Dover / 5-31-09


Jimmie Johnson Wins Duel At Dover

  Jimmie Johnson won the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway. It was his 2nd win of 2009 and 42nd of his career. #14-Stewart finished 2nd, followed by #16-Biffle, #17-Kenseth, #2-Busch, #9-Kahne, #99-Edwards, #39-Newman, #07-Mears and #5-Martin. Pole sitter, #00-Reutimann finished 18th. #88-Earnhardt Jr, finished 12th with his new crew chief. Only one of the go-or-go-homers finished the race, #78-Smith at 22nd. Stewart now leads the points with 1853, 36 pts ahead of #24-Gordon, who finished 26th. There were 25 lead changes among 11 drivers and 10 cautions for 43 laps. (from Jayski.com)


Chuck Burkel and M J Racing Are The Top Teams At Dover

  Fifteen teams started Session Two with scores of 800 or better led by Chuck Burkel and M J Racing's 870. The winners at Dover used identical lineups of Johnson, Edwards, Kenseth, Reutimann, McMurray and Hornish, Jr.. Brotherly Love took third with an 866 while NASCAR Buddies and Cooter McElrone used different lineups to tie for fourth with 863 points. Tim Davey was sixth with an 844 and Sunshine Racing took seventh with 838. Check out the race results for the Autism Speaks 400.

  The average score for the Dover race was 736.0 with a Max score of 913. The "Max" team would have been Johnson, Biffle, Kenseth, Mears, McMurray and Hornish, Jr.. Tim Davey's lineup of Johnson, Edwards, Newman, Reutimann, Logano and Hornish, Jr. had the most popular driver in each group. As mentioned above, that lineup scored 844 which was good enough for sixth place.


Session Two Standings

  See race report above. Check out the current standings Session Two.

  All sixty-five teams that were in Session One are back for the middle segment of 2009. We will once again pay down to 21st place. The session payouts are always 1 out of 3 teams getting paid. Here is the link to the Session Two Payouts.


All Events Report

  Duane Quick was the Session One winner and he has used his nice start in the first twelve races to lead the season long All Events contest. Duane's 823 at Dover boosted his advantage over Jim Vande Hey to eighty-four points. Jim had a 773 to start out Session Two. Sunshine Racing moved up one spot to third place with their 838 while Team Crabb jumped three positions to fourth with an 808. Russ McElrone stayed in fifth with a 755. Here is the link to the All Events standings page. See if your team moved up after the Dover race.

  NASCAR Buddies moved up seventeen spots to 25th with an 863, that was the biggest jump in the standings. Tim Davey also made a nice move up in the standings; he climbed fifteen positions to 28th with an 844. Poopy Doop Racing had one of two sub-600 scores this race and it dropped them seventeen spots. They are in 42nd place after a 590 at Dover. Heartbeat Racing had a 657 but also saw their team drop substantially. They fell from 23rd to 35th.

  Duane Quick is the only team with an average over 760, they are going at a 760.77 clip. Forty-five teams are averaging over 700. Bar Fly Racing is in 45th with a 700.23 average.

  With sixty teams entered in the season long AE contest we will pay down to 15th place. The payouts for the AE contest can be viewed using this link, AE Payouts 2009.


Some More Stuff

  • The first thing that needs to be said about the Autism Speaks 400 from Dover is Stewart Haas Racing will not need a season or two to compete with the bigger, established organizations. Tony Stewart moved into the lead in the Sprint Cup standings while Ryan Newman is in fifth. Both will almost assuredly make the chase and Stewart should be one of the favorites to take the series title. When Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing to team with Gene Haas the new organization immediately gained much needed credibility. Adding Newman as the second driver and signing Office Depot, Old Spice and the U.S. Army as sponsors in 2009 gave Stewart Haas Racing stability right from the start. It doesn't hurt that the team will get cars and engines from Hendrick Motorsports. Lots of "experts" thought it would take a while for the #14 and #39 to challenge for wins or make an impact on the chase but it sure looks like they were wrong. Sound off on this subject at the Questions and Comments page.


  • For 2009 we are allowing an "Extra Move" each session. It was put in so that if something goofy happens and a team is short a driver they can still field a full roster. The cost is $5.00 and it is an optional move. Thirteen teams used their "Extra Move" in Session One.


  • There were nine ties in the standings for Dover. Four of them were the result of identical lineups. Those ties involved nine teams so we still had fifty-six unique rosters.


  • Team Collier and Cooter McElrone had their first 800+ scores of 2009. Cooter tied for fourth with his 863 while Team Collier's 818 was good for 11th.


  • All teams can change one driver per race. Remember it is easy to change drivers, call the Pump Room (432-8714), Email me (rus_mcelrone@hotmail.com) or post on the web site at the Driver Change Page.


  • Jimmie Johnson is the most popular driver in the league. He was on thirty-two of the sixty-five lineups. Next were Sam Hornish, Jr. (31 lineups), Ryan Newman (30 lineups) and Joey Logano (29 lineups). The top ten most popular drivers are listed on the This Week's Stuff page along with some other information on the most recent race.


  • All of the active drivers in the top five groups were on at least one roster except for Casey Mears in Group Four and David Stremme in G5. Mears was the top driver in his group at Dover after taking ninth place and scoring 138 points. Stremme was the lowest scoring in G5, he took 31st for 70 points. Six different Group Six drivers were selected for Dover; Sam Hornish,J. (31 lineups), David Ragan (18 lineups), A.J. Allmendinger (11 lineups), David Gilliland (3 lineups), Paul Menard (1 lineup) and Michael Waltrip (1 lineup). Group 3 had a nice race, the drivers in that group averaged 137.667 points this week.


    • Pocono 500 / 6-7-09

      Kasey Kahne won from the pole last June when the Sprint Cup Series visited Long Pond, PA. The 500 mile race gets started at 1:16 pm on Sunday.

      Pocono is one of the most unusual tracks on the Cup circuit. The triangle shaped track is 2.5 miles long with each turn a little different; banking in Turn 1 is 14 degrees, turn 2: 8 degree and turn 3: 6 degrees. Here is the race information page at Jayski.com.