As the Gear Box opens, the racing has turned

Before we begin our first official entry of the 2017 season, I owe you, the readers of this blog, an apology.

I've wondered to myself if this blog was worth continuing. Everyone's about needing numbers to show how their audience has grown, and I've spent the offseason wondering if what I've written here was good enough going against the tidal wave of blogs and material from other NASCAR-themed outlets.

At the end of the day, I figured why not continue? With all the changes that happened with NASCAR in the offseason -- new title sponsor, new points system that rewards racing from the drop of the green flag -- it would be a disservice if I just pulled the plug.

Besides, my hometown paper stopped caring about NASCAR three years ago even though there are multiple events worth covering within a two-hour drive to the south in Las Vegas.

Someone's got to pick up the slack, right? Might as well be me, so let's get this season started.

-With the first full weekend of the new "stage racing" format in the books from Daytona, we can safely say there were a lot of things that opened some eyes, got some heads scratching and made the people say "whoa."

The biggest shocker of all came in Sunday's Daytona 500. For the first time in the race's 59 years, the winner led only one lap -- the most important one.

In his 17th try, Kurt Busch made his move at the right time and held off Ryan Blaney to win his first Daytona 500. Busch didn't get to Dale Earnhardt's mark of 20, but how it all came together was a mind-bending moment.

First, there was the stage racing, where points were earned by the top 10 (from 10 down to one) in the running order after lap 60 and again at lap 120. Kyle Busch was at the head of the field after Stage 1, and Kevin Harvick was on top after Stage 2.

Nice for them. 10 bonus points already in the bag. So where did they finish? Kyle cut a tire and ended up 38th, while Harvick got caught up in one of the multitude of wrecks and came home 22nd.

Thanks to his stage efforts (second after Stage 1, leading after Stage 2), Harvick earned 19 additional points and leaves Daytona fourth in the standings.

But here's where it's going to take some time to figure it all out: Harvick actually has 42 points -- 15 for his finish, 19 for his stage finishes, but the other eight points escape me. If you are reading and can answer at my Twitter handle or email that will appear at the end of this column, it is much appreciated.

And Kurt Busch has 56 points with this math breakdown -- 40 for first place, 5 for race win, 8 for third place after Stage 2. Three points missing.

By the time we get through Atlanta, I should have it all figured out. I hope.

-In the XFINITY and Camping World Truck races, it was more of the same. Drivers who won the first two stages were nowhere near the front at the end.

At the Powershares QQQ 300, Elliott Sadler was in front after both early stages, but finished 24th. The 20 points for the stage wins gave him the magic bullet all the way up to third in the overall points.

Race winner Ryan Reed -- who earned his second Daytona victory -- earned seven extra points for being fourth after Stage 2. He's got a nine-point cushion over Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan, who finished fifth.

-On the trucks side, Johnny Sauter was one lap from sweeping all three stages Friday night, but got caught in a 12-car pileup and finished 15th, one lap down.

Sauter's 20 bonus points pushed him to second in the points, but rookie Kaz Grala bagged his first victory and is on top of the standings.

And to think...there are 35 more weekends of this to make sense of it all. I'll be here doing my best to sort it all out,

Tom Zulewski will be at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 13th consecutive year covering the Boyd Gaming 300 and Kobalt 400 in two weeks. Follow him on Twitter @TommyZee81 or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

Round of 8 set...where did the competition go?

The Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday was a typical Chase race -- Halloween theme not withstanding. We knew there would be four more drivers eliminated, and some of them ended up being serious surprises.

