Charlotte - Coca Cola 600

[Crony]

Qualifying

Labonte, B over Jarrett -1.40

Labonte had a fast test.
Labonte is 9-0 vs Jarrett last 9 qualifying sessions at Charlotte.

[heartman]

RACE

McMurray over 7.5, 55 tw 50
Sadler over E.JR. 60 tw 50
Sadler to win race 10 tw 150

wagerweb and Pinnacle

[thegoat]

jeff gordon +950 1 unit
kenseth -30 jarrett 1 unit

[Chillin-the-Most]

McMurray over 7½? I was thinking of taking a lead on him pre qualifying - practice. This race produces a lot of new winners and he has always been fairly solid as well as solid this year. Tell me what you see if you dont mind Heart.

[mvbski]

I was thinking of taking a lead on him pre qualifying

Great minds think alike [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I also like him alot for this race.

[toastonastick]

Biffle +1200 1 unit

[heartman]

Chillin, I wasn't impressed with his performance saturday night, and his practice times were near the bottom. With the strength that the Hendrick team showed and the Roush/Yates motors looking strong, I just don't see him running top 5. His 4th place last year had a lot to do with pit strategy. The Gannasi teams performance at Texas worries me, but I have him pegged for an 8th to 12th place finish. I've been burned on early wagers before, so we'll see.

[heartman]

I know that practice times can be very deceiving, but his OPEN practice times were absolutely horrible. 25th of 28 cars. Eric McClure was faster. No way do I play the under here. Plus playing the over puts the crash factor or blown motor or cut tire element on my side. Good Luck!

[heartman]

Looking around Pit Lane, we now have the most Nascar/racing talent ever assembled anywhere, at any time. Just my opinion. Enjoy it now, it can't last forever.

[h_upmann]

Sorry if this looks like "piling on", Heartman, but McMurray has 1 win, 2 top fives and 4 top tens in 5 starts at Charlotte. This team has been real solid this year and the last 15 races of last year. I sure wouldn't be fading him and will probably end up betting him.

GLTA!

[Chillin-the-Most]

Originally posted by: heartman
Looking around Pit Lane, we now have the most Nascar/racing talent ever assembled anywhere, at any time. Just my opinion. Enjoy it now, it can't last forever.

Totally agree Heartman, this is great.

Looks like Junior fired his crew chief. A little surprising to me. Obviously they havent contended for many wins, but it seems like they are heading in that direction. I was going to look real closely at him this week considering the 15 did well there last year, but this kind of move doesnt instill much confidence.

[h_upmann]

Originally posted by: Chillin-the-Most
Looks like Junior fired his crew chief. A little surprising to me.

If true, it wouldn't surprise me. Junior's always been a crybaby. I'd be a little surprised that stepmom signed off on it though.

[heartman]

Hup, No problem, I wouldn't have bet it at 9.5., but 7.5 , I like my chances. I'm going to pile on this crew chief change by E.JR. though. I think the crew chief is very important for this race. 600 miles, racing from day to night. The correct adjustments will make all the difference. Bad race for that kind of change.

RACE

E.JR over 9.5, 50 tw 41.67

wagerweb

[Chillin-the-Most]

http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/8500834

Winless Earnhardt shuffles out crew chief
May 24, 2005
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Still seeking his first win of the season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Tuesday replaced his crew chief in an attempt to turn his team around.

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Steve Hmiel, the longtime technical director at Dale Earnhardt Inc., will replace Pete Rondeau on an interim basis beginning with this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hmiel has often stood in as Earnhardt's spotter on race day.

Rondeau took over at the beginning of the season after a shakeup at Dale Earnhardt Inc. sent Junior's longtime crew to teammate Michael Waltrip.

Earnhardt got Waltrip's crew and seemed to be adapting to the new leadership after finishing third in the season-opening Daytona 500. Instead, the team slipped into a terrible slump and dropped as low as 27th in the points standings.

Earnhardt has just five top 10 finishes in 11 races this year, but in a more telling sign, he did not battle for the wins at either Daytona or Talladega Superspeedway -- the two tracks he has dominated the past few years.

"We are capable of consistently winning and are focused on that as a company," Richie Gilmore, vice president of DEI, said in a statement. "We are going to concentrate our efforts on improved results with the No. 8 car."

