Rating the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season: 2 Stars **

The 2012 Sprint Cup Series struggled to keep the momentum created by the closest championship battle in series history in 2011 when Tony Stewart beat Carl Edwards by a tiebreaker. The 2012 version was defined by lots of green-flag racing, which isn’t a bad thing, but the excitement level was noticeably down this year. The 2012 season gets a 2 Star Rating.

Brad Keselowski helped add some spark (and suds) to the finish of the season as he beat five-time champion Jimmie Johnson to win the title. However, the number of memorable races can probably be counted on one hand.

Here’s the breakdown of this year’s ratings, which includes the Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race. It does not include the annual “You Rate the Race” event, which this season was at Kentucky Speedway.

5 Stars: 5 races

4 Stars: 10 races

3 Stars: 8 races

2 Stars: 10 races

1 Star: 4 races

This year had the most 1 Star races in the history of Monday Morning Crew Chief, and the number of 5 Star races dropped from eight to five.

Let’s revisit some of the most memorable races of the season. Click on the links to see the rating for each race mentioned.

We’ll start with Daytona Speedweeks, which included a very exciting Budweiser Shootout and bizarre Daytona 500. Kyle Busch drove through turns 3 and 4 sideways early in the shootout, sending sparks flying from his car. The damage wasn’t enough to slow him down, though, and he came back to win the race by a few feet ahead of Tony Stewart at the finish line in a race that started the season with a 5 Star Rating.

The Daytona 500 was definitely the strangest of the season, and perhaps one of the strangest in the history of the sport. Rain postponed the race until not only Monday, but Monday night in primetime. Busch sent sparks flying in the shootout, but Juan Pablo Montoya did him one better by crashing into a jet dryer under caution. The impact created an explosion and fire in Turn 3 that put the race under a red flag. Matt Kenseth ended up winning the race that got a 3 Star Rating because of the day-and-a-half rain delay.

Once the series left Daytona, the long green-flag runs set in. The racing was remarkably clean, which is good, but the drivers stayed spread out enough on tracks such as Phoenix, Fontana, Texas and even Richmond that any excitement from Speedweeks or the previous season had disappeared. Just six races following Speedweeks received a rating higher than 3 Stars until the series went back to Daytona in July for a 5 Star race.

The second half of the season started to gain momentum as drivers such as Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon battled back from early season troubles to make the race. Kahne grabbed a wild-card spot, and Gordon snuck by Busch by one point to claim the 10^th and final Chase spot based on points. That final regular-season race at Richmond received a 4 Star Rating, and Clint Bowyer took home the trophy.

Johnson won another Brickyard 400 this year, his fourth, but the race was less than thrilling in part because of his dominance. It received a 2 Star Rating.

However, things got interesting two weeks later at Watkins Glen as Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose slide through oil as Busch wrecked on the final lap. Keselowski and Ambrose had the best final-lap battle of the season, and Ambrose came out on top to win for the second year in a row on the road course. That final lap bumped the race to a 4 Star Rating.

The late-season fireworks first showed up at the, once again, newly reconfigured Bristol Motor Speedway during the August night race. The shaved top groove brought back the old-style beating and banging, although this time at the top of the racetrack. Stewart and Kenseth crashed while battling for the lead, and Stewart threw his helmet at Kenseth’s car, bouncing it off the hood of Kenseth’s #17. Danica Patrick also wrecked and angrily shook her finger at Regan Smith. Denny Hamlin ended up winning the 5 Star Race. He won again the next week at Atlanta and a month later at New Hampshire, but too many mechanical problems ended his championship run.

Once the Chase began, Keselowski took charge by winning at Chicago and Dover, neither of which were particularly action-packed races. They both got 2 Star Ratings.

The action-packed Chase race this season was at Phoenix. Kevin Harvick rose from the desert dust to win his first race of the season, but he was a mere footnote to the craziness of that 5 Star afternoon. Gordon and Clint Bowyer battled late in the race, and Gordon cut a tire from the battle and crashed. He then waited for Bowyer to come back around the track and intentionally wrecked him. Bowyer’s pit crew was waiting for Gordon when he drove back to the garage, and they immediately jumped him, inciting one of the largest brawls the sport had seen in years. Patrick also played a hand in this crazy race. She wrecked as the field came to the white flag, put down oil in Turn 4 coming to the finish line, and a half-dozen cars piled up as they crossed the line.

That all set the stage for the championship race at Homestead. Keselowski came into the race with a 20-point lead of Johnson and qualified third to Johnson’s 10^th. Johnson made a run to the front that night and might have won the title until a loose lug nut penalty cost him time on the track and a problem in the drivetrain sent him to the garage early, effectively handing Keselowski the championship.

This year marked the end of the Car of Tomorrow body style NASCAR introduced in 2007. A new model will be used next year. As is the case with every new model, NASCAR officials say it will race better than the previous version. That wasn’t the case the last time around, but at least the new cars look better.

Next year will also have its fair share of new drivers with new teams. Most notably, Kenseth will move to the #20 car, while Joey Logano takes over the #22 ride. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will fill the #17 car, and Kurt Busch will continue to try and revive his career in the #78 car, formerly driven by Smith.

The 2012 season had its exciting and interesting moments. Let’s just hope there are more in 2013.

Rating the Hollywood Casino 400: 3 Stars ***

In perhaps the craziest race of the 2012 Chase, Matt Kenseth came out on top while nearly half the field did not finish the race, and that’s at a 1.5-mile track that typically produces fairly pedestrian racing. But all of that still wasn’t enough to get the final race of the season in the North anything above a 3 StarRating.

The wrecks began early and often Sunday at Kansas Speedway, and they affected nearly everyone regardless of running order or position in the points standings. Chasers Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart all spun. Aric Almirola even wrecked while leading the race.

All of the carnage had a chance to really shake up the points standings, but it turned out the Brad Keselowski maintained his seven-point lead on Johnson while narrowly missing several of the wrecks that led to a track-record 14 cautions.

However, the fact that Johnson stayed just seven points out of the lead is truly remarkable. Johnson spun in Turn 4 and smashed up the rear end of his car. The damage looked extensive enough to send the car to the garage for repairs, but the #48 pit crew went to work and fixed the back of the car to the point where it could not only maintain minimum speed, but to the point where Johnson could drive back through the field to finish ninth.

Races like that are why the #48 team has won five championships and competed for a championship nearly all of the 10 years it has existed. There might not be another team in the sport right now that could have fixed a car with that much damage without losing a lap and have a driver who could drive it back into the top 10.

As for Keselowski, he also salvaged a day when the #2 car was not good enough to compete for the win. He started in 25^th and hung near the top 10 most of the day, finishing eighth.

That’s not a bad day for Keselowski and the #2 team, but they are going to have to produce a couple of top-fives soon or Johnson will make his move and take the lead.

Other contenders Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne finished inside the top 10, and Denny Hamlin finished in 13^th. All three of those drivers will likely need top-five finishes the rest of the way to win the championship, and possibly just to stay in contention by the time the series reaches Homestead for the final race.

Hamlin’s big chance could be next week at Martinsville, where he has won four times. Unfortunately for Hamlin, who sits 20 points out of the Chase lead, Johnson has won there six times. Next week will still be one of the better chances for either Hamlin or Johnson to make up ground on Keselowski, who doesn’t have a win at Martinsville.

