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2009 OPer Awards: Best Post Race Celebration

Carl Edwards pulled an upset of sorts by winning the OPeR for best post-race celebration, even though he the NASCAR stats show that he failed to win a Sprint Cup race in 2009.

Steve convinced me that Carl’s Talladega post-crash dash across the finish line on foot - ala Ricky Bobby - was the best of the year.

My first choice was Kurt Busch’s backwards victory laps. I know they’re a bit hokey, but Kurt stuck with them and at least he got to do a couple by winning some races.

2008 OPeR Award: Worst Attempt at Adjusting the Rules

Unlike my pal Steve, who never read a rule book tight enough for his satisfaction, I love cheating. Therefore, though awkwardly named, this is my favorite OPeR.

And in 2008, it was well won.

By using a glorified refrigerator magnet to limit the apparent power of their engines in dyno tests, Joe Gibbs Racing nabbed the ON PIT ROW hutzpa award for ‘08.

But it was no slam dunk. Bob Osborne and the no. 99 team nearly stole it with the “ejecting oil tank lid”. Nice try guys.

2008 OPeR Award: Best Junior High School Drama

Last year, it was Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth who mixed it up - in a very lame way - in the pits and earned the dreaded “High School Musical” OPeR. Or was it Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon? Or Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart?

Whatever. This time, there was no mix-up. Happy Harvick and Cousin Carl got into it after practice for a Nationwide Series race and there were plenty of photogs around to catch the action.

If only the ruckus had happened at one of Humpy Wheeler’s races, we might actually have some of those pics.

2008 OPeR Award: Best Crew Chief

This was a close one. Bob Osborne, crew chief for Carl Edwards No 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion was a strong contender for our top crew chief. The comments from our original 2008 OPeR post are a good indication. If Bob had won, I would have had no problem with it.

But Ozzy didn’t get the coveted OPeR this time. Chad (yaawwnn) Knaus did. Again.

Once again, Knaus seemingly made all the right moves, the necessary adjustments and took advantage of heading the most stable of all Sprint Cup Series teams, from 2007 to 2008. Somebody’s going to have to beat these guys.

2008 OPeR Award: Best Post Race Interview

The best post-race interviews almost never involve the winner of the race. Those guys have just too many commercial obligations to cover for their respective sponsors. It’s hard to fit anything interesting in between the thank-you’s.

Our favorite one in 2008 was Carl Edwards’ explanation of his “video game pass” attempt for the lead on the final turn at Kansas Motor Speedway.

The “move” itself has won a bunch of recognition, including the “Monster Moment” on the 2008 Sprint Cup Awards Show. But we especially liked Carl’s deadpan description of what he was was trying to do - and why - after the race. Too cool.

Time to Hand Out Our OPeR Awards

As has been our tradition ON PIT ROW; the end of the year is time to pass out our own, sometimes offbeat, NASCAR awards.

Most people who cover NASCAR on at least a semi regular basis tend to give their opinions as to who deserves the accolades for their participation in the past season.  While Charlie and I do the usual Best Driver, Best Crew Chief type awards we like to venture a little further into the stories of 2008.

The offbeat tends to become normal in a thirty-six week points season in NASCAR world.  From totally undrivable tires at Indianapolis to Carl Edwards’ video game wall move at Kansas, there is plenty to remember in this season gone by.

Please give us your award winners for the following catagories and we may use your answers on this Tuesdays show.

Best and Worst Driver

Best and Worst Crew Chief

Best and Worst Owner

Best and Worst Team

Best and Worst Post Race Interview

Worst attempt at “Adjusting the Rules”

Best and Worst Junior High School-like Drama

Best and Worst Radio/TV Personality

Best and Worst NASCAR Network

Best Guest to Appear ON PIT ROW

Don’t be afraid to go a little “off center” with your answers.  Leave us a comment and we may use it on this weeks show or give us a call with your winners on Tuesday from 5-7pm ET, toll free at 877-502-8255.

photo credit:  Icon Sports Media

Championship Week ON PIT ROW

Who do you think made Jimmie Johnson feel more uncomfortable this season - the New York NASCAR fan in this picture or Carl Edwards? Where’s Chad Knaus when you really need him?

