No Cup Race? Then Why Not Watch The Truck and Nationwide Races
If you are looking for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race this weekend you won’t find one as the Cup Series gets a rare break in the schedule. The next race on the sched will be in one week at The Brickyard in Indianapolis, Ind.
More after The Jump!
If you are looking for some good racing this weekend then you should look into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series which both have races tonight.
The truck race should be a good one as they are at Kentucky which is a smooth and fast 1.5 mile tri-oval. Also, four race winners at this track in the last eight years have gone on to win the Truck Series championship -- those are pretty good odds I’d say.
As far as the Nationwide Series goes, they are racing at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, which is a 1.25 oval with low banking. This race should prove interesting as seven of nine races have been won from the first two rows, so you must qualify well at this track in order to do well, so look for stiff competition during qualifying.
One person who must be enjoying his off-week is last week’s winner Mark Martin who had the field covered for most of the race. Martin and his team had a pretty dominant machine to say the least, but I’m wondering where Martin would be in the standings right now if he didn’t have such a bad start to the season.
I’m thinking Martin would be in one of the top two spots for sure if he hadn’t had such bad luck early in the season. Martin is currently sitting 11th in the standings just 11 points ahead of 13th place with a series leading four wins under his belt.
And then there is his teammate Jeff Gordon, who is second in the standings, almost 400 points ahead of Martin, and Gordon. He has just one win to his credit so far this year. This proves that in order to stay at the top of the standings you must run consistently in the top 10 each week. This point system rewards consistency not wins.
Although you do get bonuses for wins if you make it into the Chase, you have to make the Chase first, otherwise no bonus points.
You know, on second thought, I bet Martin really isn’t enjoying his off-weekend after all. I would expect that Martin and those other teams sitting in and around twelfth place are not really having a weekend off as they are probably out testing at non-sanctioned tracks trying to get that little extra edge.
