|| *Comments on the 2011 Lucas Oil 150:* View the most recent comment <#55> | Post a comment <#post> 1. potatosalad48 posted: 02.25.2011 - 11:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Surprisingly, james buescher failed to qualify for this race. 2. Jabber1990 posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch's first win of 2010 and his 25th Truck win overall 3. 18fan posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^ I lol when I read that. This was a great race for rookies: David Mayhew qualified 5th and ran there for the first run, then had a flat tire, fought back and was running 11th when he broke a fuel pump. Cole Whitt finished 6th in his first race for his team(he borrowed a truck after he DNQ at Daytona) Justin Johnson finished 8th in his series debut and his teammate Dusty Davis was in the top 15 until he was involved in a wreck. Joey Coulter finished 9th in only his second series start. Brad Sweet and Nelson Piquet Jr both came from a lap down to finish 11th and 13th AND: Jason White came from a lap down to get a top 10 finish. Besides that, another crappy Phoenix truck race that was won for the 5th year in a row by a Cup driver. After Kvapil's second crash of the race(his seventh caution caused in three races this year), everybody seemed to forget how to drive. 4. 18fan posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) To clarify, I lol when I read that Buescher failed to qualify. 5. Eric posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nascar really needs to put a limit on how many truck or Nationwide races a cup regular can get. Cole Whitt gets his first ever top 10 in the truck series. Justin Johnson gets a top 10 in his first ever Truck Series start. 6. JP88 posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) James Buescher article on contending for the championship is pretty valid...someone just forgot to qualify for the race...lol ^Actually in all reality why wasn't he in a locked in truck after last year, was there a point swap? It's sad because Norm Benning made the race 3 and a half seconds of the pole speed and Buescher was just 8 tenths off...stupid Top 35 [25 in trucks] rule. Boy did this race blow...Busch and Bowyer, if those wave of accidents didn't happen at the end I could of swore those 2 were the only ones on the track. Bodine gets in another wreck...I wish they interviewed him And also Travis Kvapil is in a huge hole. 29th in pts, the worst position of anyone who is getting pts in the trucks with 2 starts. Even Norm Benning has more points... It sure doesn't help when you can't go a race without blowing a tire...what's that, between the Daytona 250, 500 and tonight's race Kvapil has blow what 7 tires and all of them have brought out a caution...wtf are they doing to his tires...CONSPIRACY!!! 7. Anonymous posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR needs a 107 rule in place for those with "guaranteed" spots in the field. If a car doesn't post a time within 107% of the pole speed during a race weekend up to qualifying, they lose their exemption, in which case the next fastest car not locked into the show get in. 8. 00andJoe posted: 02.26.2011 - 1:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #7 - That's a good idea. The catch is that if you turn in a 0.000 (aka DNF), do you still get in? What about a DNS? Do you only have to present the car for qualifying if you have technical problems and still get in? If so slow cars might 'have something break'... 9. Bronco posted: 02.26.2011 - 1:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Truck race before the scheduled reconfiguration of PIR. The Cup and Nationwide cars will get to test it out in November, but it won't be until next year for the Trucks to race on the new layout. Hopefully it will create better racing here since this and NHIS have got to be two of the worst tracks that all three series run at. Progressive banking in the corners sure would be nice. The two Cup drivers that finished 1-2 in last fall's race here did so again in reverse order. 10. Anonymous posted: 02.26.2011 - 2:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was really bad. Were there ANY on track passes in the top 5 at any point? 11. Watto posted: 02.26.2011 - 3:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "NASCAR needs a 107 rule in place for those with "guaranteed" spots in the field." Can't say I agree with that. The rule is built so that teams can earn a spot based on race performance. While it gets shady in the Nationwide and Truck series due to lack of full time teams, it'd be a crime to make someone like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or Kyle Busch go home because of a part failure or tire failure in qualifying or something like that. Things happen in racing. That's why we had second round qualifying. NASCAR doesn't give second qualifying chances anymore, which makes the 107% rule pretty flawed. 12. CBASS posted: 02.26.2011 - 8:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was a borefest turned wreckfest. Honestly, outside the top 2, there was some awesome racing, but people tend to forget things like that when Cup drivers are dominating the entire time. Only 1 lead change, and that was on pit-road. Norm Benning actually had a sponsor. Awesome run by the VAR guys. Everyone had written them off as some short-track dudes who bought a existing truck team that would just struggle, but they definitely impressed everyone tonight. 