=== This Week in Auto Racing June 2 - June 4 ===
by Steve Schwarz, Motorsports Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - After putting on the best race of the weekend last Sunday at Indianapolis, the IndyCar Series gets right back on track, this time on the famous road course at Watkins Glen. Meanwhile, NASCAR visits the "Monster Mile."
NASCAR
Nextel Cup
Neighborhood Excellence 400 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE
Following the longest race of the year at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, NASCAR travels north to Dover, Delaware for a 400-lap event over the "Monster Mile."
The trip is usually a happy one for Rick Hendrick and the Hendrick Motorsports team. Led by Jeff Gordon's four Dover wins and 2,117 laps led, Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won on this track a total of 10 times.
Gordon's teammate and current points leader Jimmie Johnson has three wins at the one-mile oval including a sweep of both events in 2001.
Through the first 12 events, Johnson holds a 109-point lead over Matt Kenseth. That is an improvement over 2005 when the No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet driver had a 71-point lead over Greg Biffle.
Johnson's torrid pace through the first 12 events has been tough for the rest of the field to keep up with. Just six drivers are within 400 points of the leader as compared to 16 last year at this time. Johnson has three wins among nine top-10s. In fact, the No.48 Chevy has finished outside the top dozen just one time, a 30th-place finish on the short track at Bristol.
Behind Johnson in the standings is Kenseth, who has gone about his business in workman like fashion. Just one win for the No.17 Roush Racing Ford, at Fontana, but Kenseth has a solid eight top-10s.
Third place Mark Martin has earned his spot in a similar fashion. The soon-to- be-retired, 47-year-old has collected seven top-10s and just one result worse than 15th.
Fourth in the standings is Tony Stewart who had a tough weekend. It started with a hard crash in the Busch Series event on Saturday night that sent him to the local hospital for observation. Then on Sunday night he slammed the wall for a second time. After a longer than usual amount of time the defending series champion was helped out of his car holding his right shoulder.
Stewart took a second trip to the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte where he was diagnosed with a "minimally displaced fracture" at the tip of his right shoulder blade.
Stewart is scheduled to meet with Joe Gibbs Racing's team physicians on Tuesday for further evaluation. At this time he is expected to start the race at Dover, though a relief driver (possibly Mike Bliss) might be brought in to finish the race.
The rest of the top-10, and current qualifiers for the "Chase for the Nextel Cup," include all the big names that make NASCAR officials smile. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Coca-Cola 600 winner Kasey Kahne, Gordon, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick would make the "Chase" if it started today.
But of course, the "Chase" doesn't begin for 15 more races and a lot can happen between race number 12 and race number 26.
After a dozen races in 2005, Kenseth was mired in 23rd place yet made the "playoffs." On the other hand, four-time Nextel Cup champion Jeff Gordon was a solid fifth after 12 starts and failed to qualifying for the "Chase for the Nextel Cup."
In last year's spring Dover race, Biffle dominated en route to a 4.281-second victory over Busch.
On the final race-deciding green-flag fuel stop, Biffle took four tires while Busch took just two tires. Johnson, in second place at the time, extended his fuel until lap 383 hoping for a caution which never came. When all the stops were done, Biffle's lead was 1.134 seconds over Busch and 2.570 seconds over Johnson. That was as close as anyone would get to the No.16 Roush Ford. He expanded his lead on every lap to the checkered flag.
Biffle started off the 2006 season as if he wasn't quite ready. He finished 31st at Daytona and followed that with a 42nd-place finish at one of his favorite tracks - California Speedway.
Since then, he has been more like the "hard-charging, on-the-edge" driver we have come to expect and with his third consecutive top-seven last week at Charlotte has risen to 13th in the standings.
"Well, that's one race that I'm definitely glad is over," said Biffle after the long night at the Lowe's Motor Speedway. "The National Guard crew worked hard all night and gave me great pit stops. We came out of here with a solid top-10 finish and I'm happy with that. We'll just go to Dover next week and see if we can get our second win there."
It might just happen as the "Biff" makes his run to return to the "Chase" for the second straight year.
Busch
StonebridgeRacing.com 200 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE
The Busch Series season is 13 races old and as of yet, a full-time Busch only driver has yet to win a race. For 13 consecutive weeks (actually 16 if you go back to 2005), a Nextel Cup driver has won the Busch event.