The funny part is there will likely be fewer cautions at Martinsville than there were this week at Kansas, although the number of cautions at Kansas was in large part because the track was repaved over the summer and speeds were up dramatically from past races.

But before we head off to the next race, Kenseth and the #17 team should be commended for their win at Kansas and second in the Chase. Kenseth sits 11^th in the points standings, is headed to the #20 car at the end of the season and does not have a realistic shot at winning this year’s championship. However, Kenseth and his team have continued to put together races consistent with his performance throughout his entire career.

Both the driver and team are very professional. It will be a shame to see that partnership broken up when the season comes to a close.

Have a great week, everybody.

Rating the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500: 5 Stars *****

The annual crazy race of the Chase lived up to the hype this time with the most lead changes of the season, large pack racing and a massive crash on the final lap. The final restrictor-plate race of the season gets a 5 Star Rating.

The majority of the race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway was actually extremely clean. Carl Edwards, Cole Whitt and Joey Logano got in an early wreck and Jamie McMurray spun out to cause the green-white-checkered finish, but that was the extent of the damage.

Until the final turn of the final lap.

Casey Mears, who had a strong car all day, gave Michael Waltrip, who was irrelevant until the final lap, the mother of all pushes through Turn 3 and the pair was headed to the lead. But then Tony Stewart saw them coming, tried to block and ended up setting off a 25-car wreck.

Needless to say, the race ended there. Matt Kenseth was ahead of the wreck and drove off for the win. Jeff Gordon finished second, but he was 15^th or worse when the wreck began. For once he was on the receiving end of some good luck, and it kept him on the edge of championship contention.

Like it or not, that’s what happens at restrictor-plate tracks. The field was four-wide at least six rows deep nearly the entire two laps of the final restart. That is incredibly exciting to watch, but it would be a miracle for the field to make it back around without some sort of incident. It’s already amazing they made it to the final lap without a wreck.

Since the Sprint Cup Series was at a restrictor-plate track, let’s go ahead and discuss the style of racing. The cool temperatures should’ve helped the cooling issues the cars tend to experience after the offseason rule changes to restrict air flow to the engine, but nobody was able to push for more than a lap, if even that far.

The race actually felt more like the old style of restrictor-plate pack racing than any race since the drivers discovered the two-car draft in 2008 and 2009. Drivers were able to pass for the lead (there were 54 lead changes), and the field never got strung out despite a couple of green-flag pit stops.

This was the last race of the current car model, but early indications are the new model in 2013 will produce similar, if not better, racing. But we’ll find out about that in February at Daytona. For now, the Chase drivers will focus on the final six races of the Chase and how to catch Brad Keselowski, who extended his lead to 14 points over Jimmie Johnson.

Next up is Charlotte Motor Speedway for a Saturday night race. It’s the fifth race in the Chase, and this is the point where drivers start to get eliminated from championship contention either mathematically or practically. Johnson wrecked in this race last year to end his hopes of a sixth-straight title.

Either way, the racing at Charlotte is usually pretty entertaining. It might be some of the best intermediate track racing we see the rest of the season.

Have a great week, everybody.

Rating the Irwin Tools Night Race: 5 Stars *****

Now that’s some good old-fashioned Bristol racing. The annual night race at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile was a slugfest that brought out the beating and banging that made Bristol Motor Speedway famous. The track changes worked. The Bristol night race gets a 5 Star Rating.

Denny Hamlin got the win in rather mundane fashion, but everything that happen up to the final run was stuff we hadn’t seen in the Sprint Cup Series in quite some time.

Sure, the finish at Watkins Glen was exciting, and Jimmie Johnson’s blown motor with five laps to go at Michigan prevented a matter-of-fact finish, but everyone got up on the wheel from the drop of the green flag Saturday in Bristol.

The bump-and-run returned to Bristol after track owner Bruton Smith decided to shave off the top groove of the track to create less racing space. His hope was to bring back a narrow groove that forced drivers to bump each other for position. Smith got what he asked for, although perhaps not in the way he envisioned.

Instead of the reconfiguration sending everyone hunting for the bottom of the track, the drivers spent all night fighting for the very top of the track, right where Smith took away the banking. But the passing dynamics that existed at Bristol before Smith installed progressive banking in 2007 still came back with a force.

It became impossible to pass on the low side throughout the night, so drivers had to nudge (or forcefully push) each other out of the way to gain a spot. That’s what gave us the most memorable part of the night.

Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart battled for the lead on lap 332. Stewart got a run on the high side, but Kenseth didn’t leave him much room. They started trading paint and eventually slid across the frontstretch and crashed into the inside wall.

Stewart jumped out of his car and waited for Kenseth to come around pit lane. As Kenseth came around, Stewart threw his helmet off the front of Kenseth’s hood and then turned around to salute the fans.

That’s the kind of stuff that has been missing from the sport of late. Notice that Stewart was not called to the NASCAR hauler after the race and won’t receive any penalties for his actions.

Some people will moan and groan that Saturday night’s race wasn’t “real racing” because there were 13 cautions and wrecks all over the place. That’s fine. Those folks can watch “real racing” at tracks such as Chicagoland, Kansas and Fontana. Saturday night’s race was fun, intense and has fans a lot more pumped up about NASCAR than any race this season outside of the Watkin’s Glen finish.

Hopefully the momentum from Bristol will carry on to Atlanta and Richmond to finish the regular season. All of a sudden the monotonous races from the first half of the season seem like they are far in the past.

That’s a good thing as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for its Labor Day weekend race. The points standings heading into the final two races before the Chase are as tight as ever, and that should make for exciting finish to the season.

Have a great week and blessed holiday weekend, everybody.

Rating the Coke Zero 400: 5 Stars *****

The Sprint Cup Series roared back into a drier and less flammable Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night and put on perhaps the best race of the season. The Fourth of July celebration in Daytona gets a 5 Star Rating.

Tony Stewart ran a clean race that was otherwise filled with drivers making those breathtaking moves that fans love when they race inches apart at 200 mph for hours on end. Sometimes those moves create big wrecks that stir the pot and get people talking about what should or should not have happened. Either way, it was exciting.

The first half of the race flew by with no cautions until lap 81 when Sam Hornish Jr., fresh off of an emergency trip to Daytona Beach to replace suspended A.J. Allmendinger in the #22 car, spun after a tire went down.

Yes, the first half of the race was as incident-free as many of the other races this season, but the two-wide, 200-mph pack is exciting regardless of the circumstances.

There weren’t many passes for the lead, but the race certainly had a tension level higher than most every other race this year outside of the Daytona 500, but it also created a don’t-move-from-your-seat-because-anything-could-happen feel that the tandem restrictor-plate races of the past couple of years simply didn’t produce until the end of the race.

The second half of the race, as is the case with many restrictor-plate races, is when the field went mad. Kurt Busch tried to force his way through a hold the size of a beach ball on lap 91 and created the first big wreck of the evening. That was followed by the traditional big wrecks as the laps wind down, including the insanity that gets unleashed when the flagman reaches for the checkered flag.

