Champs, Chumps & Sleepers Play Our Free Fantasy Game & Win Prizes!

My new bud, Kristin, over at New Media Strategies is working on promoting the ‘Ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr’ Amp Energy Drink campaign.

Here is the press release or go straight over to Amp Energy and get the details and sign up.

New Media’s laid out a little Dale Earnhardt Jr. swag for me to give away to some lucky and loyal visitors of Onebadwheel.

I’ve got two Dale Jr bundles to give away. They each contain an officially licensed Hendrick Motorsports green and white “Amp Energy” hat and two of the collector AMP Energy/Dale Earnhardt Jr cans (can #1 and can #2).

My free weekly NASCAR Fantasy advice newsletter has a link to this page. Clicking on that link in the newsletter will put your name in the hat for the free Dale Jr goodies.

If you don’t get the newsletter (and you should!) I’ll give you this chance to enter yourself right now. Send an email with “JR SWAG” in the subject line to this address: dalejrswag@onebadwheel.com

That’ll put you in the hat as well to be one of the two random drawing winners.

This contest for the free Dale Jr goodies ends Sunday July 13th, 2008 at 1:00 PM CST.

If it slipped by you, I recently enjoyed watching the new 2-disc DVD Full Throttle Adrenaline by A&E Television Networks.

Well, they were kind enough to share with me two additional copies to share with you. So, it’s just all kinds of contest time around here at Onebadwheel.

Here is how the one for this very cool DVD works.

Anyone playing Champs, Chumps and Sleepers this weekend for the New Hampshire International Speedway Lenox Industrial Tools 301 has a shot at winning this DVD.

The person with the highest score for this one race wins. It’s that simple.

If you’re not already playing Champs, Chumps & Sleepers…go sign up!

*If you are new to the game, please read the simple instructions. Your ‘Chumps’ are drivers you think will do BAD. In fact, you really want them to do bad, because you get their driver points DEDUCTED from your score for the week.

UPDATE: We have a winner! The team is “Kelly’s Heroes” who is none other than the fantasy expert Jeff Gutowski. Way to go Jeff. Your DVD is on it’s way.

My momma always said, “Road course ringers are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” OK, so my momma doesn’t really know much of anything about racing, much less road course ringers. But the part about a box of chocolates and not knowing what you’re gonna get is so true. I hate biting into a gorgeous hunk of dark chocolate only to discover some sort of coconut goo residing in the center. It just ruins the moment and puts a terrible taste in my mouth. All of you Champs, Chumps & Sleepers fantasy players that had road course ringers on your fantasy roster know what I’m talking about.

Like that nugget of dark chocolate, Boris Said, Scott Pruett, Marcos Ambrose, and even Ron Fellows in the #01 with his “guaranteed to start” Top 35 status must have looked good to many of us as we filled out our fantasy roster. Perhaps Darren’s “Road Course Ringer Ratings” even played a role. After all, three of those ringers had median finishes on road courses of 12th or better!

Yet race day brought a bitter end to what was anticipated to be a sweet points day for many fantasy teams. Sure, there were flashes of hope for a great finish, especially for Marcos Ambrose in the famous Wood Brother’s #21. But when the field took the checkers, the Cup regulars had left the road course ringers out to dry. Even some of the road racers with full time Cup rides had finishes at the back of the pack. As I scan over the results below I have to wonder, “Just how will fantasy team owners set their rosters once the series gets to Watkins Glen?” Personally, I may just skip that variety box of chocolates and instead get some M&Ms or a Snickers bar. At least one won’t melt in my hands, and the other really satisfies you.

• 17th = Terry Labonte
• 29th = Ron Fellows
• 35th = Max Papis
• 36th = Robby Gordon
• 37th = A.J. Allmendinger
• 38th = Scott Pruett
• 41st = Boris Said
• 42nd = Marcos Ambrose
• 43rd = Brian Simo
• DNQ = Dario Franchitti
• DNQ = Brandon Ash

The weekend did not start off promising for the #18 M&Ms team. Right off the truck the team struggled to get Kyle’s Toyota handling well.

“We unloaded here this weekend and we were absolutely horrible,” Busch said in his post-race press conference. “We were so bad we didn’t know what was going on. These guys worked their tails off and never gave up. We worked on it and worked on it – made changes to everything – and finally figured it out. I have to thank AP Brakes, MAC Tools, M&M’s, Snickers, Interstate Batteries, NOS Energy Drink and everybody that’s helped us here. For Toyota to win here at their home race, that’s pretty special, too.”