13. beau posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) you can take away the ability to earn points, which is great, but that won't stop cup drivers from stealing wins from lower series drivers. -_- 14. Greg G posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wish NASCAR would just go back to the top 40 speeds (OR 32 in Trucks) and then fill out the field with provisionals like the old days. If you are faster than a 'top 35' Car you should make the race. If someone can't run because of a problem and does not have a provisional then they go home. I don't care if its Jimmy Johnson or Joe Blow. If you arn't fast enought to qualify then you deserve to go home. Also with this stupid top 35 rule, how are teams like Steven Wallace allowed to make the first 5 races. That Number was with a different owner/driver last year. There should be no swaping of points between cars during the season or after. 15. Dodge posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Greg, I don't think we will ever see provisional back unfortunately. With the new wave of fans coming in, they would whine that they don't understand how the provisionals would work but not try to learn. Same reason why we have this screwed up points system, 43-1. I don't like it, I spent considerable time learning the old system when I became a fan but this new wave appear they don't really car about NASCAR history much. As for the person who said NASCAR needs the 107 rule. Wrong, some teams don't have the funds to go all out. Thats what NASCAR started as back all those years ago with the haves and havenots. And as for Bronco: Not every track will produce YOUR kind of racing so leave NHMS alone. With Bruton as owner, I think he may do something to the track to makie racing better for goons like you. I personally don't mind the racing at NHMS, I prefer it over the road courses. 16. TeamPlayersBlue posted: 02.26.2011 - 11:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love flat track racing but the second half of this race was one of the worst Ive seen in my entire life in any series. Chevrolet looks strong this year for the truck series, and the championship battle should be the best in years. Kahne will be tough in the 18 Truck at Darlington but Im sure we will see a better race there than last night. 17. chris posted: 02.26.2011 - 11:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I hope when they make changes to phoenix they don't screw it up. Turn it into one of those quad ovals, so they are all the same thing. I liked Phoenix cause it was different. Please don't change it too much and take away what makes phoenix the desert mile. 18. awesomegordonfan posted: 02.26.2011 - 11:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @ Eric... NASCAR should just stop giving owner points to teams when Cup guys race in different series. That will increase the level of competition by far. 19. 18fan posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) One positive about this race: No Start and Parks. 20. rw posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow I am so glad I missed this race. 21. Dodge posted: 02.26.2011 - 12:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I feel bad for Kvapil but for Randy Moss Motorsports I am enjoying their struggles. What they did to Skinner was pathetic. Blame him for that team struggling. Last year was a horrible year, I understand that. But they had an engineer as the crew chief. I like that they gave someone a chance but when it wasn't working, they should of made a change and hired an experienced crew chief. Instead they get rid of the driver in January and bring in an experienced crew chief with a new driver. I know Moss more than likely is there in name only so that would mean that David Dollar is the one to blame for that. 22. Cooper posted: 02.26.2011 - 1:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle put a stinkin' on the field. How can he be so good in the truck/Nationwide series but only be above average in the Cup series? Brad Keselowski Racing starts the season off rough. Two races, two wrecked trucks. Actually Brad's streak has reached four. His truck wrecked at Daytona in the trucks, he wrecked saturday and sunday for penske and then parker kligerman wrecked again yesterday. Terrible start to the season. 23. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 02.26.2011 - 1:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer stink up the field... *yawn* Hopefully the NW and Cup races will be better than this one. On another note, we got to see something that happened a lot in the past. Todd Bodine spun off Austin Dillon's #3 bumper, adding another picture to the portfolio of times that a Bodine spun off the #3's front bumper. 