Kasey Kahne Needs To Have a Great Finish at the Auto Club Speedway
Last week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race was at the 1/2 mile Bristol Motor Speedway which is considered a short track even though the high banking of the track made it almost as fast as a superspeedway. Brad Keselowski won the race making it two in a row for him and Greg Biffle held on to the points lead. The race really ended up being more about the misfortunes of Kasey Kahne. Kasey Kahne ran up the track into Regan Smith starting a chain reaction crash, ruining his day. With finishes of 29, 34, 19 and 37th consecutively, he is not only having a really bad start to his season but he is also in trouble for staying in the top 35 in points. Kasey Kahne is currently 34th by only 7 points. This time of year the focus is really at the positions in and around 35th in points because this is the only race left in order to get into one of those coveted top 35 spots. Currently 36th in points is David Reutimann but the next four above are only separated by 15 points. Travis Kvapil, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, and Landon Cassill are all racing to not be in that position. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that Kasey Kahne would be fighting to remain in the top 35 in points? This week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race is The Auto Club 400 at the Auto Club Speedway formerly known as The California Speedway.
This weekend it is back to a more typical NASCAR track. The Auto Club Speedway is a 2 mile D shaped oval racetrack. The Auto Club Speedway appears to be an exact copy of Michigan International Speedway (MIS) but it is a little different. There is 14 degrees of banking in the corners where MIS has 18 degrees. The front Stretch has 11 degrees of banking where MIS has 12 degrees. The back stretch is also banked at 4 degrees and MIS 5 degrees. This makes the Auto Club Speedway a little slower than MIS overall. Even though there are only 3 two mile races, two at Michigan and one here, they are not that different than the 1.5 mile D shaped ovals which dominate the schedule with some exceptions. Some of the major differences are that drafting on the straight-away can give you an advantage. Side drafting can slow your opponent down as well, but watch out for the guy behind you while you do this, as he may pass you both.
This track is also wide. On restarts it is not unusual for the cars to run 4 wide and sometimes 5 wide. The width of the track also lends itself to long green flag runs where the cars get spread way apart. This is where the reputation for Fuel Millage racing comes from. Like Pocono and Michigan, this track can be hard on engines due to the amount of time the engines are at full throttle in the straight-away. This track will be the first true test of NASCARs new Electronic Fuel Injection system and the team’s ability to adjust them during hard fast racing. Do not be surprised to see speeds entering the corners near 200 MPH as they do not run restrictor plates at this track. The race is 200 laps or 400 miles.
The two mile tracks are known to be favorites of Roush Fenway Racing and their drivers but the numbers for Auto Club Speedway do not indicate that fact. Five time winner Jimmie Johnson(5 wins) has the highest driver rating at this track of 123 than the next highest of three time winner Matt Kenseth(3) of 107. Kyle Busch(1), Mark Martin(1), Tony Stewart(1) all have higher ratings than Carl Edwards(1). After Carl comes Jeff Gordon(3) before you find the last RFR driver Greg Biffle(1). To round out the top ten in driver ratings at this track add in last year’s winner Kevin Harvick(1) and Kasey Kahne(1). Interesting to note is that all of the top ten rated drivers have won at least one race here. The only other driver entered in the race to win here is Kurt Busch.
The race is Sunday March 25th on Fox at 2:30 PM ET. Follow me on Twitter during the race @brian_jr1 .