Brad Keselowski looked like he drove for all he was worth. The No. 2 led 90 of the 188 laps, but didn't count on the engine collapsing under the weight of the Chase and the expectations that come with it.
The car didn't perform, so BK's dreams of a second Sprint Cup went away with it. He finished 38th.
Martin Truex Jr. -- he of the on-fire mode with two wins in the first round (Chicago, Dover) -- never had a chance to advance when his engine quit at lap 41.
Any thought of contention vanished after that as Truex would finish 40th.
Such is life in the Chase. Some go all out, others just stay out and survive. All four Joe Gibbs Racing cars did what they had to do and moved one step closer to turning Homestead-Miami Speedway into their own backyard brawl.
Denny Hamlin was the best finisher at Talladega, and his third-place run was just barely good enough to grab the final transfer spot to the round of 8. He ended up tied with Austin Dillon (who finished ninth) and won out on the basis of his Talladega finish. Dillon's best of the second round was a sixth at Kansas, so his dreams are done,
Matt Kenseth had more than enough cushion to advance and did so in spite of finishing 28th on Sunday. He was 10 points ahead of Dillon and Hamlin.
Kyle Busch was even worse in 30th, but he was good enough to get by as well. His final margin came in at plus-6.
And Carl Edwards -- still without Twitter -- was sandwiched between his teammates in 29th. He was four points clear in the end and will continue his quest for the crown.
As things shook out, NASCAR did not penalize any of the JGR cars for the "100 percent effort" rule. Apparently, they did enough and earned their participation pass to the Round of 8.
-What in the world is Kevin Harvick thinking? Post-race pictures from Talladega appeared to show him going after teammate Kurt Busch following their runs Sunday. Harvick already had his win at Kansas to get him through to the next round, and Busch ended up fourth, good enough to finish second in the standings, one point behind Jimmie Johnson.
But apparently Harvick had an issue with a post-race bump Busch gave him on track. It carried over to pit road, and let's just say things will be interesting going forward.
Harvick and Busch are the only other multiple drivers for one team in the Round of 8. Joey Logano -- Sunday's race winner -- and Jimmie Johnson are on their own as they go after the title.
Onward and upward.
-As for the other race of the weekend at Talladega, the Camping World Truck Series had its first elimination of two drivers after the Fred's 250. There were no surprises.
Non-Chaser Grant Enfinger won the race, and Timothy Peters was the highest-finishing Chaser in third. Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek were in must-win mode, but didn't come close.
Hemric finished 11th whilie Nemechek lost an engine after just 13 laps and ended up dead last in 32nd.
William Byron was the only Chaser to win a race in the Round of 8 (New Hampshire), and he'll be joined by teammate Christopher Bell (Kyle Busch Motorsports), Peters, Ben Kennedy, Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton.
Crafton already has two championships on his resume in the truck series, but he knows full well getting No. 3 in the bag will be a wholly different experience.
Will he need to win to advance to Homestead? It will be nice, but pushing too much onto the plate too soon can backfire.
Just ask Keselowski and Truex on the Cup side what that's like. It's certainly not pretty, but that's why this system works.
Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @TommyZee81 or @Tomzsports. Email tominator19@yahoo.com. He'll be heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NHRA Toyota Nationals final eliminations this Sunday.
THIS WEEK'S RACES
Martinsville Speedway (.526-mile oval), Martinsville, Virginia.
-SPRINT CUP: Goody's Fast Relief 500, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 500 laps, 263 miles.
2015 champion: Jeff Gordon
-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Alpha Energy Solutions 200, Saturday, 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.
Race distance: 200 laps, 105.2 miles
2015 champion: Matt Crafton
-XFINITY SERIES: Off until Nov. 5 for the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kurt Busch conquers Pocono, ends drought

Considering it had been nearly a year -- 34 races, to be precise -- since Kurt Busch last saw Victory Lane, an extra 24 hours certainly didn't make the feeling any less sweeter when he took the checkered flag Monday in the Axalta We Paint Winners 400 at Pocono Raceway.

Even with a substitute crew chief in Johnny Klausmeier on his pit box, Busch got the right read on his fuel mileage, led the final 32 laps, and held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his first Cup win since last year's first Michigan race.

Not a bad way to put yourself back in the Chase and become the ninth different race winner of the 2016 season.