If you want more pics from Jimmie’s Week - which NASCAR still insists on calling  Champions Week - go on over to Full Throttle. Marc is running a series of the daily shots of Jimmie and Chandra, Jimmie and Chad, Jimmie and a cab - you get the idea. It’s Jimmie’s week.

Jimmie’s…er, Champions Week winds up with the big Sprint Cup Awards Banquet, which is televised every year, to the delite of your intrepid ON PIT ROW Pit Crew. We love the Awards Show. Just like we loved the classic 60’s Sci-Fi flick, Plan Nine from Outer Space. We love it so much that we started a tradition a couple years ago of getting together and making fun of what is usually the worst two hours of television programming you’ll ever see.

That tradition continues this Friday at 9 PM ET. Yep, we’re gonna live blog the 2008 Sprint Cup Awards Show. We hope you’ll tune in the show and join us on the web. We’re gonna hoot it up. BethAnne has some special content saved up just for the live blog presentaion and we should be joined by some of the best NASCAR writers found anywhere.

OnPitRow.com’s other big news this week is the first appearance of the Pit Road Toad cartoon series, drawn and written by the very talented Art Almond. Art’s toons will be a regular feature on Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie and we couldn’t be much more excited.

Photo credit: Getty Images for NASCAR

NASCAR Fans–Do You Believe in Miracles

Bobby Labonte holds the only win at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a Chevrolet, while Matt Kenseth is the defending race winner.

The only Dodge win in the short history of the south Florida track come from the unlikely source of Bill Elliott. Elliott only won four races for Evernham Racing after resurrecting the brand in NASCAR.  Tony Stewart picked off the first two wins ever at HMS in Pontiacs.

The majority of wins have come from the Blue Oval Boys.  Fords of Jack Roush have won five of the nine races.  Kurt Busch started the winning in 2002.  Greg Biffle “owns” Homestead with three consecutive wins in ‘04 through ‘06; while Matt Kenseth is the defending race winner.  While Roush drivers have been celebrating race wins over the last three years at the finale; they have had to watch Jimmy Johnson revel in his championships.

Jack Roush would like nothing better than to be able to celebrate a championship and a race win for Carl Edwards. It’s the long shot of all long shots to believe that JJ can’t pull off a 36th place finish.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Handicapping the Chase Drivers: Homestead-Miami Speedway

Have a cigar, Jimmie Johnson. Go ahead, seriously. This year’s Chase is as good as over, and it’s your team that’s on top. All it takes is a 36th-place finish, and your fate is sealed as the first three-time champion since Cale Yarborough three decades ago.

In other words, thanks for taking the fun out of the Chase. (Just kidding.)

So we’re headed to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the Sprint Cup season finale, after which NASCAR’s stars take a two-month break from their day jobs. Homestead is typically a Roush Fenway Racing-dominated track, as their cars have won every race here since the Chase’s inception. Greg Biffle won in 2004, 2005, and 2006, and Matt Kenseth won last year.

Here’s how each of the 12 Chase drivers will do this week at Homestead:

1. Jimmie Johnson: He’ll just be trying to survive and wrap up that third title. Anything more than playing it safe will be a bonus.

2. Carl Edwards: If anything happens to Johnson (and even if it doesn’t), you can bet Cousin Carl will be gunning for the win at all times. If Johnson blows up on lap one and he leads the most laps and wins, the title’s his. With no more races left in the season, he might as well go for it.

3. Greg Biffle: Too bad Da Biff’s not still in the title hunt. This is by far his best track, and a three-man shootout between Johnson, Edwards, and Biffle would’ve been fun to watch.

4. Jeff Burton: Burton’s worst finish here with Roush was 14th in five starts. With RCR, his best finish is 8th (last year), with two finishes of 25th or worse in four starts. He won’t be as good in this car as he would be were he still at Roush.

