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This season in some silly attempt to hype the series NASCAR announced that they were putting the control back in the drivers hands. NASCAR tried to distance themselves as the hand of justice or the law.

NASCAR said it numerous times leading up to Daytona and it was all you heard as the series headed to California. The drivers are in control, the drivers are the law.

Well the results are in and without question NASCAR has failed this one . Blame Carl Edwards if you want, blame Brad Keselowski for being an aggressive driver that had it coming. Do whatever but it’s clear to me that this one is on NASCAR’s hands as much as anyone else.

Edwards and Keselowski have a rich history of crashes most notably last years race at Talladega where Keselowski sent Edwards’ car airborne as he took home his first career win. The two later tangled in the Nationwide Series again with Edwards being wrecked out of the event.

It’s not just Edwards that has felt the pain of being wrecked by Keselo wski. Denny Hamlin and Keselowski had a feud that highlighted the Nationwide Series last year. In the end Hamlin, who was tired of being ran into by Keselowski, exacted revenge by intentionally wrecking Keselowski in the final race of the year. It wasn’t just that Hamlin wrecked him. It’s that he said the week before he was going to. The result was no response by NASCAR as if the sanctioning body realized they had a problem but was hoping that by Hamlin getting revenge he problem would go away.

Edwards didn’t exactly say he was sorry Sunday night. Posting the following on his Facebook. Judging by the over 5,000 people who have clicked like it’s a popular sentiment on the digital side of NAS CAR.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Peachtree City native Reed Sorenson will not attempt to make Sunday’s race at Atlanta. Sorenson, who is supposed to share seat time with Brian Vickers in the Nationwide Series, was originally scheduled to attempt to run a Cup race at Atlanta for Braun Racing.

As part of Sorenson’s contract with Braun racing the 24-year old driver was to attempt five races on the Cup side including Atlanta. The team has now moved the attempt back to Texas. Sorenson is also hoping to run Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Charlotte for the team later this year.

For those wondering Sorenson has not finished higher then 27th in his last four races at Atlanta after two top 10’s in 2007. At Texas Sorenson has not managed anything better then a 24th place run in his last six tries after a 13th and 17th place finish in 2006.

Sorenson has yet to make an official appearance this season at the Cup or Nationwide level after missing the Daytona 500 in February. According to his website he’ll be in the Nationwide 32 car at Bristol. (3/20)

Popularity: 16% [?]

Earlier this year I read from one blogger that he thought Jeff Gordon would retire if he had a bad run on the track this year. To me I thought the whole notion of Gordon retiring was silly as I could have made the same case for Mark Martin, Jeff Burton or Elliott Sadler.

John Bickford, Gordon’s stepfather who oversees the four-time champion’s business affairs as general manager of Jeff Gordon Inc., told USA TODAY the four-time champion is five to six years away from retiring.

Anyone having 2010 or even 2011 as Gordon’s last Cup season can go ahead and scratch those dates out.

No longer the dominating winning driver he was Gordon is still one of the top stars in the sport and on any weekend is a contender out front. All that may be prevented by the quality of the cars his Hendrick teammates are given each week.  Gordon’s biggest rival for winning races or even championships is his teammate Jimmy Johnson who has won the last four Sprint Cup titles and the last two events of the 2010 season.

Gordon who is in a lifetime contract with Hendrick racing has 82 career wins a 2-year old daughter and another baby on the way. Even that hasn’t slowed him down and Hendrick is working on extending the contract of DuPont on the 24 car.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Matt Kenseth found himself off pit sequence for much of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motorspeedway but with some luck from a caution managed a fifth place finish.

Problems began for Kenseth as he was running near the front of the field with a tire vibration. Kenseth was forced to make an unscheuled pit stop but managed to stay on the lead lap as the yellow did not wave until later in the race.

With new crew chief Todd Parrott the #17 car has moved up to fourth in the standings while starting the year off with three straight top ten finishes.

Kenseth is hoping that the success carries over to Atlanta where he has had good runs in the past and where the Roush Ford’s have been up at the front.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Jeff Gordon ran away from the field all day Sunday at Las Vegas. While just about everyone could predict that a caution would bunch the field up I don’t know how many would have wagered that the 24 car would take just two tires on it’s final pit-stop.

The result of course led to Jimmy Johnson and the number 48 car finding it’s way to victory lane.

Gordon led 219 of the 267 laps in the event but it was in the final laps that he found the Lowe’s Chevy of Jimmy Johnson getting smaller. Kevin Harvick later found his way around Gordon for second.

It was the second win in as many weeks for Johnson and the 49th of his career.

Johnson and Gordon were easily the class of the field but had Gordon of gotten four tires it’s likely the order would have been reversed.

Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth, who found himself off pit sequence for much of the day, rounded out the top 5 with Joey Logano showing an impressive run late to take sixth.

The series heads to Atlanta next week.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dave Blaney will again be racing on Sunday after the veteran driver qualified on time again. Blaney’s team had their car from California confiscated by NASCAR and were forced to go to their other car to make the field at Las Vegas.

Blaney’s lap wasn’t like it was at California where he was the fifth fasted but he did enough to be one of the fasted seven go or go home cars. Casey Mears and Terry Cook failed to make the race on time. Much like the rides of Blaney and his Prism Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell’s neither of those cars have sponsors on them.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Drew Blickensderfer will again be a crew chief taking over for Mike Kelley as the man on the top of the pit box for the #60 car driven by Carl Edwards in the Nationwide Series.

Blickensderfer had been the crew chief for Matt Kenseth for the 2009 season when the 17 car won the first two races of the season. Following an eighth place finish at Daytona this year the driver of the 17 car asked for a change.

Blickensderfer was then replaced by Todd Parrot and put in limbo until it was announced earlier today that he would return to the Nationwide Series as the crew chief for the 60 car. The same role he held in 2008 when Carl Edwards finished second to Clint Bowyer in the point standings.

Mike Kelley will take over the role of competition driector for the Roush Fenway Nationwide efforts while Mike Beam who held that role will be elecated to sppedway specialist in the research and development department.

In other words a bunch of domino’s have been slid around the board to keep everyone happy and put them in some sort of role in which Jack Roush believes they can have success.

Blickensderfer has a lot to prove now, as anything less then the 60 car being the best of the field will lead to questions about his managing ability. Obviously the competition on the Nationwide side isn’t as tough as it is on the Sprint Cup side so Blickensderfer will need to do more then just be a top 5-10 car.

As for Matt Kenseth he will have to make the chase on the Spring Cup side and find victory lane to avoid people suspecting the problem with the team at the end of the year was the driver. Finding victory lane, making the chase and then avoiding a late season collapse are the three key ingredients in his 2010 run.

Popularity: 3% [?]

NASCAR confiscated the 66 Toyota Camry driven by Dave Blaney after yesterdays race. Blaney had qualified fifth for the race, navigated to the rear and later led three laps when everyone else pitted before pulling down pit road itself and directly into the garage area.

The official reason for the 66 cars departure from the race was engine failure but that may not have sat well with NASCAR. Blaney, a veteran of the sport, drove the car in 30 races last year and had attempted to make the Daytona 500.

Blaney drives for Prism Motorsports one of the “start and park” teams currently filling the rear of a NASCAR field.

The biggest beef with these teams is that they show up to collect a race check. To cut cost they run no longer then a fuel run before pulling themselves behind the wall.

Prism Motorsports isn’t the only team starting and parking on the circuit. Joe Nemechek has been doing much the same for his team, and on any given week five or so other teams attempt to make the race with the same idea in mind.

Even on NASCAR’s official website they noted the 66 ride as a start and park team stating that they had finished 5th in their race, referring to the fifth qualifying spot Blaney claimed on Friday.]

The decision by NASCAR to take Blaney’s car is especially tough for Prism Motorsports who currently has two cars and is trying to run two teams. Should they not return the 66 car in time for qualifying it’s possible that Blaney and company won’t even get a chance to be in the race at Las Vegas.

For what it’s worth John Darby states that NASCAR cannot predict which teams will start and park on any given weekend though I’d tell Darby he simply has to look at what cars has logos on them to get his answer.

On the other hand, NASCAR does take a look at two cars that fell outside of the top five every week so at some point you’d think the 66 or 55 cars would have garnered a look.

Of course should the car be put in the field every week (either top 35 in points or another method) maybe it would actually get some sponsors and then be able to run a full race that wasn’t titled the Daytona 500.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Following wins in their first two races together Matt Kenseth and Drew Blickensderfer appeared to be on the top of the sport. Roughly a year later the two have parted ways after Kenseth said that Blickensderfer and the team didn’t have good chemistry.

