The NASCAR Nationwide Series travels to the “left coast” this week for Saturday’s Stater Brothers 300 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana-California. Here’s the breakdown for Saturday’s race:
The Stater Brothers 300 will be 150 laps around the Auto Club Speedway’s two mile, D shaped, oval.
There are 46 entries in the race all vying for 43 starting berths and that means the qualifying session is going to be loaded with drama. There are 15 teams on the go or go home list who need to make the race on speed.
Tony Stewart is the defending race champion and literally spanked the competition last year. The good news for the competition in 2009 is the fact Stewart is not entered in this race.
There are 12 drivers from the Sprint Cup Series, now known as “Insurance Whackers”, who are entered in the Stater Brothers 300 with many of them considered favorites to win the race.
ON THE INSIDE TRACK
Among the Sprint Cup crop of “Insurance Whackers” Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are certainly favorites to win this race. But technically speaking neither of these drivers are “whackers.” They plan to run the entire combined Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series schedules for what is going to be a busy year for each of them. Also on the favoite lists for the Nationwide Series race will be Greg Biffle, who has won at the Auto Club Speedway before. along with Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Joey Lagano and David Reutimann.
Kevin Harvick will be driving his own car, the #33 Rheem Chevrolet, in Saturday’s race. Harvick is a two time series champion and second on the series’ win list with 32 trips to victory lane. But all of this was accomplished in a car owned by Richard Childress Racing. While the Kevin Harvick Inc Chevrolet has seen victory lane in the past it has been with other drivers behind the wheel. He has yet to win a race in his own race car. He also hasn’t seen victory lane at the Auto Club Speedway. Look for him to make an all out effort to fill both of these voids in the Stater Brothers 300.
Greg Biffle, driver of the #16 Citifinancial Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, is a past Nationwide Series champion and leads the series’ win list at the Auto Club Speedway with three trips to victory lane. However that last win in Fontana was back in 2006 and Biffle now finds himself with a 75 race winless streak in the Nationwide Series. It’s a safe bet that he has plans to rectify this in Saturday’s Stater Brothers 300.
While Joey Lagono is working the learning curve as a full time Sprint Cup driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, he will be also making several Nationwide Series appearances this season. Lagono will be driving the #20 Game Stop Toyota in Saturday’s race. Since 2005 this particular car has a 7.7 average finish ratio at the Auto Club Speedway. Also bear in mind that this is the same car that Tony Stewart beat up the competition with in last year’s race.
Also on the inside track includes some actual NASCAR Nationwide Series teams that many observers feel could become a huge factor in the final standings at the end of the season. This group includes Brad Keselowski in the Dale Earnhardt Jr owned Chevrolet, along with Mike Bliss and Jason Lefler, Also being looked at as a potential dark horse is Jason Keller who was racing in this series when many of his colleagues were playing with toy race cars in their backyards. Known as the “iron man” of the series, Keller has 458 starts and ten wins. He also impressed a lot of observers in last week’s season opener in Daytona with a ninth place finish.
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