24. Bronco posted: 02.26.2011 - 2:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I feel bad for Kvapil but for Randy Moss Motorsports I am enjoying their struggles. What they did to Skinner was pathetic. Blame him for that team struggling." Agreed, Skinner struggled in 2010 for the same reason as Hornaday - both lost their crew chiefs from the previous year to KBM which dominated 2010. Buescher missing the race has to be considered an extreme shocker, given his good runs in the Trucks last year and that he qualified on time for most of them. Unfortunately for him, the Trucks this week have the fullest entry list, while Nationwide is down 3 cars and Cup will have only one car going home. Also, why was JJC not in this race? 25. Dodge posted: 02.26.2011 - 3:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JJC is choosing to run in the Nationwide series this year in what maybe fulltime. She worked a deal with the Chase Mattioli team to run the 10 with her owner points from last year if I understood correctly. As for Buescher, he was not locked in because the 31 did not attempt all 25 races last year. They would be locked in after I believe the 4th race this year if they are in the top 25 in owner points which appear won't be easy now. And the reason why the Nationwide entry list is low is the teams on the West Coast that would try some of the races is that they haven't built a New Car, they are probably waiting till they can buy a car at a cheap price. 26. Corn off the Cobb posted: 02.26.2011 - 3:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great idea by JJCR to give the owner points to a deserving, talented driver that is desperate for funding like Chase Mattioli. He'll be able to keep the #10 locked in for sure. 27. ii posted: 02.26.2011 - 4:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How about whoever gets a qualifying lap in makes the race? That way shoestring budget teams can earn more money and compete with KBM, KHI, TM, and VAR. 28. Dodge posted: 02.26.2011 - 5:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How about whoever gets a qualifying lap in makes the race? That way shoestring budget teams can earn more money and compete with KBM, KHI, TM, and VAR. I believe that is how the races were when NASCAR started. The first Southern 500 had like 70 entries in it. If they did it now, think of the purses in the races if everyone that wanted to run would get to race. The small teams would be gone quickly. 29. Benny posted: 02.26.2011 - 7:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle busch needs to stop competing in all the truck races and nationwide races. 30. Neal posted: 02.26.2011 - 7:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow if you thought this race sucked, Kyle's about to win the Nationwide race after leading the damn thing wire-to-wire. Hey NASCAR, thanks for your stupid run for one rule change which has a net effect of fscking ZERO. 31. Eric posted: 02.26.2011 - 8:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Beal, I agree the Nationwide series race is even worse. 32. Eric posted: 02.26.2011 - 8:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) awesomegordonfan, I agree with you, but it will never happen. It caused by the track owners thinking that they need cup regulars to sell race tickets. One thing that could be done is Only allow cup regulars 10 Truck series races and 20 Nationwide series races. The 2nd thing that needs to be done is limit the amount of cup regulars in a Truck series or Nationwide series race. 33. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pretty much the only exciting part about the NW race was when Edwards nearly got by Kyle a couple of laps towards the finish. I absolutely can't stand either driver, but the only part that had me excited was when they were racing side-by-side for a brief moment. 34. 12345Dude posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I like the provisionalâ??s. Yes it's good for the sport. They do it, for this very reason. Let's say Dollar General is spending all this money to sponsor Kyle for this race. And then they don't the have the 33rd best qualifying speed. Sponsors will be afraid to spend big money, if there car doesn't have a "guaranteed" spot. It makes sense. 35. Greg G posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I have the perfect soultion for all the cup drivers in the under series....more stand alone races for NNS and CWTS. The best race weekend i ever went to was the Busch, Truck race at Milwaukee a few years ago. I did not have to spend a fourtun on hotel rooms or tickets and the racing was great. I understand that the tracks want the cup guys to sell tickets, but to have most race weekends with two or three series racing means the cup guys will be in the show. Then there will not be the new wave of drivers coming up to watch. I just wish that we could see some of the great drivers around the country to get a chance to make it big. With Speed and ESPN only covering the big 3, We will never know who the next Johnson or Busch or Earnhardt will be, unless the family has a lot of money to get to the big show. There are divers here in Florida that could be just as good as the cup guys if they had a chance to drive good cars. But the tracks and sponser want the NAMES. Thank goodness for ARCA. 36. DaleSrFanForever posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just can't believe the way NASCAR has allowed the vultures to destroy the Truck and NWide Series. They each used to have a unique product, now it is the same people trying to get their brief moment of glory before Sunday when they are just role players in the Jimmie Johnson Show. 37. 18fan posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The people to blame for the decline of these series are the sponsors and the fans that only go if Cup drivers are running. The sponsors only want to put money behind the big names so teams are forced to have big names drive their cars and the racetracks need attendance and Cup drivers help that, so unfortunately this problem will not go away until NASCAR puts a limit on how many races Cup drivers can run in lower series. It sucks but it is reality. 38. Eric posted: 02.26.2011 - 9:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just hope Nascar does more Nationwide changes before Chase Elliott is able to run a full Nationwide schedule in 2014. The cup series at that time will be close for some new blood. 4 of the Drivers that were in the 2010 chase, will be 43 years old or older by the 2014 season ends. That age may mean a driver may decline soon in skills, or may retire soon. I am saying that because in that Jeff Burton will be 47 years old. Greg Biffle will be 45 in December 2014. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart will be 43 years old during the 2014 season. In racing, you don't know when a driver will stop winning or decline a lot. Dale Sr. was very competitive at the of his death despite being 2 months away from his 50th Birthday. Mark Martin is the current example of a driver that was very competitive at the age of 50. Not of driver is like that. Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty are prime examples. 39. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I can see why sponsors would only want to be associated with the accomplished drivers, because they will likely be the ones to bring them the most publicity. But I don't think it would hurt for them to take a chance on a youngster every once in a while. Even though he hasn't done much in Cup yet, Brad Keselowski was able to get Cup teams to notice him because NW sponsors took a chance on him. I'm hoping the same can work out for many other talented young drivers. 40. Schwab posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Matt Crafton extends his streak of consecutive top 10 finishes to 18 races. 41. irony posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The truck series looks much stronger from last year. If only we could be rid of Milka Benning. 42. Andre posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Randy Moss Motorsports has had a terrible start to 2011 for sure with Kvapil and their other truck with Tayler Malsam hasn't even made a race yet. 43. 18fan posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) RCRandPenskeGuy, I totally agree, but the sponsors don't think the way we do in terms of young drivers. 44. Spen posted: 02.26.2011 - 10:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not to sound stupid, but what is VAR? 45. Anonymous posted: 02.26.2011 - 11:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #44- VAR - Vision Aviation Racing, the 15 and 51 (formarly Billy Ballew Motorsports) #30- Actually, there has been an impact - the number of "Buschwhackers" IS down. The catch is it's exposing the low number of competitive teams in NW...but that's the other series. 46. Dodge posted: 02.26.2011 - 11:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not to sound stupid, but what is VAR? That is short for Vision Aviation Racing. The #'s 15 and 51 that were previously Billy Ballew Motorsports. 47. DaleSrFanForever posted: 02.27.2011 - 12:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eric, Good post. Drivers can certainly be competitive into their 50s. Another example to think about is Bobby Allison who was still competitive at nearly 50 despite driving for the Stavola Brothers which were a start up team when he drove for them, and never really materialized into a contender. But I think there are two factors that can cause decline that aren't related to age: Distractions and equipment. As drivers approach their 50s, and realize they have more racing behind them than ahead of them, they realize if they want to maximize the amount of money they can make off their name, they need to do it then, before they retire. The sad fact is once you retire, people forget about you. Another aspect of those distractions that is somewhat related is the realization that if they want to have a successful business after they retire, they have to get it started while they are active and can get more funding based off their names. Usually this business is owning race teams, which takes a ton of focus away. This was especially the case for Petty (as he tried to maintain Petty Enterprises so he could run it after he quit) and Darrell (who admitted he started his team in '92 with the intentions of driving a few more years, then handing it over to someone else as he became a car owner after retirement). It also hurt the ending of Cale Yarborough's career as he quit winning once he left Ranier. Earnhardt also took this idea, but it didn't seem to affect him as much. But then again, he is the exception to just about every rule in racing. The other aspect is equipment. First of all, the drivers that were driving their own start up teams suffered because driving and owning race cars are two totally different animals. There has been pretty much nobody that has been consistently good as both. Secondly, for those who don't leave for their own team, they face