Stewart, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth crossed the line in front of a massive wreck that collected most of the front half of the field, creating an interesting finishing order that included Michael Waltrip in ninth and Bobby Labonte in 10^th.

Although Stewart won the race, Kenseth had the best car of the night. He and Greg Biffle have dominated the restrictor-plate races this year the way Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to during their days at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Kenseth could have won all three of the restrictor-plate races this season, but the crazy circumstances that surround those races don’t often reward the driver with the best car. In any case, Kenseth again extended his points lead to 25 over Earnhardt Jr. and is on his way to cruising to the Chase with the points lead.

It’s too bad Kenseth will leave at the end of the year because that group is clicking as well as it has since Robbie Reiser was atop the pit box for the “Killer Bees” in the first half of the 2000s.

As for Stewart, the Daytona win gives him three victories on the season and moves him up to fifth in the points standings. That #14 team might not be the most consistent team in the field, but it certainly has the power to be as good as anyone in the sport every given week. That will make Stewart a strong contender for the championship again this season.

Next up is New Hampshire, where Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman dominated a year ago. Newman won the pole and the race, and Stewart finished second. Lookout folks, those Stewart-Haas Racing cars have Hendrick Motorsports power, and those engines have won five of the last eight races, including the All-Star Race.

This could be a fun rest of the season between Hendrick power and Roush-Fenway Racing power if the Fords can keep up on the intermediate tracks.

Have a great week, everybody.

Richmond race perfect for those who like entertainment more than racing

Kyle Busch crossed the line first Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, and although he had a fast car, he had no business in Victory Lane.

Before we really get started though, let me throw out the disclaimer to address all of those who will try to accuse this post of being upset because the #18 car won. This story has much less to do with Busch and more to do with how terribly NASCAR handled Saturday night’s race.

First, NASCAR single-handedly took Carl Edwards out of contention for the victory when officials penalized him for jumping a restart with 82 laps to go.

Again, this isn’t about Edwards, but how NASCAR handled the situation. Apparently officials told Edwards’ spotter the #99 car was the leader ahead of Tony Stewart.

Granted, Edwards took off before the restart line, but he was close. It’s fine to say that should be an objective call, but then Matt Kenseth should’ve been penalized twice at Bristol for beating the leader back to the line on a restart.

If NASCAR thought Kenseth was close enough to get a gimme on the restarts, Edwards was certainly close enough to get a gimme at Richmond.

In that case, the only other problem would’ve been if Edwards was supposed to restart in second place. He obviously thought he was supposed to restart second because he was in the outside lane, but the he was told he was the leader. Therefore, there shouldn’t have been a problem.

That wasn’t the only problem with how NASCAR handled the end of the race, though.

Stewart caught a break when Edwards was black-flagged, but he also had the race taken away from him with just 14 laps to go when NASCAR found an excuse to throw a debris caution.

Supposedly there was a water bottle or beer can in Turn 2. We’ll never know because the TV cameras couldn’t find it, but Busch won the following restart and won the race.

Stewart would’ve won the race easily had the race stayed green, but that would have been the third race in a row that didn’t have a close finish. Heaven forbid that happen, people might say the race was boring again.

NASCAR couldn’t allow a competition to play out naturally. It had to throw the caution to keep things interesting. Well, the end of the race wasn’t much more exciting than it would’ve been if Stewart had cruised on to the win. Dale Earnhardt Jr. never got close enough to Busch to make the end interesting.

Unfortunately, all of these issues hurt the integrity of the racing.

NASCAR is already a sport that fights perceptions from non-fans who say it isn’t a real sport and the drivers aren’t truly athletes. Most of the time those comments come from ignorant people who have never watched an entire race in their life, but Satruday night was pretty much a staged finish.

I’m sorry recent races haven’t been packed with action, but this is supposed to be a sport. If NASCAR wants to make this reality television, then jump in with both feet and have producers control how the race plays out, who races who and who gets upset at each other.

People lose their minds when they think a referee or umpire in another sport affected the outcome of a game, but coming into this race people were actually debating whether NASCAR officials should intentionally affect the end of the race.

NASCAR officials will forever deny it, but that water bottle would not have affected how Saturday night’s race finished. The debris caution sure did, though.

It might be unfair to say Busch was given this win because he still drove hard throughout the night, but he sure got a ton of help from the NASCAR officials in the control tower who took the win away from Edwards and Stewart.

The only lasting impression from Saturday night’s race may have been the substantial questions of NASCAR’s integrity.

MMCC Power Rankings: Week 2

Anybody awake yet? Boy was that a dull race, and not what NASCAR needed after all the Daytona 500 ratings. There were no explosions or fires. Heck, there were only one or two single-car wrecks too.

Let's wake up a bit and take a look at the Week 2 Power Rankings.

1. Greg Biffle (Last Week 2) – Who would have guessed Greg Biffle would be the best of the Roush-Fenway Racing trio two races in?.

2. Denny Hamlin (3) – Denny and Darian sitting in a tree W-I-N-N-I-N-G.

3. Kevin Harvick (7) – That's how you're supposed to race. Put it all on the line ... to hell with what happens. Maybe a championship is in his future yet.

4. Matt Kenseth (1) – Did anyone else see Kenseth on the Jay Leno show? It's sad when the guest is funnier than the host.

5. Mark Martin (9) – Mark may already be thinking about running the full schedule, sabotaging the Elliott Sadler announcement hours after it happened.

6. Kyle Busch (12) – How often is it that Rowdy is the classier of the two drivers in a "rivalry?" The younger Busch brother got booted out of the way by Harvick and didn't do anything about it Yet.

7. Martin Truex Jr. (10) – Ok I was wrong, the Napa Know How commercials are way more annoying than anything Clint Bowyer is in ... though not by much.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5) – Junior may have a few more Diet Dew offers if he keeps up the top-15 finishes.

9. Brad Keselowski (15) – If I hear one more thing about Keselowski's Twitter antics between now and Vegas, I'm going to put all my hard-earned blogging money on black.

10. Bobby Labonte (20) – I know it may be a bit early, but if the Chase started now Labonte would be in the championship hunt for the first time since guys such as Johnny Benson, Kenny Wallace and Ricky Craven were in the series.

11. Carl Edwards (3) – I hear the Subway driver promised media members Subway sandwiches for the Subway Fresh Fit 500; too bad the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwiches never made it to the track. Disclaimer: This ranking brought to you by Subway, eat fresh.

12. Jimmie Johnson (18) – You know it's not a good race when the fastest car can't even make a decent pass.

13. Jeff Gordon (17) – Four-time champion world problems: Running top 10 - "This car is junk."

14. Joey Logano (19) – May be about time to add some jam to Mr. Sliced Bread after two back-to-back top 10s.

15. Tony Stewart (8) – Tony did his best Marcos Ambrose impression, only he did it with more than 50 laps to go and was forced to ride around in 22nd.

16. Jeff Burton (6) – No better way to ruin a strong start to the season than by something out of your control, engines and UNC basketball .

17. Dave Blaney (13) – For the record, Dave Blaney has not joined Twitter, so any attempts to follow him will be futile. Unless you do it in real life, then you're just a creeper.

18. Juan Pablo Montoya (NR) – Track workers everywhere let out a huge sigh of relief when the #42 car finished the race without incident.

