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It was Kenseth's first engine failure of the season. All six drivers who use Roush engines have now suffered that fate at least once in 2003, with Jeff Burton leading Roush with four.
Which begs the question -- could this happen again to Kenseth?
If you go by straight stats, probably not. This was a completely different type of animal. Restrictor plate engines are another ballgame.
Even teams that rarely have engine problems -- like Hendrick Motorsports -- sometimes struggle with plate motors. Hendrick blew five of them in the fall event at Talladega in 2002.
Just for kicks, which teams have the highest attrition rate?
If you go by the reasons given for DNFs, Joe Gibbs Racing has the highest attrition rate among the major multi-car teams.
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| Bobby Labonte |
Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart have five engine failures this year among them in 58 races in 2003. That's an average of one every 11.6 races.
Roush Racing has six drivers using its powerplants with a total of 14 failures. That's an average of one every 12.42 races. Ganassi (five among three drivers) has problems every 17.4 races.
Robert Yates Racing has had three this year, or 19.3, followed by Penske Racing (29.0) Hendrick Motorsports (34.6).
DEI has lost just two engines this year among its three drivers (42.5).
How many has Richard Childress Racing lost?
That's the thing. They haven't lost any.
That is another small reason Kevin Harvick will be tough to overtake for second in the standings.
RCR has not lost an engine all season, and Harvick has finished all 29 races. No accidents, no transmissions, nothing. He lost 10 laps in the spring Darlington event, but that has been the only time he finished more than five laps down.
So what does Kenseth need?
If you do the straight math, he needs to finish ninth every race the rest of the way to win the title, but that is assuming Harvick wins the remaining races.
Insert smart-ass comment here.
We all know Harvick -- or anyone else -- won't win the remaining seven in a row.
What about now?
Harvick has been pretty consistent recently -- scoring about 154 points per race in the last six races.
Let's assume that Harvick can bump that up to 160 per race for the final seven and finish with 4,993 points. Basically, a fourth-place finish per race.
Under that scenario, Kenseth only had to finish 17th in every race. He doesn't even need to lead a lap in any of them.
Waltrip's back on the top 10 threshold.
Michael Waltrip's win at Talladega allowed him to gain 78 points on Terry Labonte, who slipped to 10th in the standings.
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| Slugger Labbe has been at the helm of three of Michael Waltrip's four career victories. |
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Waltrip is only 10 behind Labonte. This could get ugly.
There are major bragging rights at stake here. Waltrip -- as hard as it is to believe -- has never had a finish in the top 10 in the standings, and Labonte's been shut out of the top 10 since 1998.
McMurray now leads the Ganassi clan.
It has taken 29 races, but Jamie McMurray has passed Sterling Marlin for the top spot at Ganassi. Marlin's engine overheated at Talladega, and he finished 39th.
McMurray moved into 17th, and Marlin fell to 18th. They are separated by 70 points.
In the last 10 races, McMurray has made up an incredible 491 points on his teammate. During that stretch, he's gained eight spots in the standings, while Marlin has fallen three.
Busch Series: Mr. Goodcents 300
While we're on the last 10 races kick, let's see how Brian Vickers stacks up against Scott Riggs in that same period.
Vickers has moved from sixth to first in the standings by averaging 151.3 points per race since Daytona. During that same period, Riggs has averaged just under 140 points per race.
Riggs averaged just a 19.25 finish from Kansas until the season finale in 2002.
Craftsman Truck Series: John Boy and Billy 250
If only Dennis Setzer had gotten hotter sooner.
Setzer has scored more points in the last six races than anyone except Brendan Gaughan -- and he's only getting better. He was a solid third at Las Vegas, his second straight finish in the top three and his fifth straight in the top five.
He's 136 points back of Gaughan. Not insurmountable, but not likely -- but it would have been a lot more doable had his engine not let go at Darlington in the spring.
Setzer has 18 top-10 finishes, tying him for the series lead with Travis Kvapil, and he's finished on the lead lap in 15 straight events.
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