And when it came to the fuel mileage, which can be an issue on the 2.5-mile triangle track, Busch was genuinely surprised when told how much he needed to save.

"I was like 'whoa. How many laps shy are we?'" Busch said in the post-race media center interview. "They said two. These are really long straightaways at Pocono and you have to manage fuel as well as maintaining lap time."

In the end, Busch had enough fuel to not only earn his 28th Sprint Cup win by just over a second over Earnhardt Jr., but he completed the burnout with enough fuel left to park the car in Victory Lane.

With the second half of the "regular season" officially under way -- only 12 races left until the Chase -- we may be on pace to have a similar number of Chase qualifiers as we did last year (13). 

Kyle Busch may be leading the way with three wins already in defense of his championship, but there's always something new and entertaining to make you pull your hair out about the guy. Seems that a debris caution that came out while the No. 18 was leading at lap 89 was reason to bark on his radio that NASCAR was favoring rookie Chase Elliott.

Elliott assumed the lead during the pit stops and held it for the next 29 laps, but finished fourth. Busch's day took a rapid turn downhill when he got together with Ryan Newman and hit the Turn 1 wall. He would head to the garage and end up 31st.

Of course, anything other than first is never good enough for Kyle, but that's fine. Passion is good. Accepting disappointment and moving forward is much better.

In the final stat analysis, there weren't a lot of lead changes to talk about, but the racing is getting better when Pocono handles four- and five-wide racing with a few hearts that skip extra beats and leave fans wondering where the moves came from.

We'll still have our angry moments as we move forward -- see Brad Keselowski's issue with a comment Fox analyst Jeff Gordon made on his team's pit road penalty during the broadcast -- but they don't need to stick around any longer than necessary.

After all, the next race is right around the corner.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Michigan International Speedway (2-mile oval), Brooklyn, Michigan.

-SPRINT CUP: Firekeepers Casino 400, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 200 laps.

2015 champion: Kurt Busch.

-XFINITY SERIES: Menards 250 presented by Valvoline, Saturday, 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90.

Race distance: 250 miles, 125 laps.

2015 champion: Kyle Busch

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Rattlesnake 400, Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile D-shaped oval), Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 kilometers (250.5 miles), 167 laps.

2015 champion: Matt Crafton.

Kurt Busch wins pole at Las Vegas

Las Vegas may be home to Kurt Busch, but his hometown track was just as welcoming in qualifying for the Kobalt 400 on Friday.
For the second straight week, Busch won the pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after turning in a speed of 196.328 mph and time of 27.505 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Busch broke the track record in the opening round, kicking up the speed to 196.378 mph and lowering the time to 27.498.
Even with the success, Busch nearly missed out on having a shot at the pole during the second round of three-round qualifying.
“I overdrove the car in Turn 2 in the second round,” said Busch, who also won the pole at LVMS in 2010. “We had to do an extra run, and it made for an extra pressure-cooker situation. All in all, you just have to play it cool and rely on your team members.
“The way the session unfolded for us, we were in perfect position by the time we got to Round 3.”
With only five minutes available to make the best possible lap in the final round, Busch made his count, beating Joey Logano by nearly seven-hundredths of a second. Logano ran his lap around the 1.5-mile oval in 27.572 seconds and 195.851 mph.
“Two poles in a row is reason to celebrate,” Busch said. “It symbolizes our hard work during the offseason to come out of the box and sit on two poles at two mile-and-a-halves right away.”
Logano rebounded from a 26th-place qualifying run at Atlanta last week, the first with NASCAR’s new low-downforce package. The driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion said any falloff with the tires is to be determined when the 267-lap race gets under way Sunday.
“We saw some falloff yesterday when we were in race trim,” Logano said. “Today we never came out of qualifying trim. It was one lap, one lap, one lap.
“I think there will be more (tire) falloff than there was last year. It won’t be huge like last week, but there will be some, for sure.”
Matt Kenseth, a three-time race winner at Las Vegas, just missed passing Logano’s time, but still qualified third with a 27.582 at 195.780. Logano’s Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski, will join Kenseth in Row 2 after qualifying fourth (27.598,195.666).
“We had a pretty decent day, just didn’t have enough at the end,” said Keselowski, looking for his second Vegas win in three years (2014). “I tried too hard to get the last little bit of pickup, and it wasn’t quite there.”
Austin Dillon and defending Kobalt 400 race winner Kevin Harvick will make up the third row. Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and A.J. Allmendinger completed the top 12 starters.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports..