19. Regan Smith (NR) – Smith had the shortest drive to the track but one of the longest back to his hauler after a top-15 run was ruined by fuel mileage.

20. Paul Menard (11) – The official Paul Menard wrecks caused tally sits at: 1

DNF: Kasey Kahne – Sounds like someone is a little to antsy about getting to drive such good equipment. So much so, he turned right way before we ever got to Sonoma.

MMCC Power Rankings: Week 1

Well wasn't that an interesting race. Some people were worried it would be delayed before it ever started. Well it got delayed all right, but not by what everyone expected it to be.

FOX could have done a much better job this week. Way too many commercials during race-time, especially considering they went side-by-side during track repair. With as many cameras that are at a NASCAR race every week, it's also a shame no-one caught Juan Pablo Montoya's accident at a decent angle.

1. Matt Kenseth (Last Week 2) – Kenseth was in the top 5 for the final 62 laps of the race, including first for the final 35.

2. Greg Biffle (6) – Good Guy Greg: Has a shot to win the Daytona 500, makes sure teammate does instead.

3. Carl Edwards (3) – Edward's is a sponsor's dream. Red Flag: Order from Subway even though they don't deliver.

4. Denny Hamlin (9) – NASCAR must have used Denny's connections with FedEx to get that many boxes of Tide to the track so quick. Tide: The official laundry detergent of the Daytona 500.

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10) – He may have been pleased with a second-place finish, but his fans sure weren't. The only way to please Junior Nation is to win, or to have a foot-race to the bathroom.

6. Jeff Burton (NR) – The best part of Jeff Burton leading the race was when Mike Joy mentioned Ward Burton. The Burton brothers are the best brother duo to drive for Catapiller ... Wait, I think they're the only brother duo to drive for CAT. Oh well.

7. Kevin Harvick (12) – The "closer" didn't do as much closing as I figured he would late in the race. I figured the three Richard Childress Racing cars would make a push to the front.

8. Tony Stewart (1) – Every Stewart-Haas Racing car spun around at least once, putting those championship winnings to good use already.

9. Mark Martin (NR) – Is Martin driving the #55 for Aaron's, or because that's his age?

10. Martin Truex Jr. (NR) – When asked what he was going to do with his extra money, Truex responded "New NAPA oil filters for the whole infield!"

11. Paul Menard (NR) – I'll start giving Menard more credit when Menard's stops sponsoring his vehicle.

12. Kyle Busch (4) – Wild Thing never got a real chance to strut his stuff, though he did stay patient and brought it home in one piece. That's more than his brother can say.

13. Dave Blaney (NR) – Who couldn't help but root for the track to be unfixable if only to give Mr. World of Outlaws a win in his 398th try? Welp, maybe start #432 will be the charm.

14.Clint Bowyer (NR) – Was anybody else as annoyed as I was by the shear number of commercials Clint Bowyer was in during the 500?

15. Brad Keselowski (13) – "I followed Brad Keselowski on Twitter before it was cool," said hipster NASCAR fans everywhere.

16. Kasey Kahne (5) – The highest ranking of the remaining Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Why? Because he finished the most laps.

17. Jeff Gordon (8) – One of the strongest cars all day, just a victim of a bad break.

18. Jimmie Johnson (7) – On the plus side, Jimmie got to watch the final laps of the Daytona 500 from the comfort of his own home.

19. Joey Logano (NR) – Finished where he ran for most of the day, at the tail end of the top 10. He will need a few more runs like that to keep the firing rumors on hold for a while.

20. Bobby Labonte (NR) – You know you're not in too bad of company when you are ahead of guys like Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon in the standings.

DNF: Juan Pablo Montoya – Considering JPM had wrecked just about every other driver in NASCAR, he wanted to make sure he was "perfect." He put a whole new meaning to the phrase "setting the track on fire."

Rating the Daytona 500: 3 Stars ***

It’s finally over. The Daytona 500 that would never start turned into the Daytona 500 that refused to end. There was rain, there was fire and there was racing, but the whole extravaganza only gets a 3 Star Rating.

Nearly 36 hours after it was scheduled to begin, the Great American Race ended with Matt Kenseth celebrating in Victory Lane. Too bad it took so long to get there, but my oh my there was some crazy action in between.

The race was good, but the circumstances that surrounded the race also made it an endurance test for not only the drivers, but also the fans.

This was Kenseth’s second Daytona 500 win, but that was about the only part of the race that was not a historical first. Basically everything else associated with the race was something nobody had ever seen before.

First, rain forced NASCAR officials to push the race back to Monday. That had never happened in the 54-year history of the race. That turned this year’s 500 into Monday Night NASCAR after rain continued throughout the morning and afternoon Monday.

Second, Juan Pablo Montoya had one of the wildest freak accidents in the history of the sport. As he drove down the backstretch under caution to catch back up with the field, something in the back of the car broke and he slid up into a safety truck with a jet dryer full of 200 gallons of fuel. That spells disaster.

Thankfully, and miraculously, nobody was hurt in the accident, but both Montoya’s car and the safety truck burst into a fire ball upon impact. The fuel then spilled out of the jet engine and a raging fire ensued.

Also miraculously, safety workers were able to get the fire under control and had the whole mess cleaned up in slightly more than two hours.

After all of that, there was still some racing left, and for the most part it was good racing.

The pack racing returned this year and made for a great Speedweeks. Even if all of the other crazy stuff had not have happened, this would have been an exciting race. The drivers drove in a tight pack all night, there were the typical big restrictor-plate wrecks and another close finish.

Overall, the Daytona 500 was a success, which is amazing. Any lesser event would’ve disintegrated into a never-ending marathon that people wished was already over.

Don’t get me wrong, this was certainly a marathon. But, the action was great on the track and most of the seats at the track were full. The number of fans who stuck around to watch the race, even as it moved into the early hours of Monday morning, was amazing. Most tracks can barely fill half of its seats for a postponed race, but the Daytona International Speedway still had the electricity that can only be found at the Daytona 500.

Also, congratulations to Kenseth. This win puts him on an exclusive list with only eight other drivers who won multiple Daytona 500’s. He had one of the strongest cars all week and certainly deserved the win.

Now the Sprint Cup Series can finally pack up and head out to a place where it likely won’t have to worry about rain. The tough part will be getting the logistics worked out to get all of the equipment out to Phoenix International Raceway. Everybody will be at Phoenix on Friday; it will just be more stressful than normal to get there.

Another benefit to the delayed Daytona 500 is now only three days stand between now and the next time Cup cars are on the racetrack.

Hopefully fans got as much out of Speedweeks as they wanted. Whether or not they liked the race, they will at least have great stories to tell about this year’s wild Daytona 500 experience.

Have a great week, everybody.

MMCC Power Rankings: Preseason edition

Editor's note: Monday Morning Crew Chief would like to welcome a new member to the staff. Terrence Hunley will produce Power Rankings following every race this season. Each week he will rank drivers from first to 20th, along with a did-not-finish category. Once the season starts, the rankings will appear the Tuesday following a race.

Welcome the first Power Rankings in MMCC history. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated. Now, without further ado ... the 2012 Preseason Power Rankings.

1. Tony Stewart – The defending champ couldn’t have started off his season any better, unless he decided to fire Danica Patrick.

