Busy day
And not just at Texas Motor Speedway, where there's Cup qualifying today (4 p.m., SPEED), a Busch race tomorrow (2 p.m., FOX) and a Cup race Sunday (12:30 p.m., Fox, with the green flag expected at about 1:20 p.m.).
Here in news&recordland, the boss is out, which means I've got three days worth of stories to wrangle into the paper. So here are a few weekend story lines to chew on:
* Can Shane Hmiel finally win a Busch race? The kid from Pleasant Garden won the pole for Saturday's Busch race, his first since taking it at Indy in 2003. He's ninth in Busch points this season, with three top 5s in seven races. Hmiel come close to winning a lot, but something goofy always seems to happen to him at the end of the race. Maybe this is his weekend?
* Will a return to Texas mean the return to dominance of the Hendrick and Roush cars? It's not like they disappeared at Bristol and Martinsville. But Texas is a scary-fast aero track, and we all remember how Roush and Hendrick ran toward the front at California, Vegas and Atlanta.
* Can Boris Said make the race? Bill Elliott? Terry Labonte? They're among the 46 drivers entered in Sunday's Cup race.
* And should I start Bobby Labonte or Kyle Petty on my fantasy team?
Y'all talk in the comments.
Comments (1)
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If Hmiel can "keep his nose clean" he'll have a shot this weekend. He is still too too impatient in the car, if he wasn't, he could have won up to 5 CTS races last year. Personally, I see Mark Martin making it 3-for-3 this weekend. But what everyone seems to be ignoring is the impressive job Jon Wood has done in the 47 Clorox car. He has been a top 10 driver in every race, just seems to slip at the finish. This is the same team Robert Pressley drove for last year and couldn't do a thing. I think you'll see the Roush/Hendrick show this weekend, just like Atlanta, Vegas, Cali. As of right now, I like Biffle, only because of how he was shuffled out of the chance to beat Johnson at Atlanta and wants to make a statement. Third, go with Bobby. Kyle can't get a top 15 unless a lot of wrecks/parts failures occur.
Posted on April 15, 2005 2:36 PM