Last week at Charlotte was Carl Edwards' turn to collect the top prize. He led a parade of eight Nextel Cup drivers to sweep the top-eight positions. The No.60 Roush Racing Ford took the checkered flag 2.458 seconds ahead of Kurt Busch.
Edwards took second place from Jeff Burton with 25 laps to go, but was 3.212 seconds behind Mears. He was the fastest car on the track and began to cut into Mears' big lead.
A Randy LaJoie spin brought out another caution flag and put Edwards right on Mears' rear bumper.
The green flag dropped with 17 laps to go.
Mears took the green flag and shot off to a solid lead. But Edwards fought back and wouldn't let him get away. With 14 laps to go, Mears reported that his fuel light started to flicker. He was holding a half-second lead with 10 laps to go when another caution flag came out.
There were just six laps (nine miles) to go when the race restarted but Mears didn't have enough fuel. Edwards charged to the lead in turn one and so did Busch, Yeley and Johnson.
With five laps to go, Edwards' lead was 1.5 seconds and no one was going to catch him.
In last year's StonebridgeRacing.com 200, Kyle Busch took the checkered flag just ahead of Jamie McMurray.
Kevin Harvick continues his dominance in the Busch standings. After 13 events he holds a colossal 348-point lead over Edwards, who jumped two spots with last week's win. Harvick has crafted the lead with three wins and an amazing 12 top-10s.
Behind Harvick and Edwards are Nextel Cup drivers Clint Bowyer (the last Busch Series only driver to win a Busch race), J.J. Yeley, Greg Biffle, and Kyle Busch. Interestingly, Biffle is in sixth place overall despite not running in two events.
Positions eight through 12 in the standing belong to Busch-only drivers. Paul Menard leads the group with 1,574 points (518 behind Harvick).
Menard is in his third full season in the Busch Series driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. He has 81 career Busch starts with two poles and 22 top-10 finishes.
"We're at a point as a team, where we can make the best of a bad situation and keep working throughout a race to ensure we earn as many points as possible towards the championship," said Menard.
But Menard's 24th-place finish at Charlotte dropped him two spots to eighth in the championship standings.
Menard has not done particularly well at the "Monster Mile" in Dover, finishing 28th and 10th in the two events last year.
Craftsman
AAA Insurance 200 - Dover International Speedway - Dover, DE
Ron Hornaday Jr., two-time Craftsman Truck Series champion, won last week's race on the short track of Mansfield Motorsports Speedway for his first win of 2006 and a series-record 28th of his truck career.
The 1996 and 1998 series champion outlasted another former series champion, Jack Sprague, for the victory.
Hornaday Jr. inherited the lead when series points leader Todd Bodine pitted on lap 115 with his Germain Toyota teammate Ted Musgrave. It was a bad call by the Germain pit crew, one from which the team would not be able to rebound as the points leaders finished 15th and 16th, respectively.
Just over halfway, Sprague took over second place and the two former champions battled all the way to the checkered flag.
A record-high 18 cautions allowed for only short green-flag runs. This gave Hornaday Jr., known for his excellent restarts, a clear advantage as the laps dwindled to just a few.
Another great restart by Hornaday Jr. allowed him to pull away from Sprague and David Starr and with no more cautions over the last laps, the No.33 Chevrolet crossed the finish line with a comfortable margin.
Kyle Busch led Tony Stewart to the checkered flag in last year's truck race at Dover.
After a bad outing in Ohio, expect a big rebound from Bodine and Musgrave.
"We just had the wrong pit strategy," said Bodine after the race. "When we pitted we thought we would be able to move through the field better with fresher tires. It's so hard to pass here and track position is so important. I did all I could but the best we could finish up with was 15th.
"We lost a few points to (David) Reutimann, but we are still leading and that's the important thing."
Bodine's lead is 20 points over Musgrave and 86 points over Reutimann.
IndyCars
Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix - Watkins Glen International - Watkins Glen, NY
The 2006 Indianapolis 500 had everything you could want in a race. There were questions as to which strategy would work best and the race came down to the final lap still in doubt.
As it turned out, Sam Hornish Jr. had both the horsepower and strategy to come back from a mid-race bobble to make the trip to Victory Lane and get his name engraved on the famous Borg-Warner Trophy.
It was his first Indy 500 win, but probably not his last.
On Hornish Jr.'s last pit stop, he pulled away from the fuel man before the fuel nozzle was fully removed breaking the fuel line. The lengthy stop left him in seventh place. Worse, IndyCar officials penalized him with a "drive- thru" penalty for leaving his pit box.
The penalty would take away almost any chance for Hornish Jr. and owner Roger Penske to win the race. He had just one hope, to refuel just before the race restarted and stretch the tank of fuel all the way to the checkered flag without stopping again.
The strategy worked and Hornish Jr. found himself right in the middle of the chase with just a handful of laps to go.
Then Team Penske horsepower took over and Hornish Jr. zipped by sentimental favorite Michael Andretti for second place behind Andretti's son Marco.
Hornish Jr. took one shot at a pass on lap 199, but Andretti cut off his line and Hornish Jr. slipped back about six car lengths. At that point most everyone thought the race was over.
But Hornish Jr. gathered himself for one last run at the 19-year-old rookie. He caught Marco as the pair entered turn three of the final lap and as they slid out of turn four and the turn for home they were side-by-side.
However, Hornish Jr. had the momentum and took the checkered flag by 0.0635 seconds in the second-closest finish in Indy 500 history.
It is now on to the Watkins Glen International road course where we are not likely to see such an exciting finish, but the race should still be competitive.
The open-wheel veterans are likely to excel this weekend. Points leader Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti should be near the top of the list by race end.
Dixon won last year's event, beating Kanaan to the checkered flag by 0.6540 seconds. Over the second portion of the race, Dixon was in complete control.
Dixon gave up the lead only when he pitted for tires and fuel. but after everyone completed their final stops he re-emerged on the lead. After regaining the top spot, his only nervous time was on the final restart following an Alex Barron spin. But Dixon quickly jumped away from Kanaan and was never challenged the rest of the way.
"I was pretty confident that we could hold him (Kanaan) off," said Dixon. "We got a good jump and it was history."
Castroneves, who had won the previous two IndyCar races before the "500," had qualified second behind Hornish Jr. and was one of the favorites, along with teammate, to win his third Indy 500.
"It's frustrating," he said. "There was 'interesting' driving out there."
With just a 12-point lead over his Penske teammate (156-144) Castroneves can not afford another bad race at this Sunday.
Champ Cars
Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 225 - Milwaukee Mile - West Allis, WI
Not since 1964 (A.J. Foyt won the first seven) has a driver won the first four races of the season in the series. Back then they called the series the USAC Series, the precursor to CART and ultimately the Champ Car World Series.
In the "modern" era Sebastien Bourdais tied Paul Tracy's 2003 mark of three straight to open a season with his win in Monterrey, Mexico.
The No.1 McDonald's Lola driver crossed the Fundidora Park finish line 3.066 seconds ahead of Justin Wilson.
The win also extended Bourdais' championship lead to 25 points over Wilson (102-77).
So the question is can anyone knock off the leader?
"Monterrey was fairly satisfying," said Wilson. "Hopefully, it was a sign of good things to come. We've still got areas we need to work on but we're looking forward to getting to some of the more traditional road circuits where we feel like we've got it in us to capitalize on what we learned last year on those tracks."
There is good news for Wilson and the competition.
Bourdais has never won a pole nor a race on the flat one-mile oval in West Allis, WI. He finished a mediocre sixth in 2005 well behind winner Tracy. In 2004, he finished 18th and last and in his first year in the series (2003) he posted a ninth-place result at Milwaukee.
Wilson qualified third and finished fourth at Milwaukee last year.
Tracy, the defending champion, is tough to beat on short ovals. He has won at Milwaukee four times, including last year's win.
But Tracy has not been very good this season.
"We have a lot of work to do; we have to be consistently quick at all the tracks, not just some of them," said Tracy after a fourth in Monterrey. "But we need to start winning races to be able to catch up to Bourdais in the championship."
This week is a good spot for a turnaround and you should expect a big change from Tracy and the No.3 Forsythe Championship Racing team. Nothing less than a victory for the Canadian.
