With their NASCAR Sprint Cup colleagues taking a weekend off, the Nationwide Series has a rare, but well deserved, opportunity to shine in the racing spotlight during Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 300 at the Nashville Super Speedway. Following the completion of the scheduled 300 miles, around this always tricky race track, the winner will receive the traditional, buy very unique, Nashville trophy: the Gibson Guitar custom painted by Sam Bass, the official artist of NASCAR.
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[/media-credit]THE STORY BREAKDOWN.
So who’s going to play some music in the victory lane located in Music City, USA? In addition to the impromptu guitar concert, the Nashville Super Speedway’s victory lane could receive a sweeping with a very large broom. Carl Edwards won the race in Nashville last April and his Roush Fenway Racing Ford team are heavily favored to push that broom Saturday night. That’s largely because he holds the series’ win record there and has four of those beautiful guitars which he actually knows how to play. Also bear in mind that the Nashville Super Speedway is a concrete track and Edwards has a tendency to perform very well on this type of surface. Those results has earned him the nickname “Concrete Carl” over the years.
Also in position to sweep the Nashville victory lane is the Series points leader Elliot Sadler. The speedway will be hosting both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Friday night, and the Nationwide Series on Saturday. Sadler will be in his traditional Nationwide Series Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc. But he will also be a KHI truck for Friday night’s race. We all know that KHI entry is always a threat to win in either one of these series on any given weekend.
Also doing double duty at Nashville will be Austin Dillon who will be in his traditional Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Truck Friday night and Kevin Harvick’s #33 Nationwide Series Chevrolet on Saturday. This is another opportunity for this talented young driver to advance his already promising career.
Speaking of double duty drivers: over the years the Nationwide races has been overloaded with “double dip” drivers, or those who race in the Sprint Cup Series full time but enjoy coming over to the Nationwide events, with equipment provided by their high dollar Cup owners, for some fun. With the Cup teams having the weekend off, you would think there would be a greater influx of these “double dippers” entered in the Federated Auto Parts 300.
Surprisingly there are only two of them in Saturday’s race: the aforementioned Edwards and Brad Keselowski. However those are two formidable entries for Saturday’s race. Both drivers have been doing double duty this year by running the full Sprint Cup and Nationwide schedules. These two double dippers will also be bringing some formidable Nashville stats to the starting grid. Between the two drivers they have won six out of the last ten races there.
Noticeably absent here is the presence of Kyle Busch who seems not to be racing anywhere this weekend. Joe Gibbs Racing has development driver Drew Herring in the #18 Toyota normally occupied by Busch. Their second team car in the Nationwide Series, the #20 Toyota, is not entered at all.
The other big storyline here is the Nationwide Series’ championship points race. With 15 races remaining on the 2011 schedule, Elliot Sadler sits on top of those standings but only holds a seven point lead over Reed Sorenson. Still very much in this points picture is the presence of Ricky Stenhouse Jr who is third in the rankings and only 18 points from the top. The top position in the Nationwide Series points has been a back and forth situation all season long with this same trio of drivers holding down first a total of five times each this year.
THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Federated Auto Parts 300 is 225 laps/300 miles around the Nashville Super Speedway’s 1.333 mile concrete oval.
The race has 41 entries for the available 43 starting berths meaning all teams will make the race and the element of knock out qualifying will not apply on Saturday.
Some keys to this race include the always required good handling set up. The concrete surface can often be tricky and has in the past been a puzzling source of frustration for crew chiefs. Protecting the brakes will also be a must for this race as will the need for a good aero balance in the car due to the high speeds this track will generate.
The Nashville Super Speedway’s 1.333 mile concrete oval has a challenging 14 degrees of banking in the turn. The front straightaway is 2,494 feet long with nine degrees of banking. The backstretch is 2,203 feet with six degrees in its banks.
The Federated Auto Parts 300 will be broadcast live by the ESPN Network with the pre-race show beginning at 7 pm eastern time.
