Saturday Night Lights - The Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 Race Primer
Picking a draft partner for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 got considerably more difficult after a temper-filled Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Several drivers fired a few verbal jabs during post-race interviews at Sonoma on Sunday, leading to ramped up interest going into one of the more dangerous races of the season - the July Daytona night race.
A few of the fresh grudge matches heading into Daytona: Tony Stewart vs. Brian Vickers; Brad Keselowski vs. Juan Pablo Montoya; Kasey Kahne vs. Montoya. Add that to the mental war games of Kyle Busch vs. defending race champion Kevin Harvick (did you see the hand shake??), and Saturday night just doubled in potential drama.
We’ve long since given up on trying to accurately predict races at Daytona and Talladega, instead opting to use such scientific measures at letting your friends pick and drawing random numbers. It’s a lot like Einstein’s definition of insanity - “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
We’re going to get it right eventually.
But if the unscientific doesn’t do it for you, we’ve got the stats and trends for top performers right after the jump.
Loop data from over the past six races is means absolutely nothing given the advent of the two car draft.
Jeff Gordon/Mark Martin have a combined six wins at Daytona (all Gordon) but the two were the fastest two-car tandem throughout Talladega. They qualified one/two and were leading at the white flag before being overtaken by Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The two preferred the low line at Talladega but moved up top with about ten to go when they decided it was time to move to the front. Daytona will present a different set of challenges but judging from practice the two plan on repeating their Alabama performances.
Gordon crashed out of the Daytona 500 on lap 26 while Martin finished 10th.
Jimmie Johnson/Dale Earnhardt Jr. did their best Kevin Harvick impression at Talladega coming from outside the Top-5 to win at Talladega in the spring. Like Gordon and Martin, this duo was a force all weekend in Alabama qualifying three/four and timing the pass just right to win the circuit’s last plate race.
Earnhardt also qualified on pole for the season opening Daytona 500 and was a threat to win before being knocked out in the final ten laps.
This duo should be near the top in the late stages of Saturday night’s race.
Defending track winner Trevor Bayne has just one start at the World Center of Racing and he made it count. He worked with several drivers including Gordon, Carl Edwards and Bobbby Labonte to play the strategy just right to win the Daytona 500 in only his second career start.
His driver rating at the Daytona 500 was 108.2 and his average running position was 11.8. He’s the only example we have right now at how to win here in 2011 and he proved that you have to stay near the front.
Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski have been on a roll of late, winning two of the last four races and four of the last six poles. As of press time, they’re also leading Cup Series happy hour at Daytona. Kurt Busch proved that he can be a winner here, taking Gatorade Duel Race 2 on the Thursday before the Daytona 500.
With Dale Earnhardt Jr. having to go to a backup car for the 500, Busch started that race on the de facto pole and finished fifth after leading 19 laps. Keselowski led 9 laps and crashed (with the help of Robby Gordon) on lap 166.
This weekend’s racing action begins on Friday night with the NASCAR Nationwide Series Subway Jalapeno 250.
The Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 starts at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast as a part of TNT’s Wide Open Coverage. NASCAR Ranting and Raving will have open race threads for both events and we hope you’ll join us there.
The excitement is just picking up.