Special indeed. Kyle actually had to qualify the car twice. It was discovered that an official failed to remove some NASCAR mandated tape that covers the cowl induction area of the hood before the team’s qualifying attempt. NASCAR apparently requires the tape to be placed over the cowl until the cars are set to go out for qualifying. This practice is done in an effort to prevent cheating (or sabotage) via insertion of foreign object into the cowl. With the tape covering the cowl induction area, precious air was blocked from getting into the engine, thus horsepower was reduced. Once discovered, the team was permitted fresh tires, time to cool the engine, and a second attempt at qualifying.

Interesting to me is that before the race there seemed to be a feeling that Kyle would not do well on the road course. I honestly didn’t understand this. True, I myself did have him in my “Chumps” pick for Champs, Chumps & Sleepers. However, my decision was based not on past results, but rather on events leading up to the race. First, a poor qualifying position on a road course. Second, the team struggled with the setup. And third, Kyle’s reported sour mood (as well as his disgusted look on television). I just didn’t think those ingredients would combine to result in a good finish. WRONG! It took him only 33 laps to reach P1 on the scoring tower. From there he led all but 2 of the remaining 80 laps of the race. OK, so I guess the FBI’s BAU will not be needing my services.

In the end, Kyle’s win really shouldn’t surprise us. He has had success on the road courses, including a win this past April in the Nationwide Series road course race in Mexico. Even limiting his road course history to Cup series racing (which is 3 years) he has had good finishes at both Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. Only in his rookie year did he post unfavorable results.

Infineon Raceway:
2005 = 40th (Rookie year)
2006 = 11th
2007 = 8th
2008 = 1st

Watkin Glen:
2005 = 33rd (Rookie year)
2006 = 9th
2007 = 7th

So congratulations (again) to the entire Joe Gibbs #18 team. Here are some post-race loop data statistics for Kyle’s run to the checkers at Infineon Raceway.

• Starting Position = 30th
• Mid Race Position = 1st
• 11 Laps to Go = 1st
• Lowest Position = 32nd
• Average Position = 6th
• # of Fastest Laps = 26 (best of all drivers)
• Laps in Top 15 = 90
• % of Laps in Top 15 = 80.4%
• Laps Led = 78, or 69.6% (best of all drivers)
• Final Driver Rating = 147.6 (best of all drivers)

SONOMA, CA. — Kyle Busch is definitely the real deal. He won NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race here Sunday, completely dominating the race from shortly before the halfway point to the wild, caution-filled finish.

Three late-race caution flags bunched the field after young Busch had literally left all challengers in the California dust on a sunny California Sunday.

Busch led 75 laps en route his first road course victory, coming from 30th starting position to the front.

It was a typically wild road course race, especially at the end. Kevin Harvick, running near the front as he had most of the afternoon with three laps remaining, prompted a three-car spin in the horseshoe turn when his brakes locked up. He slid sideways, collecting Tony Stewart and Ron Fellows in the process.

When a green, white, checkered restart got the field going again for the final time, Busch pulled away from runner-up David Gilliland and third-place finisher Jeff Gordon, who struggled all afternoon with an ill-handling car.

Clint Bowyer was fourth and Casey Mears fifth. Juan Pablo Montoya, who was accidentally spun by Australian Marcos Ambrose, raced back into contention and finished sixth. Ambrose, unfortunately, suffered a mechanical failure while running second and fell out of the race. Rounding out the top 10 were Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Stewart roared from 19th after his accident to finish 11th.

Two-time champion Jimmie Johnson, one of the early-race leaders, finished 16th after an accident put him back in the field.

This was one of those twisting, turning, up and down days for NASCAR’s “turning left” stars who are not accustomed to right-hand turns and hills. Several teams brought in road course ringers to increase their chances for a win. Boris Said, Fellows, Max Pappis, Ambrose and Scott Pruett brought impressive sports car racing resume’s to Sunday’s 110-lap, high speed party.

Bobby Labonte lost his grip on the second lap in the hairpin turn and spun off the track, dropping from fourth to 30th position.

Johnson passed pole winner Kasey Kahne for the lead on the sixth lap. Several laps later, Kurt Busch passed Kahne, as did Robby and Jeff Gordon. Ambrose was holding on to fifth place in the Wood Brothers Ford.

At 20 laps, it was Johnson, Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon, Carl Edwards, who won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Milwaukee Saturday night, Ambrose, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Newman, defending race champion Montoya and Biffle.

