BRO RATINGS: Budweiser Shootout

BRO RATINGS: Budweiser Shootout

By Uncle Clark

The pavement is even. The banking is uniform. The paint is fresh. With the quality of Daytona Motor Speedway’s new racing surface even a Mack Truck could turn a fast corner.

Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout (FOX, 8 P.M.) is our first look at the 2011 season. This isn’t your typical race. This is the concentrated version of the best of NASCAR. It’s the racing equivalent of those frozen orange juice canisters a cheap mother would buy. Except in this case we add race fuel.  I’d be down to try that mix:

Here is why you will watch Saturday’s race:

1.       The FedEx Cup of Racing: This is an invitation-only event. Only drivers who raced in last year’s Chase, are former series champions or have won at Daytona are allowed in the clubhouse. You will see trademark names battling against each other in one of the fastest venues in the circuit.

2.       Straight Cash, Homey. The Average Purse of the Budweiser Shootout: $1,148,414. If you win this, fishing gets real affordable.

3.        0% Financing on Cars: Most of the teams have a car designated to race exclusively in the Shootout. They build the machine to be fast, they build it to win and they do not care if it comes back to the shop or leaves on a wrecker. You’re there to win.

4.       Quick and Dirty: The race is only 75 laps broken into two segments (25 and 50). There is a 10-minute session in-between segments for car adjustments. The last 50 laps promises to be some of the most exciting in Daytona’s recent history. The new pavement is sticky and will allow cars to race on all areas of the track. The result: Three- and four-wide racing comes standard.

5.       Racing Under the Lights: It’s like your paycheck…Everything goes faster at night.

BRO RATINGS:

A few weeks ago, NASCAR opened up Daytona for a weekend’s worth of testing so drivers and their teams could establish a direction with their racing setups. BroNameth Sports analyzed the statistics for each of the 5 testing sessions and developed an equation (mainly addition) to establish their BRO RATING. Here is how the drivers stack:

BRO RATINGS: The Budweiser Shootout

1.       Joey Logano #20: First of all, I do not like this guy. I am not sure if he switches dugouts and he has a better job than I do.  But he tore up the Nationwide Series and posted ridiculous numbers at testing. He finished in the top-10 in four of the five testing sessions, a statistic only Jeff Gordon could match. But even Gordon couldn’t hold a candle to Logano’s average speed of 191.583 MPH. Gordon’s average: 186.745 MPH. This kid can roll.

2.       Denny Hamlin #11: Consistency pays. Denny saw his lack of it lead to another Jimmy Johnson championship last year. Judging by his numbers at testing, he may have turned the corner. He finished second in Average Speed at 191.54 MPH to his teammate Logano. He posted a top speed of 197.737 MPH, which fell short to Brad Keselowski’s and Kurt Busch’s final segment speeds of 198.605 MPH and 198.579 MPH, respectively. Here’s the good news for Denny: The only reason Brad hit that pace was because his teammate Kurt was pushing him. Brad isn’t racing in the Shootout and Kurt – the only remaining Dodge – will have no help in the draft.

3.       Kyle Busch #18: The guy is good. He has matured over the last few seasons to cool his temper, but this race is built for his kind of attitude. He matched the top speed of his teammate, Denny Hamlin in testing at 197.737 MPH and posted a respectable average speed. You can be sure that Logano, Hamlin and Busch – all Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – will push each other to the front.

4.       Tony Stewart #14: Finally a driver not racing a Toyota comes into our BRO RANKINGS. Tony finished 6^th in the Average Speed category at testing. He did this without participating in the final session where Top Speeds were posted by almost every team. What does this mean: The 14 Car had all the information they needed. Tony went trolling for track women while his engineers collaborated with those at Hendrick Motorsports. They’ll be ready and Stewart will have plenty of Chevrolets to help push him to the front.

5.       Kasey Kahne #4: Your boy. Finished fourth in Average Speed at 189.902 MPH and with a Top Speed of 197.659 MPH. If you look at the numbers exclusively, he should be ahead of Tony Stewart in the BRO RATINGS. The problem: Like Kurt Busch, his drafting help in Brian Vickers will be riding the pine on Saturday. Although he too will be racing a Toyota, the engineering departments of Red Bull take a back seat to the reputation of Joe Gibbs Racing. Kahne put out some strong numbers and showed consistency at testing. His team will have to do the same.

HONORABROS:

-          Jimmy Johnson #48 – Don’t want to talk about it…He’ll be around and Chad Knauss will be arrogant.

-          Jeff Gordon #24 – (BroNameth Reader Nick Ball’s Driver) -  He and BRO RATINGS leader Joey Logano were the only drivers to post four top-10 finishes in the five testing sessions. His Top Speed is impressive. His Average Speed - meeehhhhhh.

-          Carl Edwards #99 – Because he’s dangerous

-          Kevin Harvick #29 – His new Budweiser car is top quality. And because she says so (Muh. Hum. Eh. Duh. Times 3):




UPCOMING TOPICS:

- Proper Rebel Yells

- Beer Opening Tricks

- Daytona 500 Preview