Nationwide!

Aw yes the relaxing weekend of racing without all the hype of Daytona. Was glad I could work a busy traveling weekend around both races and even had qualifying on while I naped!

Being a fan of Stenhouse Jr. and Martin it started off looking great with Stenhouse qualifying second for the Nationwide Race and Martin winning the pole and both got top 10's out of the deal.

I can honestly say this year I look more forward to Saturdays then Sundays. The Nationwide series looks great this year, I think the cup boys got the message from nascar as less seem to be competing, but that has some negatives. The positives include Nationwide regulars winning races last year there were a small minority of races won by the guys competing for the nationwide title. This year we already have one who is competing for the title and a Truck driver? It makes it more competitive for those guys as well as gives them the respect they deserve rather then Kyle winning 8 and Edwards winning a few others. Hopefully a win or two will help the most promising young drivers secure sponsors for this year and give them a chance at the Sprint Cup next year. And Saturdays race was great it had some good story lines!

There are some downsides though there seem to be major sponsor issues. Nationwide racing has always had this issue its hard enough for the sprint cars to find people to fork up the cash for a hood ad but its worse in the lower levels. Bayne and Stenhouse both drivers with Roush-Fenway have sponsor issues that could threaten their ability to race fulltime this year! These aren't scrubs this is a Daytona 500 winner and defending series champ racing for a major team. It makes it all that much harder for other guys. There are a verity of reasons mainly sponsorship all around is hard to get but also fewer Cup drivers means less viewers and worse rating therefore less profitable to sponsor a car.

On to Sundays race, I love Phoenix well atleast the track, The new Dogleg section is fun to watch seeing guys try to dart across it is fun, although there was less risk in the longer Sprint race then the Nationwide race. And we had a good finish despite there not being a Green White Checker. Kenseth making the moves only to run out of gas but still coast to second. Hamlin looked the the crazy MoFo who went nuts in '10. To make it that much greater Martin got his 2nd top 10 in as many races. Its nice seeing who I would consider tear 1-B drivers at the top and the big names down the list a little. Johnson started the long drive out of a deep whole but I have faith he will be back in the top 10 by June and by the time the chase comes around we will forget the whole deal.

Interesting thought on the year-old WC format. Could a driver that is slated for a partial win a few races and keep himself in the top 20 despite missing a few. Through June 17th's Michigan Race Mark Martin would only have missed two starts. If he can put together 2-3 wins by then maybe Waltrip takes himself out of the car to give Martin a shot. He then sits out the next 4 until Indy and a total of 6 of 8 races through Bristol. He already gets 7 of the 10 chase races. As recently as 09 he won 5 races so although he hasn't been to Victory lane since don't rule him out. Its just a thought let me know what you think.

I want to end on a bold prediction for next weekend's race. Kurt will take his new team to victory lane at his home track. I know he hasn't done great at Vegas before but I have faith in him, look for some other shockers Truex Jr. has been running well as has Biffle, look for someone like Gordon to make a jump to the front as well.