2. Matt Kenseth – The “other” duel winner, if you even want to call that snore-fest a race worth winning.

3. Carl Edwards – He got the pole and the early lead. But Tony Stewart got the win, what else is new.

4. Kyle Busch – Kyle Busch had perhaps the “best restrictor-plate performance ever” in the Bud Shootout. If he shows that kind of discipline, skill and drive all season, look out.

5. Kasey Kahne – Only Stewart and Edwards had a better Chase, and neither of them improved the quality of their ride like Kahne did. Beware 2012 is the Year of Kahne.

6. Greg Biffle – The Biff starts on the outside of the front row for the big race Sunday, the question is, can he finish it up front.

7. Jimmie Johnson – Heeeee’s baaaaack. Chad Knaus that is. Already on the wrong side of the NASCAR hauler this season, though … the last time the #48 team was caught cheating during Speedweeks, Johnson won the Daytona 500.

8. Jeff Gordon – Had one of the best cars in the shootout until Hendrick announced a change in sponsor: Fly to End Hunger.

9. Denny Hamlin – The new pairing of Hamlin and crew chief Darian Grubb will be one of the best new pairings in the sport.

10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – It’s Daytona, it’s Junior … nuff said.

11. Marcos Ambrose – Ambrose's #9 car has looked pretty stout so far through Speedweeks, don’t be surprised if the Tasmanian Devil gets it done at Daytona.

12. Kevin Harvick – Happy has a Daytona 500 win to his credit, much to the chagrin of one Mark Martin, adding another is another story.

13. Brad Keselowski – The new face of Penske Racing is looking to prove last season wasn’t a fluke. I believe it wasn’t, and a win at Daytona will help Keselowski become an early Chase favorite.

14. Kurt Busch – If there is a shot for the #51 to win a race, it’s at Daytona, where Busch has been really good before, though not a win.

15. Michael McDowell – Congrats on making the Daytona 500, now there will be that token restrictor-plate backstretch flip usually reserved for Elliott Sadler

16. Ryan Newman – Hard to believe that Ryan Newman is the only driver at Stewart-Haas Racing with a Daytona 500 win, and is getting the least amount of publicity heading into this year's race.

17. A.J. Allmendinger – The Dinger made the best move upward in rides this side of Kasey Kahne. Can he break into the first-time winners club? He has to, I mean … even this next guy has a win.

18. Regan Smith – I give Regan credit, if there is one track he is good at, it’s Daytona. Too bad it’s only on the schedule twice.

19. Elliott Sadler – Welcome back to racing with the big boys Elliott, though the fact that you ran a full Nationwide season and only finished second isn’t too encouraging.

20. Danica Patrick – What was Danica doing? My vote is for playing peek-a-boo with the wall. The wall won.

DNF: Michael Waltrip – Really? You end perhaps your final Daytona 500 qualifying effort like that? Ouch. Even worse than the wreck was DW trying to make it sound like it could happen to anybody.

Duel race #2 shockingly goes caution-free

The second duel race Thursday may have been the tamer of the two qualifying races for the Daytona 500, but it also included something not seen in NASCAR in seven years.

It had a flagman who didn't wave the yellow flag once during the race's entire 60 laps.

Before Thursday, NASCAR hadn’t had a caution-free race of any kind since the second duel race in 2004, which was only 125 miles compared to the current 150-mile length.

After Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout, many people said the Sprint Cup Series cars are too unstable to run competitively without wrecking, but of course that was after just one race and a few practice sessions.

However, the drivers apparently can race under the current restrictor-plate rules package without wrecking. They proved it in the second duel race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

The shootout had four wrecks and the first duel race had two more hard wrecks, but nobody dropped out of the second duel race because of a wreck.

In fact, winner Matt Kenseth set a record for the fastest duel race in history at 194.175 mph.

Caution-free races are always going to be an extremely rare breed because so many things can happen during a race, but I had begun to think they were extinct.

Instead, the second duel race proved that at least a qualifying race, which is supposed to be one of the wildest races of the season, can go green from start to finish.

The last points-paying race to never see a yellow flag was the October 2002 race at Talladega won by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Several factors go into having a complete race uninterrupted by a yellow flag. First and most obviously, the drivers need to run a clean race and not cause any wrecks.

Second, the cars must avoid mechanical or tire problems that could put fluid on the track or put a car in the wall.

Third, NASCAR officials must not throw the caution flag for debris on the racetrack.

Unfortunately, many of the long green-flag runs are cut short because of debris cautions.

The longest stretch between cautions in recent years was the 201 consecutive green-flag laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June 2010. The longest green-flag stretch to start a race was at Auto Club Speedway last year when the first caution didn’t come out until lap 75.

However, both of those green-flag runs ended because of debris on the track.

NASCAR did a better job last year in terms of throwing fewer debris cautions, especially cautions for debris that television cameras can’t find on the track. Officials even held a meeting with reporters before Speedweeks where they addressed the issue of debris cautions.

"First off, if you're going to have a debris caution, you'd better have debris, right?" said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition. "That's starters. I mean, we don't randomly call something."

Speedweeks 2012 have started well without a single debris caution. Hopefully that continues for the rest of the weekend.

Granted, Thursday’s caution-free duel race was only 60 laps and had only a 24-car field, but maybe, just maybe, a full points-paying race without a caution is still possible in NASCAR.

Many NASCAR teams in worse sponsorship situation than when economy collapsed in 2008

NASCAR teams entered the 2009 season with a bleak outlook in financial and sponsorship terms, but the outlook for this season doesn’t look any better.

In fact, it might be worse.

As the 2008 NASCAR season came to a close, the United States economy was on the verge of disaster, and its struggles quickly affected NASCAR teams.

Many teams had to lay off large parts of their staff, and the Sprint Cup Series went from having nearly 43 fully funded teams to questions about whether enough cars would show up on a race weekend to fill the field.

It turned out that every race still had a full field, but more and more teams showed up to run just the first few laps in a race and then head home while collecting the prize money. Even then, cars with mostly full sponsorship packages filled the top 35 guaranteed spots in a race.

Now cars that finished last season in the Chase might not even have full sponsorship for the 2012 season. Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth in the points standings last year, has sponsorship lined up for less than half of the season so far.

Several teams are still looking to put together a sponsorship package to fund the entire season, and other teams have completely shut down.

Red Bull Racing has fielded two cars since 2008, but it folded at the end of the 2011 season for financial reasons. TRG Motorsports won’t return in 2012 after fielding one full-time car for the past three seasons, and Front Row Motorsports, has yet to announce its plans for the upcoming season.

In addition, some of the big-time teams are cutting back, as well. Roush-Fenway Racing will run Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the #6 car for the Daytona 500, but it currently doesn’t have any sponsorship for the race, and the #6 car could very well be shut down for the remainder of the season.

The #33 driven by Clint Bowyer for the past three seasons will cease to exist as Bowyer moves to the #15 car for Michael Waltrip Racing. Richard Petty Motorsports recently tabbed Aric Almirola to drive the #43 car, but it doesn’t have any sponsorship as of yet. Even Tommy Baldwin Racing’s two cars currently don’t have a sponsor.

All of these changes could lead to a season where less than 30 teams have sponsorship to run the entire schedule.

Last season 30 teams ran all 36 races. A few others attempted to run every race and didn’t qualify on time. However, this season there could be cars in the top 35 in the points standings that won’t have the money to show up at the track.

TV ratings improved in the 2011 season, and attendance numbers started to stabilize after several years of freefall. At least it appears fan interest in the sport has stabalized, if not started to grow once again.

Hopefully this is rock bottom and money will start flowing back into the sport throughout the 2012 season and years beyond. But, the current situation might be the toughest stretch NASCAR teams have ever faced.

NASCAR re-blurs line for aggressive-driving penalties

Just one week after NASCAR figuratively drew a line in the sand when it punished Kyle Busch, it quickly went back and erased that line when it let Brian Vickers walk free after Sunday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Vickers pushed Matt Kenseth into the Turn 3 wall on lap 178, taking Kenseth out of the race after he took Kenseth out of the championship battle two weeks prior at Martinsville.

Regardless of previous incidents between these two drivers, Kenseth won the pole, had one of the five best cars in the field Sunday and had a very good chance to win the race.



But, Vickers made sure that didn’t happen, just as Busch ended both Ron Hornaday’s race at Texas and his chance at a championship when he ran Hornaday into the wall under caution during the truck race.

NASCAR brought the hammer down as hard as it ever has on Busch after his incident, but it did absolutely nothing to Vickers at Phoenix. It didn’t even park Vickers for a lap or two.

There is certainly precedent for penalties in that type of situation. Even Carl Edwards had to sit out the rest of the spring race at Atlanta in 2010 after he flipped Brad Keselowski, although Edwards didn’t receive any further penalties beyond probation.

What’s different in this situation? Well, the wreck happened under green-flag conditions. Busch did his damage after the caution came out, but the Edwards’ Keselowski wreck happened under green.

NASCAR has done a better job in recent years of staying out of driver feuds, but it may have missed one here. The wreck sure looked intentional even though Vickers denies it.



Maybe NASCAR shouldn't drop major penalties on Vickers as it did in Busch’s situation but this is twice in the last three weeks, and at least three times this season, counting the race at Sonoma when Vickers put Tony Stewart up on the tire barriers in Turn 11.

Plus, Vickers has raced with this type of aggressiveness for much of his career. Most people remember Vickers first win at Talladega in 2006 when he wrecked Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the last lap, but he also spun Mike Bliss coming to the finish line in the Sprint All-Star Challenge in 2005 to grab that win even though it doesn’t count in the record book.

While Busch might get a lot more publicity about his aggressive driving-style and ill-timed payback, Vickers has had his fair share of overly aggressive moments.

The drivers previous records aren’t that different, and all of the Edwards-Keselowski incidents have happened under green-flag conditions, so where exactly is that “know it when we see it” line that triggers penalties?

NASCAR has done well to put more of the police work in the drivers’ hands, but there has to be some consistency. The sanctioning body is dishing out these penalties like a bad home-plate umpire. An umpire might have an odd strike zone, but as long as it is consistent batters generally keep quiet.

Well, NASCAR has dealt with these three particular situations in three completely different ways. NASCAR has always ruled as a mostly benevolent dictator over the sport where everyone has to play by the rules as NASCAR decides them, but it would do the sport well if NASCAR would rule with more consistency.

That would not only help the credibility of the sport, but it would also prevent backlash from fans and others in the sport when these situations happen.

But, backlash means people are at least talking about the sport. We just spent an entire story devoted to the controversy these rulings create.

Maybe any news really is good news.

Rating the Bank of America 500: 3 Stars ***

The first half of the race was more of the same boring follow-the-leader racing of the first four weeks of the Chase, but then Jimmie Johnson wrecked and guys started to fight for positions. While it still wasn’t a good race, Charlotte does barely jump up to grab a 3 Star Rating.

Without everything that happened at the end of the race, Kyle Busch would have easily put this one to bed. After Greg Biffle had a pit-road miscue to remove him from contention, Busch stomped the field similar to how he won the race in July at Kentucky Speedway.

The first three-quarters of Saturday night’s race was awful. It felt like an extended version of the first three segments of the All-Star race where nobody challenges for a position.

But then the biggest moment of the night happened.

Jimmie Johnson was battling underneath Ryan Newman through turns 1 and 2 when he got loose, tried to save the car and turned up nearly straight into the wall.

The wreck obviously did some major damage to the #48 car and Johnson’s championship run as he is now eighth in the standings and 35 points out of the lead, but it could’ve done some serious damage to Johnson himself.

I think it’s safe to say that anybody who has been a NASCAR fan for at least 10 years held their breath when they saw the #48 car head toward the wall at that angle. On the surface, that wreck looked eerily similar to the one that killed Dale Earnhardt in 2001 at Daytona. The front end of the car caught the apron, pointed the car toward the wall and the driver was along for the ride.

Thankfully, and I know we say this every time there is a hard wreck, both the cars and the walls are incredibly safe.

Just when the quality of racing, or lack of it, starts to gnaw at a race fan’s mind, something like Johnson’s wreck happens and reminds us all that right now the cars have to be built this way. Johnson can now add his list to the half-dozen or so drivers who have had the cars and SAFER barriers save their life, or at least save them from serious injury. But, with Dan Wheldon’s fatal wreck Sunday, the work to improve safety will never end.

Now, the other factor of Johnson’s wreck is that it will take a wild charge from the #48 team to come back and win championship #6. Even with his average runs in the first two races of the Chase, Johnson still was well within striking distance to take the lead. That is now gone. Johnson is going to have to be nearly perfect even to be in the championship conversation come Homestead.

On a lighter note, Matt Kenseth won the race and made a great move to get around Busch after the final restart. He may have won the race by nearly one second, but he had to make the move early in the run or Busch might have been able to hold him off.

Hopefully the finish at Charlotte will spark a wild race at Talladega. The first half of the Chase has been tepid, at best. The rule changes to the cars at Talladega might change the style of racing a bit, but the sport needs a race that has people talking nonstop about the actual race for the following week instead of the championship situation.

The Rock finally back on a NASCAR schedule

There have been several high-profile schedule-related announcements in recent years, but none nearly as sweet as this one.

Rockingham Speedway is back on a NASCAR schedule and will host a Camping World Truck Series race April 15, 2012.

After Jeff Gordon won his 85th career race Tuesday in Atlanta to put him third on the all-time wins list, a week of history and nostalgia continued Wednesday when North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue announced that a NASCAR race will be run at Rockingham Speedway for the first time in eight years.

Wow. Has it really been that long since Matt Kenseth nosed out Kasey Kahne in a photo finish in 2004?

This is one of the more remarkable racetrack stories in history. This sort of thing simply doesn’t happen. When NASCAR leaves a track for bigger markets, it doesn’t return. Period.

This is like the Wood Brothers winning the 2012 Daytona 500 with Trevor Bayne. People may have hoped the Wood Brothers would win another race or that NASCAR racing would someday return to Rockingham, but they would’ve been living in a dream world if they really expected it to happen.

Former NASCAR tracks litter the Southeast as the sport has grown and moved into bigger markets. North Wilkesboro Speedway, for example, is the next most recent track to be abandoned by NASCAR. After a brief re-opening in 2010 for the first time since NASCAR left in 1994, it closed once again in May.

Rockingham Speedway closed in 2004 as NASCAR continued to drive away from its Winston Cup days and into the Chase era.

But, former driver Andy Hillenburg bought the track in 2007 from Speedway Motorsports Inc, which bought the track in 2004 so it could end racing at The Rock and add another race at Texas Motor Speedway.

In the next four years Hillenburg put The Rock on his back and carried it out of the grave that awaits most tracks that NASCAR leaves behind.

Now it is back.

What makes this move even more remarkable is NASCAR pulled the plug on another old-time short track just two months ago when it announced the truck and Nationwide series would not return to Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis in 2012 and the Nationwide race would move to the bit Indianapolis Motor Speedway to run on Brickyard 400 weekend.

At the time it looked like another move in the long stretch of NASCAR running from old short tracks, but this time NASCAR took a step back toward where it belongs.

It is still be wildly optimistic to think Rockingham would ever hold another Cup race, but at least there will be a NASCAR race on the speedway in southern North Carolina. The smiles on fans’ faces might be just a little bit bigger that day.

After a decade where NASCAR made many decisions that abandoned long-time fans, the sanctioning-body finally threw them a bone by putting Rockingham back on the schedule.

What Hillenburg and the people at Rockingham Speedway have done is incredible, and hopefully it is the start of a long, new life for The Rock.

Rating the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400: 3 Stars ***

Matt Kenseth gave it everything he had in the final laps Sunday at Michigan, but he couldn’t quite catch Denny Hamlin, who finally won his first race of the season. Overall, the first race of the year at Michigan gets a 3 Star Rating.

Except for a rare spin by Jimmie Johnson early in the race, everything went as planned throughout the first half of the race. Several Roush-Fenway Racing drivers traded the lead, Robby Gordon hit the wall and the race stretched out to make for a couple of green-flag pit stops.

By the halfway point Kyle Busch appeared at the front, and as is typical on days when he has a good car, Busch jumped out to a comfortable lead. Had the race stayed green, Busch and Kenseth would have battled for the win, barring their respective fuel-mileage situations.

However, Juan Pablo Montoya’s spin on lap 158 came right at the beginning of a green-flag pit stop sequence, and Kenseth again became the big winner as he came out of the pits with the lead. Busch dropped several spots and never could make his way all the way back and finished third.

Finally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall with eight laps to go and eliminated the fuel-mileage game because everybody hit the pits and Hamlin came out with a lead he would never relinquish, even though it got close at the end.

This race was nothing out of the ordinary for Michigan International Speedway. These races usually go one of three ways: The race comes down to fuel mileage, a late caution makes for a decent battle to the end or neither happens and the margin of victory is more than a few seconds.

Sunday had the second option, as well as the closest finish since Regan Smith edged out Carl Edwards to win the Southern 500.

Also, after four debris cautions last week at Pocono, there were no such cautions this week on a track that generally has a few. The number of debris cautions at Pocono was awful, but it looks like that may be the exception this season rather than the rule, as it has been in past seasons.

As for Hamlin, this win should quiet the critics who say his team is off its game and he barely has a chance at the Chase. The win puts Hamlin up to ninth in the points standings with 11 races left in until the Chase begins. Don’t worry, the #11 team is fine, and it will be a factor come Chase time.

On the other side of the results, several big-name drivers struggled throughout the race, including Jeff Burton, who started outside the top 30 and never could make his way to the front.

Burton currently sits 25th in the points standings and has not proved yet this season the #31 team can consistently contend in a race, much less contend for a Chase spot. Burton could make a comeback late this season like he did two years ago, but this time the Childress organization is succeeding while Burton lags behind, whereas both the #31 team and Richard Childress Racing struggled for most of the 2009 season.

So, next week the Sprint Cup Series takes a break from the ovals and heads out west to Sonoma for the first of two road-course events.

Prepare for the annual “Should NASCAR have more road-course races?” and “Should a road-course race be in the Chase?” debates in the coming week. The two issues will likely never change, but people will still talk about them each time the sport visits a road course.

More NASCAR Sprint Cup teams need to gamble to win

For the past two weeks, staying out on old tires or just taking two tires have been winning moves for both Regan Smith and Matt Kenseth. The calls came out golden for those two, but maybe more teams need to take late-race gambles even if it doesn’t end up in a victory.

Races can be won several different ways. Having a fast car is a good start, but a fair amount of luck is needed throughout the course of the event, whether it comes down to fuel mileage, tires, or just keeping the car off the wall and out of trouble.

Smith took an opportunity to jump to the front when everybody else hit the pits at Darlington. The same sort of thing worked out Sunday at Dover for Kenseth, although he took two tires and had a lot more distance between him and the four-tire crowd.

This type of strategy won’t turn into a win, or even a top-five finish, every time, but that doesn’t mean teams having a mediocre race should always follow the leader and accept their fate.

I’m always shocked more drivers who are on the back half of the lead-lap cars don’t stay out. Yes, Smith and Brad Keselowski stayed out at Darlington when they were sitting between 10th and 20th, but that means eight other drivers came in for four tires when the only thing they really had to lose was just a couple of spots. Especially with less than 10 laps to go, as was the case in the Southern 500, most of those drivers would’ve finished well ahead of where they did even if they lost several positions on the restart.

Darlington is often considered the track that is the toughest on tires, but it has to be awful inviting to see all of the leaders come in for a stop and have nothing but the pace car ahead. One of the few benefits of being so far behind is the team gets to see what all of the teams ahead of them will do. If all of the leaders are coming in, why not take a shot at winning the race. Even if every single car on the lead lap passed them back, they still would end up close to where they were before the caution.

Sunday’s race was a little different, however, and it was surprising to see Kenseth and Mark Martin, who stayed out and didn’t take any tires, maintain their positions and drive away from the field. But, both had pretty good cars throughout the race, as Smith did at Darlington.

Let's face it, only a handful of teams show up to a race track with a legitimate chance to out-run the field and win a given race. Sure, there are exceptions based on the type of track, but there's usually a lot more teams that could benefit from making a risky call from pit road than could benefit from playing it safe and banking points.

Maybe in future races more teams will be willing to take a gamble on tires late in a race. It would sure keep the season interesting, especially with the new wild-card Chase implications. It could not only get a driver a rare win, but it might just put them in contention for the championship. That would have fans howling, but that’s a topic for another day.

Rating the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks: 2 Stars **

For the second straight week, a gamble on a late-race caution brought an unexpected winner to Victory Lane. This week’s winner, Matt Kenseth, wasn’t as unexpected as Darlington-winner Regan Smith, but similar strategy won him the race. Unfortunately, that was the most interesting part of a race that gets a 2 Star Rating.

Kenseth made a bold call on the final caution and it looked like there would be a heck of a battle to the finish, but the race’s three dominators, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer, couldn’t come back through the field and Kenseth quickly got around Mark Martin and drove off into the sunset for a relatively uncontested victory.

Sunday’s race was actually pretty typical of Dover. The few cars that really hit the setup were able to jump to the lead and stay there as the three dominators led a combined 353 of the 400 laps. Johnson, Edwards, Jeff Gordon and others have done the same thing in the past. Sometimes that’s just the way it is at Dover for whatever reason.