This just in...Kyle Busch is back.

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying 2015 has been one of the most stressful years in the career of Kyle Busch. He missed nearly three full months after suffering multiple broken bones following a wreck at the Daytona XFINITY race that opened the season in February.

Winning races took a back seat to regaining his health. The Chase was a distant thought, but Busch knew the sooner he could get back to full health and be cleared to race, the faster he could start the charge to get to the goal.

Win a race, get to the top 30 in points, and earn a spot for the Chase.

It took all of five races, but Busch can kick the first part of the mission off the to-do list.

Taking the lead away from Jimmie Johnson with five laps to go, Busch grabbed the checkered flag at the Toyota/SaveMart 350 on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway. Kyle beat Kurt Busch by .532 seconds and zoomed into Chase contention.

He may have one more hurdle ahead to make the Chase, but the win was the most satisfying moment for the younger Busch brother. Busch broke a streak of 10 straight different race winners at Sonoma and won for the first time on the 1.99-mile road course since 2008.

“Normally it's kind of a nightmare for us sometimes and this 18 team, but we had a great day today,” he said in the post-race media center interview. “We needed to come in and get tires, and that was going to be our best chance to win the race.”

After the last of the race’s five cautions came out at lap 100, only 10 laps from the finish, Busch’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, knew the timing was right to get the work done.

“We had decent short run speed and were able to show it on some mock runs,” Stevens said. “There at the end, it just kind of fell into the strategy that we wanted to run anyway, and we knew that we didn't have what we needed to outrun them on old tires, so it was a no-brainer call for me to come down and do everything we could to put him in a position where he could drive to the front.”

Mission accomplished, but the hard part is still to come.

With 10 races remaining until the Chase field is set, Busch sits 37^th in points, 136 behind 30^th-place Cole Whitt. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver likes his chances to be in the championship mix.

“Yeah, you know, certainly it's feasible. There's no reason why it shouldn't be,” Busch said. “This team is good enough to be that way, and I should be good enough to be that way.

“Now having a win, I think that that treats us a little bit better.  We don't have to race as hard for a 

win.”

NOTES: Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer (who finished third after qualifying sixth) were the only drivers who qualified and finished in the top 10 Sunday at Sonoma. Pole-sitter and Los Gatos native A.J. Allmendinger had to replace a fuel cell in his No. 47 and finished 37^th, 12 laps down. … Fox finished its 15^th season of NASCAR broadcasts at Sonoma and will make one big change for 2016. Larry McReynolds will move from the booth to the Hollywood Hotel, and Jeff Gordon will join Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip to call the races. … NBC Sports will return and start its coverage of the rest of the 2015 season at Daytona for the 4^th of July weekend. The XFINITY Subway Firecracker 250 runs Saturday on NBC Sports Network, then the Coke Zero 400 happens next Sunday night on NBC. Rick Allen will call the races after 12 years as the voice of the Camping World Truck Series on Fox.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Daytona International Speedway (2.5-mile superspeedway), Daytona Beach, Florida

SPRINT CUP: Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola, Sunday, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, NBC. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 160 laps.

2014 champion: Aric Almirola

XFINITY SERIES: Subway Firecracker 250, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 250 miles, 100 laps

2014 champion: Kasey Kahne

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Off until July 9 for the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway.