner of the fan competition could go up against the real drivers.
  • Pit-crew challenges for the fans would be cool
  • And the list could go on forever.
• Sunday would have to wind down around noon to allow everyone to travel back home, but it would be a fun weekend!

So, you may be saying, that sounds cool, but when could it be held? I have two ideas.

1. The same weekend as the NASCAR awards ceremony. That is now in Vegas, and what better city to host a convention than Vegas? They could tape the awards ceremony on Thursday so Friday is free for the convention. All of the drivers, owners, and NASCAR personnel are there already.
2. The weekend before everyone reports to Daytona for the 500. This could be held around Charlotte or in Daytona. I’m sure the drivers and owners wouldn’t mind reporting a few days early to celebrate NASCAR with the fans.

There is one big difference between the Cubs and NASCAR you may have already thought of that would make this difficult. The Cubs own the contracts of its players and can force them to be there. NASCAR drivers and teams are independent contractors, and NASCAR couldn’t make them be at the convention, and probably couldn’t tell them when they were going to sign autographs. The drivers’ commitments to their sponsors would also make this more difficult logistically.

This is all true, but NASCAR claims to be the most “fan friendly” sport, so if they want to live up to that, then they’ll find a way to work that stuff out and make everyone accessible for the fans. NASCAR, give us a fan convention! All you fans out there, wouldn’t you love to see one?

The NASCAR season starts on Feb. 14th in Daytona, so you have 5 weeks to sign up and set your team.

Recruit More Players & Referral Program (You can earn site credit!)
We want this to be a fun year with as much money in the prize pool as we can get. Your help is needed to recruit as many people to play as you can. The more we get to play, the more fun it will be, so forward this mail on to anyone you know that would want to play. The goal is to have 100 players so we can have a few leagues and get the payouts high.

To help motivate you to recruit players this season, a referral program has been started. For every new player you get to sign up, you’ll earn a $1 credit on the site. All the new user has to do is type your userid or teamname in the “Referral Code” box on the signup page. Once everyone has signed up, the credit will be added to your account.

Link to the site: http://chadsfantasynascar.com/

How to sign up
Online with a Credit Card

• The credit card processing is secure and run through PayPal, so we never see your card number.
• If you played last year (or if you started to sign up, but didn’t end up playing) you can use your existing id and password by logging in at http://chadsfantasynascar.com/ (If you can’t remember your password there’s a “forgot password” link that you can use to have a new, random password mailed to you.)
• If you didn’t play last year and want to sign up, you can use this link: http://chadsfantasynascar.com/pswd/signup.cgi  
• After you sign up online you will be able to start picking your drivers instantly.

Any winnings or credits you received last year were carried over to 2010 and your price will be discounted accordingly.

Payouts
The winner of each league is guaranteed $100. Bonus payouts will depend on the number of players on the site. After Daytona, the exact payouts will be posted. You can see the payout info on the site at: http://chadsfantasynascar.com/payouts.cgi

Rules
The rules are simple. You get 4 drivers. How ever many points they score in the race is how many points you get. Easy! The only catch is that you can only have 1 driver on your team that made the chase last year. You’ll get trades each week, so you can change the drivers throughout the season. To see the official rules you can use the following link: http://chadsfantasynascar.com/rules.cgi

Updates For 2010
Site Makeover: The website has been reworked this off-season to give an updated look and feel. The same functionality and features are still on the site, in the same location; just the look has been updated.

Track Stats: Ever want to see what drivers have fared the best and worst historically at each track? Well now you can on the Track Stats page: http://chadsfantasynascar.com/members/stats.cgi. This page also tells you the drivers that have the best and worst average finishes over the past 5 races.

Enhanced Site Mail: The Mail section of the site was upgraded, so now you can have more control over the fonts and use more than plain text. You can bold, underline, etc.

Referral Program: For every person you recruit to play Chad’s Fantasy NASCAR in 2010, you’ll earn $1 site credit. They just have to type your userid or teamname in the “Referral Code” box on the signup page.

Alternate URL: Does your IT department at work block the http://www.chadsfantasynascar.com/ address? Try http://www.musclenascar.com/ instead! This will also go to Chad’s Fantasy NASCAR.

Here’s to another exciting season of NASCAR racing.

Good luck, and Happy Racin’