Points and Congratulatory Remarks

Congrats to zjerry for winning Texas in a tie breaker!! zjerry is good at putting together late season charges, just like he did last year!

Congrats to 03JGMonte for extending his Segment 4 points lead and closing the overall to just 12 points!!

Mike and Carl won't be sleepign easy these next couple of weeks... Carl still holds the overall lead as he has since Darlington, but now by just 12 points! He was in this spot back in August but managed to get back to a comfortable lead.... can he do it again?

2011 winner at Phoenix was Teacher Todd, who was in a tiebreaker wtih monte carlo 3831 Chris.

Overall:

1) carlm54stl 3550 Leader
2) 03JGMonte 3538 -12
3) Leprechaun93 3496 -54
4) Cowboy6622 3452 -98
5) zjerry 3445 -105
6) SupplySgt 3436 -114
7) JuniorCar 3406 -144
8) montecarlo3831 3402 -148
9) 02 Earnhardt 3361 -189
10) butch049 3347 -203
11) bblackstone 3210 -330
12) 77GP 3175 -365
13) lougreen03 3146 -404
14) STUMPMI 3080 -470
15) silverfish33 2098
16) adgm2005 1905
17) MnteCrloSS47 1595
18) RocknSS04 1142
19) Ricks 2006 SS 1112
20) SuperSportSteve 928
21) 01 Monte SS 908
22) nichols2k 578
23) 06 Mistre SS 4282
24) Teacher 306
25) yutzybrian 211
26) SS Means Super Sexy 171
27) monte06ltz 92
28) Racebound2 83
29) Possum 77
30) 04chevyboy 76
31) Emily666 61
32) mousehousemoparman 54



Segment 4

1) 03JGMonte 814 Leader
2) zjerry 787 -27
3) Cowboy6622 781 -33
4) butch049 768 -46
5) Leprechaun93 767 -47
6) carlm54stl 765 -49
7) STUMPMI 747 -67
8) monte carlo 3831 739 -75
9) 02 Earnhardt 729 -85
10) SupplySgt 713 -91
11) MnteCrloSS 711 -93
12) 77GP 676 -128
13) blackstone 640
14) JuniorCar 635
15) lougreen03 592
16) silverfish33 379
17) Ricks 2006 SS 115
18) SSmeansSuperSexy 111



Phoenix History

This race was added to teh schedule in this time slot back in about 1988. The first time here, Alan Kulwicki won the race in... of all things... a fuel mileage run against Ricky Rudd. It was the first win for the man who built his own race team.

Alan Kulwicki cannot be comprated to anyone today. A single man, running a single car team, with no help from any major operations. At the time, getting engines from someone like Roush or Hendrick was invitation to just run someone elses outdated and crappy technology in your car. Kulwicki built his own bodies, chassis, engines, and ran for Rookie of the Year and eventually ran for the championship with his own stuff.

And finally, going to Phoenix in 1988, after being close several times at tracks like Martinsville, Bristol, and Charlotte, Kulwicki got that elusive first win, the first of only 5 in his career, at Phoenix.

And it messed with these guys... even then, multi million dollar teams were looking for little edges... and here, a guy who set up his car with grain scales and personally changed the engine in his car at Atlanta one time was outrunning the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, and Rusty Wallace.

He was famous for saying he had been thinking of something to do for his first win and only his first, nad he did a backwards victory lap, which I will hold in remembarance in my avatar for this week. He did that for only his first win, but then decided after winning the championship in 1992 to do it one more time.



This Week at Phoenix

Although all the old Phoenix stats still mean something, they don't mean as much as they should because this track was repaved last summer and this will be only the third race on the new surface. The track ahs more banking, wider straightaways, and this new awkward line where you use the apron coming off turn 2 going to turn 4 to shave a little distance off the back stretch and make brave passes...


The Favorites

You can't beat against these championship contenders. Jimmie Johnson has a lot of wins at Phoenix, and several times on his championship quests, he solidfiied his chances at Phoenix. Personally, I look for him to do it again.

Aside from that, all the Hendrick cars are my favorites this week. I compare this track to Martinsville and New Hampshire, and on those tracks, the Hendrick cars were the ones to deal with. They have something going on with their center-off handling on these flatter tracks.

Other than those, I look at the Toyotas. I think Bowyer, Ky. Busch, and Denny Hamlin are factors to deal with on these flat, shorter tracks. The Toyotas have shown some dominance this year and I think they might spoil the party again.

And for about 2-3 years now, a non chaser won this race with chasers on his tail. Kasey Kahne won last year, Carl Edwards broke a long winless streak the year before that... so if it could be a non chaser, I'm looking at either Edwards to do it again or Kyle Busch to win his first race in the last 10 of the year.

Stewart and Newman are hit nad miss... they'll etiher dominate this race or run 10th-15th. either way, they're good picks to bet on.

The Ones to Watch

Brad Keselowski si a borderline favorite... but he just hasn't been up to snuff on these flat tracks in the chase, he has been more in survival mode on them. I look for him to put on a big show in Homestead and try to survive Phoenix.

I swear, since Kenseth announced he was leaving, the Ford's fell apart. I just don't see a Ford doing well... but at the same time, this is a good track for Kenesth and Edwards. One of them might pull off a late season upset. Edwards has run 1st and 2nd in the last two years at this track. Biffle is a little on the off side right now... kind of a shame.

I put Truex in the watch category... good in the chase, but not great. His high point is those 1.5 tracks... so I don't look for him to do well at Phoenix but he might surprise me.

Aric Almirola is running decent right now too so we'll see.

The Ones to Avoid

Just avoid anyone you would normally avoid. Don't pick a Jamie Mac or a Juan Peblo.....

My Picks

The same feeling that told me to avoid Tony tells me to avoid Brad K this year... maybe I should ignore it.


1) Denny Hamlin
2) Clint Bowyer
3) Kyle Busch

 

Jimmie Johnson
Brad Keselowski
Kyle Busch

 

48
2
88

 

Here's my Picks

1) Jeff Gordon
2) Tony Stewart
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr <!-- / message -->

 

1. #48 Jimmie Johnson
2) #2 Brad Keselowski
3) #16 Greg Biffle

 

1.) Dale Earnhardt Jr
2.) Jimmie Johnson
3.) Brad Keselowski

 

For next week, if it is tight between the top two guys in points, should I have them both PM their picks for the race to Taz instead of posting them, to ensure that no "foul play" goes on with the top guy just trying to copy the 2nd place guy to ensure he doesn't get beaten?


I've always wondered about that when we got to the ends of some of these segments but it has never been a problem... just want to make sure it doesn't become one....

 

Well im sure me & carl will prob both pick johnson & keselowski so as long as our 3rd pick is different itll go good

 

Picked this up today hadda drive 80 miles to get it

 

I didn't think that came out until Friday? And I look forward to getting a copy... please tell me how you like it!