Not every race is going to be thrilling the way several have been already this season, and the long green-flag runs and the opportunity for different strategies to come into play late in the race made things interesting, but I think the fans would’ve gotten more of a kick out of a three-way battle among Johnson, Edwards and Bowyer for the win rather than Kenseth driving away from everybody.

The unexpected weather also affected the racing. When a cloudy day was forecast, and much worse weather actually was called for, many cars likely had a setup under the car that did not anticipate sunshine and warm weather. With that type of weather, the track was much more slick than expected and many drivers really had to fight their cars throughout the day, and that often limits the amount of hard racing that can be done.

In the big picture, Kenseth and the #17 team are all of a sudden basically locked into the Chase, barring a major meltdown, and that certainly seems unlikely with the way the Fords have been running this season. The win bumped Kenseth up four spots in the standings and gave him two wins on the year, so even if he falls out of the top 10 in points, he still has a very good shot at getting one of the two wild card spots.

For the first time in several weeks, everybody remained relatively calm and a pair of drivers didn’t have to meet with NASCAR after the race. That’s good, because the chances of that happening next weekend are as high as there will be for a race this season.

The All-Star race is next up on the schedule and a bunch of things will be on the line in a race that doesn’t even count in the season standings. The drivers will be battling for a big check in Victory Lane, and some might end up battling each other to either attempt to settle an old score, or settle a new one.

Either way, the All-Star race is shaping up to potentially be one of the best ever. That’s saying something with the way some of those races go. Enjoy a week where points don’t matter. It’s the last time that will happen this season.

Rating the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400: 3 Stars ***

The Sprint Cup Series rolled into Richmond Saturday night for the final short-track race of the first half of the season. A quiet first half of the race and a loud second half that included six of the eight cautions adds up to a 3 Star Rating.

Maybe the drivers and teams were just dipping their collective toes into the water during the first half of the event. As is typical in a race where a bunch of big-name drivers qualify in the back, most of the drivers who started at the front fell back while others came forward, including the two leading Joe Gibbs Racing cars of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. Both made steady progress toward the front and by the time the racing began to heat up, they were in front of the craziness.

Staying on the lead lap throughout the long green-flag stretches was crucial because more than half of the was already a lap down by the time Ryan Newman got into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya coming out of Turn 2 on lap 103, and teams had to work some creative strategies to try and get back in contention.

The Richmond races are generally some of the more confusing races during the season because of the size of the track and how the pit strategy usually works out, but that has been enhanced recently because of new rules, including the lucky dog and wave-around rules. With the pit window around 90-105 laps, teams can short pit or stay out when a rash of cautions breaks out as it did between laps 238-314 when Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton and even Newman made appearances at or near the front of the field.

Eventually the strongest cars made their way back to the front, however, and it was another Gibbs show for the final quarter of the race as Busch and Hamlin checked out and stretched their fuel mileage to the end.

As for Newman, the battles between him and Montoya were the most heated of any we’ve seen this season. It would have been remarkable to get through Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond without a little bad blood developing, and there certainly is now between these two teams.

Both drivers handled the situation fairly well after the race though as they avoided fisticuffs or a shouting match in the garage area. Immediately after the race, Newman went to NASCAR to discuss the situation while Montoya pulled a bit of a Kyle Busch move as he blew off reporters and took a quick golf cart ride out of the track.

It will be interesting to see how this situation is handled. Montoya made a move very similar to the one Carl Edwards made on Brad Keselowski last year at Atlanta and sent Keselowski flying into the fence. NASCAR put Edwards on probation for the rest of the year and should do the same here. The penalty should not be based solely on the result of the driver’s actions. Yes, Keselowski’s wreck was much more spectacular and dangerous looking, but Edwards didn’t expect to send Keselowski flying when he wrecked him just as Montoya didn’t expect to flip Newman.

The severity of the wreck shouldn’t be a factor because each wreck has the potential to be dangerous. Had Montoya gotten to Newman going into Turn 3 rather than coming out of Turn 4, Newman could have easily ended up in the same position as Jeff Gordon, who slammed driver-side first into the inside wall, which did not have a SAFER barrier.

That brings up another point. Why do we have to wait for somebody to wreck in an unsafe part of the track before improvements are made? Gordon found an unprotected wall at Las Vegas a few years back, and he and a few other drivers found another one at Watkins Glen. Even Pocono waited too late to improve the safety of its track after Kasey Kahne went over the wall on the backstretch last spring. Had the track been more proactive, it may have been able to avoid the Kahne incident, as well as Elliot Sadler’s wreck last fall when he hit the inside barrier nose-first and knocked the engine out of the car.

Anyway, next week it’s on to the racetrack with the best nicknames in the sport. The Lady in Black will be Too Tough to Tame during the Southern 500 the evening before Mother’s Day. Any race at Darlington is a fun one, and there’s no reason to think this one will be any different.

Rating the Samsung Mobile 500: 4 Stars ****

The Sprint Cup Series battened down the hatches for a windy one in Texas on Saturday night where a long winless streak was broken. No, not THE winless streak, but Matt Kenseth visited Victory Lane for the first time in 76 races. The first Texas race gets a 4 Star Rating.

Kenseth simply dominated the night. Many questioned if somebody would find the magic setup after all the practices took place during the daytime, and the #17 team certainly found it. The best car definitely won this race.

Kenseth’s journey to take the checkered flag first wasn’t without drama, however. Fuel strategy almost negated his team’s strong effort as both Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart tried to stretch the fuel mileage but both came up empty, in the literal sense for Stewart, who limped across the line in 12th after running in the top-five on the final lap.

This was a thinking-man’s race, and the one with the most strategy of the season so far, which is good. Strategy creates suspense, and makes every move that much more crucial.

The race, with exception of the debris caution on lap 208 that directly led to the Mark-Martin-Martin Truex Jr. wreck, was pretty clean, overall. And while the field did get spread out in the second half of the race, several drivers were able to stay close to Kenseth and keep him from running away. I don’t think that would’ve been possible in the days of the rear wing. Kenseth wouldn’t have been touched all night.

So now we’ve got three intermediate-track races under our collective belt, and it looks as though everyone but the Fords have some catching up to do. It took a long time for the new Roush-Yates engine to be developed, but it is sure paying off now. Fans of Roush-Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports should be ecstatic after Saturday because every single Ford in both of those camps spent time in the top 10.

Aside from the Roush gang, the folks at Richard Childress Racing also still have their program running close to full speed. Clint Bowyer was about the only other driver to even catch a whiff of Kenseth all night, and once again, Paul Menard came on strong late for yet another top-five finish.

Interestingly, Jimmie Johnson had a rough night. The #48 team missed the setup for the start of the race and never could quite get the car dialed in. No worries, though, Johnson will be right there at the end of the Coca Cola 600 next month in Charlotte, the next night race at a 1.5-mile track.

Now its time to strap in and go on the ride that is racing at Talladega Superspeedway. Doesn’t just thinking about it make your heart beat a little faster?

After the racing we saw at Talladega last year and at the Daytona 500 this year, it would take something really stupid to happen for this not to be an absolutely amazing race. Get fired up, it’s Talladega week!