Need for Speed
A NASCAR BLOG BY Jared Turner
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Talladega a huge deal for Penske drivers
Apr
21
This Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway is big for a lot of drivers for a lot of reasons. It's plain huge for Penske Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.
Since Busch pushed Newman to victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 giving Penske a rare one-two finish, the teammates have fallen on hard times.
After leaving Daytona atop the points standings, Newman and Busch have slid all the way to 12th and 16th, respectively. Good finishes have been hard to come by, and bad luck has been in high supply for both drivers.
With a few more bad runs, Busch, the 2004 series champion, could even be in danger of falling out of Chase contention.
Newman is in slightly better shape, coming off a pole-winning effort at Phoenix and holding on to the final Chase spot, but he appears extremely vulnerable as well.
Based on how the Penske teams have performed so far in 2008, Talladega seems like the best – maybe even only – place Newman and Busch can get their seasons back on track before it's too late.
After all, Talladega and Daytona are the only two venues on the circuit where horsepower-robbing restrictor plates bunch the cars into tight packs, helping even the competition and creating some of the season’s closest racing.
History shows that when teams run strong at Daytona, they typically fare just as well at Talladega – no matter how dominant or dismal they run in between.
That’s likely good news for Newman and Busch – whose title hopes could be all but history with a bad day at Talladega.
Since Busch pushed Newman to victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 giving Penske a rare one-two finish, the teammates have fallen on hard times.
After leaving Daytona atop the points standings, Newman and Busch have slid all the way to 12th and 16th, respectively. Good finishes have been hard to come by, and bad luck has been in high supply for both drivers.
With a few more bad runs, Busch, the 2004 series champion, could even be in danger of falling out of Chase contention.
Newman is in slightly better shape, coming off a pole-winning effort at Phoenix and holding on to the final Chase spot, but he appears extremely vulnerable as well.
Based on how the Penske teams have performed so far in 2008, Talladega seems like the best – maybe even only – place Newman and Busch can get their seasons back on track before it's too late.
After all, Talladega and Daytona are the only two venues on the circuit where horsepower-robbing restrictor plates bunch the cars into tight packs, helping even the competition and creating some of the season’s closest racing.
History shows that when teams run strong at Daytona, they typically fare just as well at Talladega – no matter how dominant or dismal they run in between.
That’s likely good news for Newman and Busch – whose title hopes could be all but history with a bad day at Talladega.
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Comments
1 response to "Talladega a huge deal for Penske drivers"
Judy Turner said:
Apr 22, 2008 at 12:01 PMGreat read, as usual. Keep the awesome blogs and updates coming!
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