Two laps later, Edwards charged into second place. Biffle was the first of the frontrunners to pit on lap 25, hoping to make only one additional pit stop as opposed to more. Harvick and teammate Burton also stopped early.

David Ragan brought out a caution a few laps after the early pit stops when he rammed a stack of safety tires on the inside of the hairpin turn.

When racing resumed, Biffle had the lead but spun in the second turn and dropped way back in the field. Kyle Busch took the lead with Montoya and McMurray in tow. Johnson had dropped back to 10th spot. Kurt Busch got an unwelcome bump from Scott Pruett which cost Busch valuable time. Just a few laps later, Denny Hamlin spun in the hairpin dropping him back in the field.

At the 55-lap, halfway point of the race, it was Kyle Busch leading, Montoya second, McMurray third, followed by Stewart, David Gilliland, Edwards, Harvick, Robby Gordon and Elliott Sadler. Ambrose had dropped to 11th.

The folks at A&E Home Entertainment sent me a copy of the Full Throttle Adrenaline DVD to check out and share with you. Details on how to score one of the two free copies I have to give will be coming soon.

This is a 2-disc set of quality NASCAR footage and commentary. The 2 DVD’s run a total of 113 minutes. It was fun watching it with my wife. Her, being a NASCAR noobie, and me with a few years under the NASCAR belt, it was great to see footage I had seen and also not seen before.

I prattled on during the Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven Darlington finish. I filled in the context for Kevin Harvick’s win over Jeff Gordon at Atlanta. Classic Allison brothers and Cale Yarborough fighting. Richard Petty wrecking across the finish line. Plus, tons of other footage that I had never seen (or not seen enough).

This DVD lives up to it’s name of Full Throttle Adrenaline because it really did have us on the edge of our seats with the wealth of great NASCAR footage.

The DVD is hosted by Steve Byrnes and flows along at a good pace.

Along with the intense NASCAR on-track footage is an interesting trip to the NASCAR R&D Center and Exclusive PC Wallpaper.

I wholeheartedly say that this DVD would make a great gift for yourself or the NASCAR fan in your life.

First thing. I need you to help me out here and get in the spirit of this post. See the OneBadWheel logo up at the top left of your screen? Good, now look right below the word “Bad” and click on the little orange box with the #20 in it. Great, now you’ve pimped your OneBadWheel to Smoke’s colors! You may now proceed.

OK boys and girls, it’s time for another contest that is tied into our free fantasy game Champs, Chumps & Sleepers. So far this year we’ve had two mid-segment giveaways. One was a six pack of diecast cars for the fantasy team with the highest score for the Darlington race. The second giveaway was a pair of diecast cars featuring the two #88 paint schemes of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolets. When Jr. won his first race of 2008 we took all eligible teams and the one with the highest score for that same race was declared the winner. That was easy! So far though that prize has not been claimed! “Boomersbumpdraftin,” you better speak up and claim your cars!

Looking ahead on the schedule I decided the next track that would be good to focus a giveaway around would be the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now when I think Brickyard, I think of Tony Stewart. After all, he has some pretty impressive stats there (scroll to the bottom of this post for “Smoke-stats” at the Brickyard). So, the next contest is going to be centered around Tony Stewart and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Now that race isn’t until July 27, 2008. So there’s plenty of time to enter your team and be eligible to win. Here’s how it works:

• If you’re not already playing Champs, Chumps & Sleepers, then sign up. It is after all…..FREE & easy!
• Once you’ve signed up and have your team, you’ll need to visit your team’s page and click on “My Groups.” From there, click on the “Join a Private Group” link and enter the group name and password below. Your team MUST be in the private group before the race day deadline to be eligible to win! So join it now to be sure you’re in!
  Group Name:”Brickyard Contest”
  Password: “Smoke“
• Be sure to fill out your fantasy roster for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard by that race’s deadline. Once the deadline to adjust your roster for that race has passed, the group’s password will be changed and no more teams will be allowed to join during the race.
• IF Tony Stewart finishes the race in the Top 5, then the eligible team with the highest score for the Brickyard race will win a Tony Stewart prize pack. If Tony fails to finish the race in the top five, then the prize pack will not be awarded and may be offered up in another contest at a later date. So you’ll just have to come back, keep playing and try again.