two issues in terms of equipment. Some people feel loyalty towards owners that took chances on them, and stick around even as their team falls behind the times (Harry Gant is a good example of this). The other issue is teams are hesitant to hire older drivers because they would rather have a younger driver that they can make a long term investment in. The result is Bobby Allison driving at the end of his career for the start up Stavolas (and still doing decent because he was that good which, btw, is a reason I feel he deserves to be in the HOF before DW, he could win in mid pack cars), DJ having to jump to the pre-Kauffmann garbage pile that was MWR, Ricky Rudd driving in '07 for the corpse of RYR, DW driving for Travis Carter etc. And another factor that should be mentioned is the Law of Averages for Debilitating Wrecks catching up to some of these guys. It isn't as much of a factor nowadays with the safety improvements, but up until 2004, you could count on at least one or two wrecks every year that either killed a driver, or debilitated them badly (usually a head injury). And the longer you raced, the better the chances you would get in one of these. That's what happened to Earnhardt. After being lucky with a lot of really bad crashed that only caused relatively minor injuries (by "minor", I mean injuries that would heal competely and not affect their long term driving) throughout his career such as Pocono '79 and '82, Talladega '96 and '98, back to back weekends at Charlotte in '98 where he wrecked wickedly, and the Atlanta '99 crash that broke off a chip of one of his neck bones, it finally bit him for good in '01. This also happened to Bobby Allison, who by the Grace of God was able to live through his horrible wreck. This is also why Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett retired relatively young and still in their primes in the 1960s. All these reasons are why we have no good test case for how long a driver can be competitive in NASCAR. I thought Mark might be a good case study, but then the whole "owners afraid of a long term investment" thing bit him and has resulted in ugliness with the whole Mark-Kahne-Hendrick triangle. But here is something to think about: It is far fetched, but still something consider: Roush Racing in 2012. Obviously their 2012 4 driver lineup will involve Trevor Bayne and not David Ragan. Trevor will most likely take over the #6 car. BUT... Biffle and Edwards are in contract years. Now there is less that a 1% chance that either will leave Roush. Where can they go and be in comparable equipment (unless Gibbs starts a 4th team, which they don't want to do), and who can Jack get on the same driving level as them that have proven they can fit into the Roush Way of Doing Things (no easy feat! that guy is a d**k). But what if one of them does walk, suddenly leaving two openings. Would Roush take Mark back in? Put him back in his #6 car that he made famous? Probably not, Jack is about as sentimentmal as Scrooge. But wouldn't that be cool if it did happen? And that would be a good test case for drivers in their mid 50s in good equipment. Yes, it is EXTREMELY unlikely, but it is fun to think about. 48. Talon64 posted: 02.28.2011 - 5:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 3 rookies finished in the top 10 in this race: Cole Whitt in 6th (Red Bull Racing developmental driver; if only Kahne were staying in the #4 for an extra season, he might be ready for Cup in 2013), Justin Johnson in 8th (one half of the most comical names for teammates in NASCAR history, but a heck of a 1st start) and Joey Coulter in 9th (driving for RCR). 49. 00andJoe posted: 03.01.2011 - 9:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF- "driving and owning race cars are two totally different animals. There has been pretty much nobody that has been consistently good as both." The exception to that, of course, being Alan Kulwicki. 50. DaleSrFanForever posted: 03.02.2011 - 10:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "The exception to that, of course, being Alan Kulwicki." Definitely. 51. Schwab posted: 03.12.2011 - 7:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ron Hornaday Jr. tied Jack Sprague for the all-time series record by scoring his 192nd career top 10 finish. Hornaday got his 192nd top 10 in his 277th series start while Sprague scored his 192nd and, at this time, final top 10 finish in his 290th series start at New Hampshire in 2008. 52. JeffGordonMegaFan posted: 10.21.2011 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) i totally agree with #19 53. Daniel posted: 05.20.2012 - 10:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In using the fastest 36: #25 Tayler Malsam, #27 Chris Eggleston, #31 James Buescher, #85 Brent Raymer Out using the fastest 36: #07 B.J. McLeod, #5 Travis Kvapil, #10 Chase Mattioli, #57 Norm Benning 54. Anonymous posted: 11.05.2016 - 10:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Was it ever said why the truck race at Phoenix was run in February in 2011 instead of November? 55. Rich posted: 08.31.2020 - 6:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip were the commentators. Ray Dunlap and Hermie Sadler were the pit road reporters. Krista Voda was the host of the thirty minute pre-race show. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: