California hopes to prevent track surface issues that plagued ’08 race

Two years ago the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series embarked on a West Coast swing to California and Las Vegas hoping to capitalize on the momentous, emotional Daytona 500 win by Penske Racing’s Ryan Newman. It was the Indy Car mogul Penske’s first victory at the most famous track in NASCAR, and an emotional Newman proclaimed the win “big”.

NASCAR’s trip to California—the track since renamed Auto Club Speedway—was marred by rainy conditions which caused water to seep through the track, delaying the race until Monday afternoon. With the “weepers” in the track solved by Monday, Carl Edwards went on to win the race, claiming his first win of the ’08 season.

Fast forward to last weekend, where all was great at Daytona until a pothole developed on the 2.5-mile oval. Two separate delays of a combined two hours marred the race Ken Squire dubbed “The Great American Race” years ago.

NASCAR now moves to California, where they hope the track will hold up, to avoid two straight weeks of embarrassment. Here are some of my thoughts and stories to keep an eye on as the weekend progresses.

1. Will the marriage of Matt Kenseth and Todd Parrott work?
Kenseth is the defending race winner at Auto Club Speedway. Last season the 2003 Winston Cup champ started the season with back-to-back wins. He and brand new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer were on top of the NASCAR world.

Now, 365 days later, Kenseth hits the pavement in California with a new man atop his pit box. Todd Parrott, the same man who led Dale Jarrett to a Cup title in 1999, is taking perch atop the No. 17 pit box, effective this weekend.

Kenseth clicked with good friend Robbie Reiser, winning the Winston Cup title in 2003, but after Reiser received a promotion last year Kenseth and Blickensderfer became a team. Although Kenseth faltered late in the season, missing the Chase and finishing fourteenth in the final standings, hope was high coming into 2010 because of the way Blickensderfer and Kenseth started 2009.

Now it’s a whole new set up for Kenseth. Will Parrott be able to parlay his expertise into wins for Kenseth? We’ll find out this weekend at a track Kenseth normally performs well at.

2. Will Jimmie Johnson regain his championship form or was the Daytona 500 a sign of things to come?
Jimmie Johnson’s campaign for five straight Cup titles got off to a less than stellar start. He blew a tire just after the race reached its midway point, and he never recovered. Finally, a broken rear axle rendered the No. 48 car to a 35th place finish.

Is Johnson, NASCAR’s seemingly untouchable champ, finally showing signs of his human side? I know it’s just one race, but it was a rare DNF for the man dubbed “Superman” by his peers. If Johnson continues to get hit with bad luck it could mean the end of his dominance of the sport. At least I hope it will.

I expect to see Johnson and the No. 48 team up front this week, but if they don’t have a good week, it could be the sign of an unusually long West Coast trip for the four-time defending champ.

3. Will Danica Patrick finish this week’s Nationwide Series Race?
“Danica-mania” swept the NASCAR world last weekend as the Indy Car star made her first foray into stock-car racing. She finished 35th after getting caught up in a 12-car accident after 67 laps in the Nationwide (nee Busch) Series event.

ESPN made sure everyone knew about Danica, making some regular drivers a little skeptical of the biased coverage. “Maybe ESPN could cover Danica on ESPN2 and the other 50 plus cars on ESPN Classic,” an angry Regan Smith said last weekend.

Kyle Busch added, “If there are people who want to hear about Danica, take advantage of that and show the less-funded teams, the underprivileged people that want to have funding so they can race the rest of the year. Danica’s only going to be here for 12 races or whatever it is this year.”

Ahh, can you feel the love?

This weekend Danica will forget everything she ever learned about drafting and head into the seemingly normal realm of oval racing. Will she drift to the back of the pack and try to get experience or will she move up and race with the big boys?

4. Can NASCAR rebound from Daytona’s track issues to woo fans in week two?
NASCAR President and CEO Brian France visited the FOX booth during the first delay in action last week and proclaimed the Daytona 500 as, “one of the best ever.” Up to that point, the action wasn’t terrible, but I must admit it wasn’t exactly great either.

The two delays bored casual fans that tuned in, and had to even bore some diehard fans—myself included. NASCAR, in desperate need of positive PR, needs fans to tune in and stay tuned in at the track numerous reporters consider the most unexciting on the circuit.

Look for NASCAR’s best to mix it up on one of the widest surfaces they will visit. I fully expect Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch and Kenseth to be up front during this race. And of course I think we’ll see Busch make a few daring moves in the 250 lap event. As long as the track holds up that is.
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NASCAR’s new, uniform starting times mean this weekend’s race will start at 3 p.m. As long as there are no track issues, expect the post race comments from fans and writers alike to be a little more positive than they were last weekend. NASCAR needs it now more than ever.