In this week’s podcast, we discuss the racing, the wrecking, the Danica, and the Fox broadcasting booth. Again.
Picks for next week:
Coach: Matt Kenseth
Rob: Jimmie Johnson
Fine Dining at Martinsville
Working on the schmak
The latest episode of the schmak has been recorded and will be posted later this evening, just a little late. We here at the schmak know that you expect and rely upon our timely publication and apologize for making your Tuesday morning slightly crappier.
Rookie of the year points standings
I was curious about the rookie of the year (ROTY) standings so far this year, and didn’t see anything that had them listed, so I went and calculated them out.
The basic premise is this – it doesn’t really matter where they finish in the race, but where they finish relative to the other ROTY candidates.
Highest finishing rookie gets 10 points, second gets 9, third gets 8, etc…
Or in this case, no “etc…” because there are only three declared ROTY candidates.
So here are the standings as of Fontana:
Rookie Standings, 2013
|
|
Danica Patrick |
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. |
Timmy Hill |
|||
| Race | Finish | Rookie Points | Finish | Rookie Points | Finish | Rookie Points |
| Daytona 500 | 8th | 10 | 12th | 9 | N/A | 0 |
| Phoenix 1 | 39th | 9 | 16th | 10 | N/A | 0 |
| Las Vegas | 33rd | 9 | 18th | 10 | N/A | 0 |
| Bristol | 28th | 9 | 16th | 10 | N/A | 0 |
| Fontana | 26th | 9 | 20th | 10 | 39th | 8 |
| Martinsville | 12th | 10 | 25th | 9 | N/A | 0 |
| ———— Standings ———— | ||||||
| Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | |
| Totals | 2nd | 56 | 1st | 58 | 3rd | 8 |
At the end of the year, only the 10 best rookie points finishes will be counted, so Danica could catch up to Stenhouse if he has a bunch of bad days/blown engines/wrecks.
But probably not.
Timmy Hill could also conceivably be more competitive since he is scheduled for more than 10 races this season.
But the bottom line is – does anyone else care?
Giving family a shot
Yesterday, Junior Motorsports (Daly Jr.’s Nationwide team) announced that they had signed Jeffery Earnhardt to drive one race for them at Richmond.
Jeffery Earnhardt is son of Kerry Earnhardt, who is Dale Earnhardt’s first (and mostly forgotton) son. “Until he was 16, Kerry saw little of his biological father.” – wikipedia.
Junior Motorsports sounds super excited about this opportunity. From Kelley Earnhardt Miller, general manager:
Richmond happens to be one of the few races that neither Kasey Kahne nor Brad Sweet are scheduled to drive the No. 5 car… Dale and I were discussing our options for that weekend. It was his idea to put Jeffrey in the car and let him drive our equipment… It’s only a one-race deal but something that could really help Jeffrey if he does well.
Translation: “we don’t have anybody, we can give this kid no money and no help and he’ll jump at the chance. Hope it works out for him. Sucker.”
I left out the “we loved the idea” part because that’s just PR fluff.
Danica’s old ride
For the first four races of 2013, Danica Patrick has raced in 3 new and 1 almost new car.
But for Martinsville, she’s getting a four year old car, while teammate/boss Tony Stewart is getting a car built last year and other teammate Ryan Newman is getting a brand new car.
In fact, the car that Danica is driving on Sunday was last on the track in November 2010, more than 2 years ago.
Methinks someone at Stewart Haas has low expectations for Danica at Martinsville.
Full chassis rundown from Jayski.com:
Chassis No. 10-535: This car (formally No. 14-535) debuted in April 2009 with Tony Stewart at the wheel at Phoenix International Raceway, where Stewart used it to qualify sixth and lead once for 19 laps before finishing second. The last outing for Chassis No. 10-535 was in November 2010, when Stewart started 20th and finished 17th at Phoenix. The car was on standby for the No. 14 team throughout many race weekends in 2011 and 2012 but was never pressed into service. Since the end of the 2012 season, it was updated to the sixth-generation (Gen-6) Chevrolet SS configuration and transferred to the No. 10 GoDaddy.com team of Danica Patrick and crew chief Tony Gibson.
Hamlin vs. Logano
On the Dan Patrick show, Hamlin had this to say about the last lap wreck with Joey Logano at Fontana:
“If it wasn’t intentional, it’s the worst case of car control I’ve ever seen as a driver.”
In a separate ESPN interview, Logano had a different story:
“My number one goal is to go win a race,” Logano told ESPN’s Marty Smith. “So did I intentionally wreck him? No, I did not intentionally do that. If I was going to do that I would have hit him in the left-rear tire. I hit him in the door. It’s hard racing at that point.”
I tend to believe Logano has problems controlling his car. I think Ryan Newman agrees.
Martinsville Tires – another 48 advantage.
Tires for the race this Sunday will be new to Martinsville, with slight compound changes from the last set, and slightly less tread depth (read – more tire wear).
But most interesting, is that these are the product of tire testing that happened last year.
Who was at the test? Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, and Jimmie Johnson.
Odds at Martinsville change now that Hamlin is out
This comes as no surprise to anyone, but now that Hamlin is out of Martinsville, the Vegas odds on Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have gotten better.
Because of Hamlin’s absence, Johnson’s opening odds at the LVH SuperBook shrunk from what was expected to be about 5-to-1 down to 7-to-2. Instead of Gordon being 6-to-1, he’s been posted at 5-to-1.
Source: sportingnews.com.
Seems obvious, so the question is, what about a surprise driver? Say, Kurt Busch, who’s been on a pretty big tear in the 78 car?
At 100 to 1, he could be a big money maker. Assuming he doesn’t have another meltdown, equipment failure, a Tony Stewart style block, Logano vs. Stewart aftermath, or the like.
On second thoughts, save your money.
MWR – we have good lawyers, Martin’s driving for us
Tip of the hat to listener Analese for alerting us that Brian Vickers will be doing some subbing for Hamlin:
@TrackSchmak THE SHERIFF in the #11 for brokeback. #standwithdenny #ouch
JGR stated a few days ago that they didn’t want a rotating cast of drivers filling in during Denny Hamlin’s absence, so they picked Mark Martin to fill in. I’m assuming that Martin had to agree to this, even though he had been scheduled to run some races for MWR during the upcoming six week period.
And so, JGR released a statement naming Mark Martin as the permanent fill in for Denny, with Brian Vickers subbing for Mark Martin while Martin is subbing for Denny.
However, yesterday, JGR backpedalled, saying that they “…were a bit premature in determining Mark’s status past Martinsville” – i.e., MWR’s lawyers said “NOPE!”
So Brian Vickers, also a JGR driver in the Nationwide series, will be filling in for Denny at Texas on April 13th and beyond.
Finally – “Brokeback Hamlin”? A little mean, but pretty funny.
EDIT: Alternate title – “Sponsors: we paid for Mark Martin, we will get Mark Martin.”
Mark Martin to the 11 – screw you MWR?
Mark Martin will be subbing for Denny Hamlin in the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
He was not scheduled to be in the MWR #55 car at Martinsville, but he was supposed to be in the #55 in the following three events at Texas, Kansas, and Richmond.
Does this mean more seat time for Brian Vickers? More for Michael Waltrip? It’s like a semi-silly season already.
UPDATE: This probably explains it a bit better:
MWR, according to sources, would like to keep Vickers in the 55 for as much as possible because he is the likely replacement for Martin next season.