NASCAR Nationwide Series Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 | Phoenix International Raceway Race Day Open Thread and Preview

If a non-Nationwide Series regular wins today’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200, NASCAR will be 5-for-5 in race-winners receiving no championship points for a victory.

And with Kyle Busch in the field, chances are pretty high that a fifth-straight scenario will occur.
In 11 starts at PIR, Busch has three wins, five top-fives, eight top 10s and three poles. In his three wins, Busch averaged 130.3 Laps Led. In other words, he’s as close to a lock as they come in today’s field.
Cup regulars Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski also have great shots at winning. Keselowski was fastest during happy hour on Friday with a speed of 132.071 mph. He was followed by Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler. The latter was one of five Nationwide-regulars to break the top-ten.
The others included Reed Sorenson (7th), Steve Wallace (8th), Jason Leffler (9th), and Brian Scott (10th). Don’t sleep on the Championship hopefuls on Saturday night.
Only 40 drivers are competing in Saturday’s race, one of the most petite Nationwide Series lineups in recent memory.
Troy’s race preview, comments and a starting lineup (when available) can be found on the other side. See ya there!

Phoenix is a track that has moved around a lot on the Nationwide Schedule. Last year Phoenix was the 6th race of the year. The year before, it was the 7th race. It was the 8th race in 2008. In 2007, 2006 and 2005 it was the 9th race after it was granted a second date on the schedule. This year Phoenix takes the place of Fontana as the race after Daytona. Auto Club has been the second race of the schedule since 2005. Fontana moves to the fifth race of 2011. All that is kinda confusing, so lets just say that the Nationwide guys head to the desert. Carl Edwards, the winner of last years event, has four wins at Phoenix. Kyle Busch has three. Both are set to take to the one mile track in hopes of a win. Kyle Busch is coming off a top ten run at Daytona, Edwards is looking to put Daytona in his rearview after finishing 29th.

Reed Sorenson is the defacto point leader heading into Phoenix. Why you ask? Because Tony Stewart received no points from his Daytona win, and Landon Cassill will not run this week. I did not think that Nascar’s new point policy would be in the forfront of the news after only one week. All three Daytona events were won by drivers that were not running for that series championship. Stewart will probably not return to Nationwide racing until next year at Daytona, but Landon Cassill will return at some point this year. He is running part time in both Nationwide and Cup. It’s a sad day when no one will give such a talented young driver a ride so that he can try to win a championship. This is when you look at teams like Joe Gibbs, who are running both Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, Turner Motorsports are running Ryan Newman, and Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski are both in Nationwide cars this week. The most glaring team is Turner Motorsports. Ryan Newman is not bringing in new sponsorship to them. Dollar General, which is the full time sponsor of Reed Sorenson is on the car this week. It’s hard to see if Nascar’s new point policy is making a difference or not at this point. Right now you would say it is not.

Your not seeing that wrong. There are only 40 teams set to drive at Phoenix. This means that everyone is going to make the race, but it will be the first short field since 2008. Now for the rundown.

#01-Mike Wallace continues his drive for a Nationwide title with a new sponsor, HalfOff.com

#2-It was a tough day for Elliott Sadler last week. He suffered a hugh setback in his drive for a first Nascar championship

#6-Ricky Stenhouse looked better last week then he did to start his 2010 campaign. Stenhouse is unsponsored this week, but Roush has said he will run both Stenhouse and Bayne in all 34 races.

#7-Danica Patrick is coming off a career best finish and career best qualifing run from Daytona.

#09-Kenny Wallace has a new sponsor this week, Family Farmers.

#15-This is the debut of rookie contender Timmy Hill. Rick Ware Racing bought the owner points from Germain Racing and will run the full season in an attempt to win the Rookie of the Year award. The team switches to Ford this week.

#16-Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne has decided to run for the Nationwide Title. He is unsponsored this week, which is a very big surprise.

#18-Kyle Busch will run the new Interstate Batteries scheme for the first time this season.

#19-Charles Lewandowski returns to TriStar Motorsports this week. He will run in about 10 races this year.

#20-Joey Logano is set to run SportClips for the first time in 2011. He had a lot of success last year while running this sponsor.

#27-Justin Marks is a full time Truck driver and will not receive any points in his start and park venture this week. Baker Curb is trying to stay alive in the Nationwide Series.

#30-Ryan Newman will make his Nationwide debut this week for Turner Motorsports.

#33-Kevin Harvick will run Menards for the first time in 2011.

#41-Carl Long makes his 2011 debut in the second Rick Ware Ford.

#44-Mike Bliss will drive the third TriStar Chevy when Charles Lewandowski is in the #19 Chevy.

The #52 Chevy is entered with Daryl Harr after Bobby Santos ran a very well Daytona race. Jimmy Means had to accept a car from JR Motorsports after a very hard crash and they are still working on getting the car ready for Phoenix.

#79-Jennifer Jo Cobb gave up her Truck owner points to try to advance to the Nationwide series. Last week they missed the race, so Second Chance Motorsports will need a very good Phoenix race to make up for the points they lost.

#81-Blake Koch makes his 2011 debut. Koch will run for at least 20 races this year, splitting the ride with Donnie Neuenberger. Koch brings sponsorship from RizeUp.com and Heartford Harley Davidson.

#99-Ryan Truex begins his part time 2011 for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing. Truex is currently unsponsored.

Phoenix is Saturday night racing at it’s finest. Join us this saturday on ESPN2 at 5:00pm Eastern for the Bashas Supermarkets 200 from Phoenix International Raceway. Enjoy!