Earnhardt, NASCAR's most popular driver, heads into Sunday's race ranked 11th in the standings. He is still in contention to qualify for NASCAR's 10-race championship playoffs, but the crew chief change shows that DEI has gotten nervous about where Earnhardt's team currently stands.

"We have high expectations of how our teams are to perform and we will utilize every resource we have to win races," Gilmore said. "Our primary objective is to get (Earnhardt) and (Waltrip) solidly into the Chase for the Championship and as a company, we're focusing everything we have at that goal."

The shakeup of crews at DEI before the season raised eyebrows in the NASCAR garage. Earnhardt only had experience working with the tandem of Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr., his uncle and cousin.

The Eurys led Earnhardt to the Busch Series title in 1998 and '99, and went with him to the Cup series in 2000. Earnhardt went on to win 15 races with the Eurys, including the Daytona 500 last season, and finished a career-best third in the points in 2003.

But Eury Sr. was named director of competition at DEI in December and Eury Jr. was named Waltrip's crew chief. He took most of Earnhardt's crew with him to Waltrip's team.

"I guess, it's a big gamble in a way," Earnhardt said when he announced the crew changes.

Earnhardt said at the time a change was needed because he often clashed with Eury Jr.

"I really like working with Tony Jr., but, at the same time, the bad times were really, really bad," Earnhardt said. "I told him, 'I don't want to lose you as a cousin and lose the family and friendship side of it. I don't care if we ever talk about race cars again as long as you come over to the house and we visit each other all the time.'

"I think he can have a lot more success with another race car driver than he could with me because we were so stubborn and disrespectful to each other."

Rondeau, who finished 2004 as Waltrip's crew chief and was crew chief for Earnhardt in a Busch series win, will remain with DEI.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2004-2005, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

[Crony]

Qualifying

Kenseth over Marlin

Would lay up to -1.30 on this one.

[heartman]

RACE

Biffle over Kurt Busch 50 tw 40(-125)

wagerweb

[Chillin-the-Most]

I have come full circle here. Rousch cars have been dominant on the 1.5 mile tracks. The drivers are saying the new surface makes this a lot like Texas. Biffle should be strong here, but his odds are too short to bet pre qualifying. So I am going with the Alss Star winner Mark Martin. 19-1 at Pinny. He is not driving the same car as last week, but this car did test here earlier this month and finished 20th at Texas. Plus this read from last year sold me.

LAST YEAR AT THE 600.
MAY 30, 2004 – Lowe’s Motor Speedway
COCA-COLA 600 – Started 18th, Finished 36th
Martin was one of the favorites going into the Coke 600 and for the first 200 laps of the race he did everything he could to justify the hype. Martin was running in third and honing in on second place when his second ignition box malfunctioned on lap 200, forcing the team to bring the car down pit road and lose valuable time changing out the ignition box system. In the end, Martin lost several laps and was out of contention for the win. In what would prove to be a roller coaster ride of a race for the No. 6 team, Martin started the race 18th and wasted no time making his way through the field. Running some of the fastest times on the track, Martin broke into the top 10 on just the 23rd lap. By lap 40 Martin was running in sixth position and beading down on fifth place when he radioed to his crew that he had a tire going down. The team came in the pits for an unscheduled green-flag stop on lap 43. Still, Martin was fast enough to overcome the bad luck, pitting twice out of cycle. Despite being on tires that were 20 laps older than the remainder of the field, Martin moved all the way up to third place and a caution on 159 would be the break the team needed, as it would put Martin back on the same pit sequence as the remainder of the field. Martin was one of the fastest cars in the race and was moving in on second place when he radioed that the car was ‘dead.’ He had radioed on lap 122 that he had switched to the second ignition box. On lap 200 the second box went out and the team was forced down pit road for the lengthy stop to replace the bad boxes, an extremely rare occurrence...

[toastonastick]

I like the play on Martin at those numbers. He can only go down from 19-1 IMO. This weeks race is not an impound though, you know the veterans won't put much stock in qualifying for a 600 mile race.

Good play, I didnt know pinny had him at +1900

[h_upmann]

Sadler to win pole .25 units @ +1860 (Pinnacle).