Todd Parrott will take over the top spot on the pit box this weekend in California. Parrott has guided drivers to 29 wins including Dale Jarrett’s 1999 Cup Championship.

Under Blickensderfer, Kenseth missed the “Chase” last year for the time time in his career. The two went to Daytona this year still together but following an eighth place finish in the event a change was made.

“The timing of the change is probably 100 percent my fault,” Kenseth said. “I know that I’ve been asked by Jack several times if there’s anything we needed to change on the team. … Jack talked to me in November and asked if I thought we were OK with everything we had going on, and I really did.

“I really felt like we needed to give Drew a full year and a full offseason. He was working on some things, trying to make it better. It’s really hard to explain the timing of the change. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not any good for anybody, really. It’s just kind of the way it went down.”

After the 2008 season, Blickensderfer was promoted from Nationwide Series crew chief to replace Chad Bolin, who remained with the No. 17 car as the team engineer. Bolin had replaced Robbie Reiser, the only Cup crew chief Kenseth had ever had and who is the organization’s competition director. According to insiders the two considered returning Reiser to the pit box but were afraid to take him out of his current managerial position.

Jack Roush has termed Parrott’s role as crew chief as “interim” because Parrott did such a good job overseeing the building of the organization’s restrictor-plate cars. He said Parrott’s experience as a championship crew chief with Robert Yates Racing and Dale Jarrett in 1999 was one of the reasons he is taking over the No. 17 team.

“I hope that I can just continue on, get the 17 car back to where it belongs in victory lane,” Parrott said.

Parrott was crew chief last year for part of the season with Bobby Labonte, whose car was operated by Yates Racing.

It’s been interesting. Knowing that Blickensderfer was removed from his spot created the why now factor. Ha

d he been removed at the end of last year everyone would have understood but you have to give kudos to Kenseth and Roush for stepping up and saying that the decisions was the drivers and that it was because the team seemed to be going through the motions.

It’s weird in a way. Kenseth entered this year with a pretty good chance to make the Chase if you asked me but now I feel he’s pretty much guaranteed himself a spot in it. It’s weird because “the Blick” wasn’t a bad crew chief, it’s just that the two seemed so alike that there weren’t many options for different ideas to get the car running better.

Without doubt Kenseth fans would have preferred to see Robbie Reiser back, but Todd Parrott is a pretty darn good pick too.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Paul Menard, who is scheduled to run a full season in the Nationwide Series with Roush Fenway Racing, almost saw the rain end his chances of making the first race of the year.

Menard is not guaranteed a spot in the top 35 in the Nationwide Series and would have to have made the race based on his qualifying time. Then rain came, canceling qualifying and the truck race which was to happen later last night.

To determine the starting field for the race NASCAR pulled out the rule book. Below is how the field order was determined via NASCAR.com.

The lineup would be set per the rule book, with the following parameters coming into play: The top-30 owners in the 2009 standings — or teams they had “transferred” their points to — got those spots. Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart, who won races last season, got the next two positions, followed by 2000 series champion Jeff Green.

The remaining 10 spots would go to the top 10 positions in the randomly-drawn qualifying order, if they were not already in the lineup.

Ten spots remained and they went to a draw. Menard drew a number that would have him just miss the race, and then suddenly five teams who were at the track for the chance of cashing in on 45,000 went to the NASCAR hauler and withdrew from the field.

The result put Menard back in the field.

A team manager at Roush Fenway stated that he could not talk about it and that it was confidential.

While the deal may make some question what exactly is going on here I don’t think it’s entirely a bad thing. Menard plans to run the full Nationwide schedule for Roush Fenway and is expected to be a top 5 team at the end of the year. Menard finished sixth in the standings the last time he raced a full schedule. It’s also a car with sponsor’s on it (even if they were paid for by Menards dad) that would have easily made the field had their been qualifying and perhaps best of all it’s a car that will run the full race baring accident which is more then can be said for any team that went home yesterday.

Those going home probably received around 50,000 as the payout was guaranteed to be 45,000 for running the race.

If Jack Roush did pay these teams off which it seems like he did, then it will be interesting to see how much Menard can recover of the $2.5 million plus he paid out to get him in the field.

I have to admit though I suspect that Roush is playing big picture here. He knows that he’ll get well in excess the difference should Menard remain in the seat of the 98 Fusion on the Nationwide Series this year and even more should he keep a blue oval on the front of his car past this season.

Popularity: 8% [?]