Bad Luck Follows Keselowski to Vegas

If it weren't for bad luck, Brad Keselowski would have no luck at all.

Keselowski went into the Sam's Town 300 hoping to put Daytona and Fontana behind him. And, truth be told, all signs looked promising as he snagged an eighth starting position.

He was positive. Hopeful. Surely, Brad thought, lady luck would smile benevolently on his third race of the season. "It’s just a good thing that the season is 35 races long because we have 33 races to get past the disappointment of these past two weeks, and I feel like Las Vegas is a good place to do that,” he said.

Good thing I didn't bet on that.

In a day filled with flying parts, fiery crashes and yellow flags, the black cloud that's been hovering over the JR Motorsports 88 car didn't dissipate in the Vegas sun. Instead, it followed Keselowski in the form of Mike Bliss who wrecked him on lap seven, sending him down pit road several times over for a little damage control.

Laps later, with his patched-up car back on the track, a tire rub added to his troubles and sent Keselowski into the wall and back into the garage.

The only good news for the #88 car came at the expense of a good chunk of the rest of the field. With more crunches and cautions than you could shake a dipstick at, the race ended with a slew of DNFs.

This made for one heckuva exciting finish. But it also helped Brad finish in an (all things considered) respectable 27th place.

Here's hoping Keselowski's luck turns around for good in tomorrow's Cup race. But I'm not holding my breath---he's starting in 13th spot.

It's Vegas Jimmie, Vegas!

For a back-to-back-to-back Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson has got to be the most understated winner in all of motorsports. He doesn't make a fuss. He doesn't make waves. He doesn't make enemies. He just makes good. Race after race after race.

And it's about time for ol' Jimmie to start making good this year. The last go 'round in Vegas wasn't a high point for the #48 team. But prior to that day (which is forever burned--like poison acid--into the minds of Johnson fans), Jimmie and Chad snagged a Nevada victory three years in a row.

On Sunday (thanks to an engine switch by pole sitter Kyle Busch), Johnson starts on the front row. And if the car looks as good as it did in qualifying tonight, he's gonna get his shot at another Vegas burnout.

But even if Johnson was starting back in the field, he'd have a chance at the checkers. How many times have we watched him pick off car after car, like a sniper with his target in sight? He's smooth, methodical and stealthy. And, if his Chevy is good and the creek don't rise, he's almost always there at the end, challenging for the lead.

So Jimmie J, if you win on Sunday, I have one request. Do something a little crazy. Cause a little ruckus.

After all, you are in Vegas.

Race Weekend Ramblings

Am I the only chick out there who thinks roughneck American Idol contestant Michael Sarver and a certain NASCAR driver share more than a slight resemblance? As my friend T pointed out ... Sarver looks like a big Dale Junior. Judge for yourself.

Cheers to Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith, Joe Nemechek, Max Papis, David Gilliland and Todd Bodine. They'll be racing on Sunday in the Shelby 427.

Earlier tonight, while the boys on Trackside were discussing the whereabouts of Darrell Waltrip, the director cut to a shot of DW driving a golf cart. Lying across the back of the cart like a piece of freakish plush roadkill was a gi-normous Digger. At first, I thought Darrell had finally had all he could take of that irritating varmint and had mowed him down in a fit of manic rage. Too bad that wasn't the case.

Mark Martin had the fastest car in Sprint Cup practice and qualified eighth. The man has seen success in Vegas before. Does he have checkers in his future?

Joey Logano: Give the Kid a Break

Joey Logano is just a kid. But he's playing in a man's world.

At 19 years young, Logano has taken over the coveted ride of one of the most talented drivers in motorsports. He's been profiled, photographed and marketed to within an inch of his life. And his arrival on the Sprint Cup scene has been fraught with words like "boy wonder," "racing phenom" and the infamous "sliced bread."

With such massive hype comes massive expectations. But in this case, such high hopes aren't entirely fair.

Logano is running his first full Sprint Cup season with only 23 races under his belt, and that's counting all of the top three series combined. Not much experience--even if you are a wunderkind. Daytona came to a crashing halt early on. Then, in Fontana, he pulled out a top 20 finish.

Compare that to hotshot uber talent Kyle Busch. In his first full Cup season, Busch had already made 54 starts on the Craftsman, Busch and Nextel circuits. That's a heckuva lot more schooling than Logano. And by year's end, it paid off. Busch finished '05 twentieth in points and never looked back.

I say that if Logano fails to live up to the hype this year, the blame isn't his. After all, as Logano himself has said, who would pass up a ride with Joe Gibbs? Experience comes with time. Opportunity only knocks once. Besides, if he's really got the goods, the results will follow soon enough.

So let's give the kid about 30 more races before we start calling him a disappointment.

And then, let's give the kid a break.

It May Not Be In Vegas, But Bet On A Win For Waltrip In '09

Making predictions are a craps shoot at best. But if the first two races of the Sprint Cup season are any indication of events yet to come, I'm betting that Michael Waltrip will be in Victory Lane at least once in 2009 (and not just to congratulate a competitor).

