This Week in Auto Racing March 14 - March 16

Posted: Tue Mar 11 12:46 PM

By Steve Schwarz, Motorsports Editor

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - While the Sprint Cup Series will take to the famed high banks at the Bristol Motor Speedway, the Formula One Series gets going down under in Melbourne, Australia.

NASCAR

Sprint Cup

Food City 500 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN

After four races on high-speed tracks, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to its roots at the historic Bristol Motor Speedway short track. It is likely to be another knock-down-drag-out fight with bent sheetmetal galore and frustrated and angry drivers.

Right now, the hottest driver in NASCAR is Kyle Busch. In his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, Busch is putting on quite a display.

The No.18 JGR Toyota leads the Sprint Cup Series by 73 points. But the margin could easily be much larger. At Daytona he and teammate Tony Stewart were the dominant cars on the track leading 102 of 200 laps. Busch led 86 of those and after the final pit stop was ninth on the restart. He charged through the field and was fourth with eight laps to go. Busch was second with three laps to go, but when Stewart dropped to the bottom of the track to team with the No.18, it opened a lane for Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch to charge around the outside for the win.

He was also a dominant force in Las Vegas, winning the pole and leading 56 laps before finishing 11th. Add in the fact that he is third in the Nationwide Series and leads the Craftsman Truck Series and you have a driver that is currently the best on the track.

Busch is the defending Food City 500 champion. It was the first-ever COT race and Kyle Busch was better at adapting to the new car than anyone else. He edged Jeff Burton for the win.

Burton had a couple of chances to use the "Bristol Bump and Run" on Busch and grab the win, but Burton has always been a clean racer and he wanted to win the right way. Coming out of the final turn Burton got below Busch and pulled up alongside him, but couldn't beat him to the checkered flag.

But this week's race will probably be best known as the final race for Dale Jarrett. The 51-year-old will retire from the circuit (except for driving in May's All-Star Challenge) and follow the footsteps of his father Ned Jarrett into the announcer's booth.

His 668th and final start will not likely end in a trip to Victory Lane, but Jarrett has always been a winner in the eyes of the fans.

Jarrett was born and raised in Hickory, NC and still makes this area his home. He played a lot of sports in high school and was offered a golf scholarship to the University of South Carolina, but instead chose racing. His first taste of "Cup" racing came in 1984 in a Jimmy Means owned car and he became a full-time driver in 1987. He drove for greats Cale Yarborough, Wood Brothers and Joe Gibbs before finding the most success with Robert Yates Racing. From 1996 through 2002 he finished in the Top-10 including a championship in 1999. He won the Daytona 500 three times (1993, 1995, 2000).

To date Jarrett has earned 16 poles, 32 victories and 260 Top-10s in 667 starts.

But he isn't just a good driver, Jarrett is also a true southern gentleman.

He won the True Value Man of the Year in 2000 for his charity work on behalf of the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. He was also involved in lesser- known, but no less important, charities. For instance, in 1996 Jarrett was part of fundraising for the Brenner Children's Hospital and for Carly Brayton, the son of Scott Brayton, killed in a practice crash as Indianapolis.

Jarrett will begin his new career later in the season when he joins the ESPN/ABC broadcast team.

Nationwide

Sharpie Mini 300 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN

For co-owner/driver Kevin Harvick, leading the Nationwide Series is twice as much fun in 2008. Although Harvick is a two-time series champion (2001, 2006), he did that in someone else's equipment (Richard Childress Racing). This time, Harvick is driving a Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, owned by Kevin and wife Delana Harvick.

KHI began four years ago, from scratch, and is now for the first time on top of the standings. His third straight Top-5 finish earned him a 25-point lead over 2007 series champion Carl Edwards. The team also is developing young talent and has put 23-year-old Cale Gale in a second Chevrolet on a part-time basis.

In 16 starts at Bristol, Harvick owns four wins, 10 Top-fives and 12 Top-10 finishes.

"Bristol is just short track racing," said Harvick. "Most of us come from short track racing, so it's always fun to get back on these tracks and earn a few more donuts on the doors. I always enjoy racing at Bristol."

