FIVE LAPS: Guitar Town pre-race
We're heading to the Carl Edwards Speedway in Nashville for Saturday's Busch Nationwide Buschwide race. The Cupsters are off, so we're forced to preview the Buschwide event. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing: The race will have a lot of new and different drivers who will find all sorts of new and different ways to wreck their race cars.
Lap One: Take out your Cupsters, and here are your Busch Nationwide standings after five races:
1-Mike Bliss 627
2-Mike Wallace -24
3-Brad Keselowski -36
4-Jason Leffler -48
5-Kelly Bires -79
6-Bobby Hamilton Jr. -89
7-Jason Keller -103
8-Johnny Sauter -123
9-Steve Wallace -160
10-Marcos Ambrose -169
More after the jump ...
Lap Two: Back in the real world, Kevin Harvick is leading the Nationwide standings, and Bliss is sixth overall. Mike Wallace, Keselowski and Leffler are in the top 10. That's encouraging.
Lap Three: Harvick better not clear space in the garage for another Nationwide Series championship trophy. He's skipping Saturday's race. Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards are both working this weekend, and one of them will probably take over first. Bet on Edwards: He swept Guitar Town last year.
Lap Four: Some of the names you should be watching in Saturday's race -- Landon Cassill (No. 5, JR Motorsports), Chase Miller (No. 9, Gillett Evernham), Colin Braun (No. 16, Roush Fenway), Cale Gale (No. 33, KHI) and Bryan Clauson (No. 40, Ganassi). What separates these guys from the other Busch drivers you've never heard of either is that these guys are your potential Future Cup Champions Club. They're all young, talented and have teams with serious financial muscle behind them. There are just enough Cupsters in the field (Edwards, Bowyer, Shrub) to give these guys a decent idea of what to expect in Cup. (Here's the entry list.)
Lap Five: Heck no I don't expect any of those guys will win. There are only six full-time Cupsters (by my count, anyway) in the Guitar Town field, and I expect them to fill the top five.
Green-white-checkers lap: Speaking of Guitar Town, here's a very old video of a younger, thinner Steve Earle. Good stuff.
Comments (1)
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I enjoy the Nationwide Series on its own merits. The races are shorter, of course, than the Cup races. Plus, there are all the open wheel drivers trying to adjust to stock car racing and destroying their cars in the process...haha.
Echoing the sentiments of many readers, it's great to see you posting again. I hope this remains an enjoyable activity.
Posted on March 23, 2008 3:29 PM