5. Kevin Harvick: Happy hasn’t finished worse than 20th all Chase or at Homestead for his career. He hasn’t won since the 2007 Daytona 500, so don’t expect a win, but Harvick should be up towards the front to finish off the season.

6. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer’s only made two starts here, so it’s hard to tell based on his past experience, especially when his finishes are 10th and 39th. He’s been between 5th and 20th all Chase, though, so expect that to repeat.

7. Jeff Gordon: Gordon hasn’t had a winless season since his rookie year in 1993. While he’s never won at Homestead, he’s only finished worse than 10th twice in nine starts. He’s got nothing to lose by going for the victory. Then again, after qualifying 37th, he’ll have a ways to go.

8. Matt Kenseth: Roush car? Check. Defending race winner? Check. Trying to avoid a big fat zero in the win column for the year? Check. Kenseth’s going to push hard this weekend.

9. Denny Hamlin: Here’s the real battle: the battle for the last seats at the end-of-season banquet. 9th through 12th places are separated by 31 points, and Hamlin leads the pack. If 3rd-place finishes each of the past two years mean anything, he’ll stay in the top 10.

10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior’s best finish at Homestead is 13th in his rookie season, and his average finish is 21.2 in eight starts. He’ll have to improve on that if he wants a seat at the banquet in December.

11. Kyle Busch: If anyone deserves to be on stage in New York this December, it’s a guy who completely ran away with the regular season. Too bad Busch’s track record at Homestead includes a best finish of 20th and an average finish of 33.0.

12. Tony Stewart: Cheers for ten great years with the Gibbs organization, Tony, and here’s to ten more with your own. I don’t expect you to do much this weekend, but enough to claim that final seat in New York for JGR.

So who would I pick to win this weekend? Any of the Roush cars. Biffle’s got the track record, Kenseth’s defending the win from last year, and Edwards is going to do whatever it takes to set himself up for a title if Johnson falters. Bet on Edwards, with the others close behind, a la the Dover race a couple months ago.

Image credit: Icon Sports Media

Homestead Fantasy Picks: Throw Away the Loop Stats

Use your heads NASCAR fans. With only three races in the NASCAR Loop stat database for Homestead-Miami Speedway, you will need to look at more trends than the Loop Data give you. In fact, make it easy on your self and just pick a Roush-Fenway Racing driver.

I’ll admit that after last week when Jimmy Johnson again put a stompin’ on the field at Phoenix International Raceway, I am shell shocked. Johnson and Chad Knaus have shown no signs of stroking it and running for points at all. Will this week, with only a 36th place finish needed to clinch a third straight Sprint Cup Series championship change anything? Jimmy’s average finish in the last three Homestead-Miami finales is only 18.7. He was, in two of those races, leading the championship going into the event. That may show a trend toward being conservative. Actually, it may not matter.

The Roush-Fenway drivers have been very good at Homestead. Greg Biffle once won here in three consecutive years. Greg is tops in Fastest Laps Run (80) and Laps in the Top 15 - 688 - in the last three races too.

Matt Kenseth has an average finish of 3.3 and has led the most laps - 214 for 26.7 percent -  in the three Loop Data races. And Kenseth is one of only three of the 2008 Chase qualifiers to have won at Homestead. Biffle and two-time winner Tony Stewart are the others.

But Carl Edwards is my pick this time. Carl has shown that he and crew chief Bob Osborne have no quit in them. They are the only team with any mathematical chance to upset the Lowes No. 48 apple cart. They have to win the race. They can win the race. Carl has an average finish of 5.7 - only third best among the Roush drivers - and the fourth best Driver Rating at 107.2.

So Carl is my pick. And Jeff Gordon is my “I can’t believe I’m calling him an upset”, upset special. Gordon has never won at Homestead-Miami - there are only two of those tracks left on his to-do list. It’s just a hunch that Gordon may get the job done here, this time around.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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