Call me crazy, but Waltrip has looked (dare I say it?) impressive, in both the Daytona and Fontana races. He's been running well, racing consistently and he's been there at the end finishing strong both times.

Compare the two races we've seen so far with his stats from 2008. This year, Waltrip snagged a 7th-place finish at Daytona and a 15th at Fontana. Last year he finished 29th and 28th, respectively. This year, he is currently ranked 7th in points, with 264 to his credit. By this time last year, he had only racked up a measly 160.

Don't be discouraged. I'm sure this new and improved Waltrip won't fail to disappoint. There will still be days when he'll pit backwards. Who knows? He may even take another stab at adding "alternative fuel" to his Toyota. After all, a leopard doesn't change his spots.

But, for the time being at least, it looks like 2009 is going to be a good year. And this chick predicts Waltrip will take the checkers.

Care to double down on that?

Kyle to F1? Say It Ain't So!

When word broke today that Kyle Busch's agent said the driver is "leaving the door open" for a switch to Formula One racing, there were -- most assuredly -- legions of NASCAR fans who heaved a collective sigh of relief and muttered a "good riddance" under their breaths.

This news was probably also viewed as a providential blessing straight from the throne of heaven by the small, struggling Camping World and Nationwide teams who are dog-tired of gazing at Kyle's bumper, while their opportunity to impress potential sponsors grows bleaker with each race he wins.

Yes, Kyle is arrogant, at times mean-spirited, and he often acts like he's God's gift to motorsports. However, the loss of Kyle Busch to Sprint Cup racing would be a terrible blow to the series.

Imagine the Sprint Cup Chase without Busch. Who would fans boo with snarls of disdain? Who would they blame for every wreck, spinout and caution that hampered their favorite driver? And who would take his place as King of All Things Theatrical and Antagonizer of Earnhardt and Edwards?

Though Tony Stewart has had his moments, and Denny Hamlin can be obnoxious when necessary, there's just nobody like Kyle for racing excitement, quotable interviews, and sheer blood-boiling drama.

Don't believe me? Just imagine how much fun we would have missed without moments like these:

"Some guys having some bad days and not doing their best out there, just made their bad day our bad day. It's just a shame. It's just unfortunate that two guys got together that were a lap down that were fighting over nothing."

“It's unfortunate that a guy that's messed up his whole day on pit road and screwed up that he has to make our day worse.”

"He hit me getting into Turn 1. Whatever. Carl's going to say he's sorry, that he didn't want to race that way, but he always does. We'll take it, we'll go on and we'll race him that way in the Chase if that's the way he wants it.”

"He was slowing me down a tremendous amount. I was either going to move him out of the way or he was going to get out of the way."

"I left a lane for him on the outside because I knew he was going to have a good run coming off the corner. He ran me over for no reason whatsoever.”

"He'll always come back and say he's sorry, He did it at Milwaukee and he's done it a few other times. It's just his normal fashion. That's fine. I've grown to know that now."

“I guess Harvick didn't have very nice things to say, and Carl got his feelings hurt.”

"Walking down pit road, [when] saying congratulations to Jeff Gordon, I got blown off. I guess I'm the outsider looking in now and I'll probably not be invited to the team meetings next week."

Yes, Kyle is the man we love to hate. But let's face it. We'd all hate it if he left.

Is Biffle His Own Worst Enemy?

Greg Biffle may have been driving a winning ride Sunday, but his tragic misstep off the track sent his Victory Lane hopes right down the pits. The #16 car was one of the quickest and most consistent cars of the night. But when Biffle took a long slide into his pit stall and ran over his air hose to boot, his perfect night went kaput.

To Biffle's credit, he took full responsibility for the error. After the race, he even said his mistake almost brought him to tears and that he should be fired. I wouldn't go that far. However, his pit road flub-up was only one of several errors "The Biff" has made since Daytona.

The night before his race-breaking pit stop, you could find Biffle smacking his car into the back of Brad Keselowski during the Nationwide Race at Fontana. The contact ended Brad's night (he was running fifth at the time) and wrecked the ill-fated Jason Leffler in the process. Then, on lap 128, Biffle spun out -- bringing out another caution and more pit stops for the field. He took a fifth-place start and turned it into 34th.

Of course, Biff's "just racing" incident on Saturday could have been a not-so-subtle payback for the Gatorade Duels, in which a tap from Keselowski sent Biffle spinning into the grass and subsequently into the garage. And then there were the four cautions at the Bud Shootout in which Biffle was involved --the last being contact with David Stremme, which again ended his night early.

The man himself summed it all up pretty well in an interview before the Daytona 500. "My thoughts right at this second are hopefully that before Speedweeks is over I get to finish a race is what I'm thinking about right now. We've had a few off-road excursions so far and these cars aren't nearly as good in the grass as they are on the pavement," he said.

The good news is, Biffle finished Daytona and Fontana, and ended his night in Cali with a solid fourth spot. He's even sitting pretty in the top five in points.

But if Biffle can't keep his "user errors" to a minimum, he won't be there for long.