However, it is Edwards who brings the defending champion's crown to the 0.533- mile short track. He edged Matt Kenseth by 0.264 seconds. Harvick finished eighth.

Beware, Kyle Busch is in the race and he finished third last year. As well as he is driving, it would be hard not to pick him to win the race. In last week's race, Busch led 153 of 197 laps before a suspension failure with 25 laps to go dropped him to 24th place.

There are also a couple of youngsters to watch, after all, this is supposed to be a development series. Twenty-three year-old Kelly Bires is 10th overall after a 12th-place finish in Atlanta and 24-year-old Brad Keselowski in 11th in the standings.

Keselowski was in the running for his first career Nationwide Series victory at California when Mark Martin began a chain reaction crash that took out both Brad and Edwards, who were one-two at the time.

There were just seven laps to go and Edwards caught leader Keselowski, but had problems passing him. That allowed Martin and Greg Biffle to catch up and make it a four-car race.

But Martin hit the rear bumper of Edwards on lap 195 and it sent him spinning into Keselowski. The two leaders spun leaving Martin in the lead and a green- white-checker finish ahead. Martin won the race, but quickly acknowledged his driving error.

"I've got to apologize before we do any celebrating to Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski," said Martin. "I ran into the back of Carl and he lost control. I hate it."

There will be plenty of accidents and apologies this week, that's what makes Bristol racing so much fun.

FORMULA ONE

Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park Circuit - Melbourne, Australia

It's a new season, with new rules, but the same teams are expected to fight for the 2008 Formula One drivers and manufacturers championships.

The 2007 Formula One season saw some great competition on the track between the two Ferrari drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and McLaren Mercedes "teammates" Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

There was also a spy scandal between these two teams which filled up time between events and ended with McLaren being kicked out of the manufacturer's championship. And a feud between Hamilton, Alonso and Ron Dennis that probably cost them a championship.

This season should also be a struggle between Ferrari and McLaren.

Ferrari has kept its same driver lineup and its new F2008 model will be very similar to last year's model. The wheel base will be slightly shorter and side pods were added to aid engine cooling, but it will look much the same as the F2007. Raikkonen's car will have the No.1 on the side and the confidence from being the defending champion should make him even tougher in 2008.

"Anyone who thinks I'm now happy and satisfied is mistaken," said Raikkonen. "It has never been fun for me to drive for a fifth or sixth-place finish. I'm here to win."

However, should he stumble, Massa could easily take the reins and a title. The Brazilian finished fourth in 2007 with three wins and six poles. If not for DNFs in Canada and Italy, Massa would have been right in the mix heading to the final event.

While Raikkonen and Ferrari won the 2007 titles, by all rights it should have been McLaren and Hamilton taking the accolades. Hamilton burst on the scene with nine consecutive podium finishes and heading into the final two events held a comfortable 12-point lead. But a spin out in China and a seventh-place finish in Brazil left the rookie one point short of the championship.

It didn't help Hamilton that he and "teammate" Alonso were feuding for most of the season. Or that Alonso and team boss Ron Dennis didn't speak to each other through the second half of the year.

The situation was resolved after the season as Alonso went back to Renault where he had won two titles. He is replaced by youngster Heikki Kovalainen giving the team plenty of talent, but little experience.

The biggest unknown for 2008 is what the return of two-time World Champion Alonso will do for the Renault team.

Alonso's teammate this year is another rookie, Nelson Piquet Jr., son of the three-time World Champion (1981,1983,1987).

Although the car is not yet up to Ferrari and McLaren, the Spaniard might be worth half-a-second. At McLaren, Alonso once claimed he brought six-tenths of a second to the McLaren in preseason testing. If that's the case, the "fired- up" two-time champion might just put Renault back in the middle of the fray.

Also competitive, but well behind Ferrari and McLaren is BMW and drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. They should compete with Renault for "best of the rest."

The rest of the "field fillers" are just that. One shouldn't expect much from Williams, Red Bull, Toyota, Honda, Force India or Super Aguri. For Super Aguri just getting to the starting grid all season will be a "win" as the team has major financial problems.

The fun begins Sunday on the 3.295-mile, Albert Park Circuit.