Now, just for the record, my team (”Foothills Racing”) is in the group, but that’s because I created the group. I am not eligible to win and neither is my wife. Everyone else who joins the group is eligible. This includes the volunteer contributing writers to OneBadWheel, as well as the owner himself of OneBadWheel. Also, the prize pack must ship to a US address (sorry Abu).

So what are you waiting for? Go join the group now and feel free to post some Trash Talk in the private group as well! Good luck, and let’s have some fun! By the way, here are some of those impressive “Smoke-stats” I mentioned earlier.

• In the 2007 race he led 65 laps on his way to victory. 100% of his laps were ran in the top fifteen. His average running position was 2nd. He had a series best 45 “fastest laps” and attained a 146.0 out of a 150.0 possible driver rating.
• He has 2 wins at the Brickyard, making him one of only 3 drivers with multiple wins here. Jeff Gordon has 4 wins at Indianapolis and Dale Jarrett has 2 wins.
• In 9 career starts he has 4 top fives, 6 top tens, and has never finished worse than 17th.
• In those 9 starts, Tony has completed 100% of the laps (1,441), and has led 215 of them.
• He has an average start of 16.2 and an average finish of 7.6
• Total Brickyard winnings: $2,409,012

The dreaded and universally used NASCAR rule violation aka “Section 12.4A - Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing”.

What is it really?

Jeff: Actions detrimental to stock car racing is just way too broad to be a rule. I understand that it is hard to make up rules when technology changes so fast and you are trying to keep the sport competitive but every time somebody gets caught doing anything it’s always actions detrimental to stack car racing.

The average fan can’t even get a copy of the NASCAR rulebook. The only people allowed to have a rule book are the NASCAR teams. This is the only sport that I know of where they don’t want anyone on the outside to know the rules.

Next, everyone who is penalized under this rule is given a different penalty and it isn’t explained very well to the fans. An infraction that looks similar to the fan that has occurred to two different teams is penalized differently and there isn’t much of an explanation given.

I agree that we have to keep the sport competitive but, I would also like to have a better explanation given to me. The fans are the ones who pay their hard earned money to keep the seats full and the sponsors coming. Don’t we deserve to know what is really happening in the garage?

James: Have you ever been pulled over by “one of those” cops? You know, the ones who seem to have something to prove. I can see them now with the brass wire framed sunglasses and mirrored lenses. Perhaps they’re sporting that 70’s porn star style mustache, a shirt seemingly unbuttoned 2-3 buttons too far, and a black leather jacket on despite the 96 degree temps of an June afternoon.

He snaps, “License and registration!” and all you can think is, “Oh my God, I just got pulled over for speeding on Old Folks Row by the Village People’s cop!.” You try the best you can to keep from laughing out loud, but you fail. That’s when “Officer Willis” just starts tacking on any and every citation and rule infraction that he can think of to your speeding ticket to show you just how bad you’ve really been.

In NASCAR we have the something very similar, “section 12.4A.” A driver or team may in fact do something wrong, but penalizing them for that alone isn’t enough. No, they’ll tack on the trusty section 12.4A for good measure. I mean honestly, half of the so called “detrimental actions” are in fact the ones that keep the fans excited and interested in the sport! Kyle Busch, buddy on a scale of 1-10 you are 12.4A! Good job!

Mike: Ah yes, section 12.4A. It’s like a parent’s blanket answer for breaking a rule. What kid didn’t hate it when their parents would use “Just because” as a reason why they were wrong?

The rule is frustrating because it’s so vague. I’ve seen it used for both inspection violations and conduct issues. Which is it? Sometimes I think the NASCAR body is guilty of violating their own rule. Tell me Pocono races aren’t detrimental to Stock Car Racing.

James: Mike, you’re spot on about Pocono races! You took the words right out of my mouth. As a matter of fact I just quickly put together a short list off the top of my head. These are actions that should be categorized as “Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing.” Here they are in no particular order:

1. Restarting a rain delayed race after midnight.
2. A Champions Provisional.
3. Giving two race dates each to Pocono and California.
4. Claiming there is a NASCAR rule book (written in ink).
5. Race analysts dressed up in costumes doing pre-race shows and silly skits.
6. Race fans spectators throwing beer cans.
7. Timely debris cautions for silly stuff like a foam can koozie down on the apron.
8. Having Alan Bestwick work in the pits instead of the broadcast booth.
9. Clogging up the television screen with so many scrolling tickers, sponsor logos, and animated graphics that the viewer is left with the equivalent of a 20″ viewing area of the actual race action.
10. “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity”