Grand National gears up for East-West clashes

Sean Caisse's first impression of Elko (Minn.) Speedway was one of analytical eagerness.

"If I stay out of trouble," Caisse said, "it's going to be pretty fun."

Caisse got his initial glance at Elko last week when several drivers traveled to the Midwest for a pair of news conferences hyping what may be the biggest weekend in the history of the Grand National Division.

Standings

Top 10

Pos.	Driver	Points
1.	Mike David	520
2.	Tim Woods III	450
3.	Jason Bowles	419
4.	Johnny Borneman	409
5.	Brett Thompson	399
6.	Andrew Myers	398
7.	Eric Hardin	378
8.	Mike Duncan	376
9.	Ryan Foster	376
10.	Alex Haase	371

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The two series that make up the Grand National Division, which serves as the top developmental step for drivers looking to make their way into NASCAR's top three series, will meet in the Midwest this weekend.

"You're going to have the best Grand National teams from across the states coming to it," said Mike David, the West Series points leader on the prospect of racing his counterparts from the Busch East Series. "You can't get much better racing than that."

While the Nextel Cup drivers run in their All-Star Challenge on Saturday, the Cup stars of tomorrow will race at Elko on Friday night and then will make NASCAR's debut at Iowa Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

It will be the first time the two series compete in the same race with points at stake. Previously, the only time the West Series and Busch East Series drivers ran at the same time was the postseason Toyota All-Star Showdown.

To add to the interest, Daytona 500 champion Kevin Harvick will return to the series that helped launch his career and run the Featherlite Coaches 200 at Iowa.

"I'm pretty excited," said Harvick, the 1998 West Series champion. "I've never been to Iowa, but I've heard a lot of good things about the track.

"I learned a lot in the West Series. ... I feel like it helped me prepare for my future in NASCAR's top series."

Harvick will have plenty of drivers looking for bragging rights that come with being able to outrun one of NASCAR's top stars.

Leading the pack may be 16-year-old Joey Logano. A driver in Joe Gibbs Racing's development program, Logano won the West Series event April 19 at Phoenix International Raceway.

It was his first start in a Grand National car.

Standings

Top 10

Pos.	Driver	Points
1.	Joey Logano	190
2.	Sean Caisse	180
3.	Bryon Chew	165
4.	Peyton Sellers	160
5.	Rogelio Lopez	155
6.	Jeffrey Earnhardt	150
7.	Mike Olsen	146
8.	Michelle Theriault	142
9.	John Freeman	138
10.	John Townley	134

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Proving it wasn't a fluke, Logano beat defending race-winner Caisse for the victory in the Busch East opener at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina on April 28.

Logano's teammate is another 16-year-old, Marc Davis, while the 21-year-old Caisse is paired at Andy Santerre Motorsports with 17-year-old Jeffrey Earnhardt. Jeffrey Earnhardt is the son of Kerry Earnhardt and is a development driver for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

The age limit for the Grand National Divisions was lowered from 18 to 16 this year, which allows for Nextel Cup teams to get their development drivers much-needed seat time.

There will be plenty of veteran competition this weekend, as well.

David is coming off a West Series win in Tracy, Calif. Two-time Busch East champion Mike Olsen opened defense of his 2006 title with a seventh-place at Greenville-Pickens. And Busch East mainstay Matt Kobyluck, who won the last time the two series met in the 2006 Toyota All-Star Showdown, is hoping to shake some early season bad luck.

While there will be one overall race winner, points for each race will be awarded on the basis of where the driver finishes in relation to other drivers in their respective series. Drivers committed to running for points in the Busch East or West Series when they submitted their entry forms.

As of Monday, 50 cars have entered for a chance to make the 30-car grid at Elko. Forty-two cars will make up the Iowa Speedway starting lineup, and 58 have entered.

The field will be diverse, as well.

Led by Davis, a graduate of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, and Michelle Theriault, who had the highest finish in Busch East history for a female with her eighth-place at Greenville-Pickens, there will more than a dozen minority drivers in the field.

The two-races-in-three-days format provides several strategic options.

While some teams are bringing separate cars for each track, some like Busch East driver Peyton Sellers are just bringing one. Sellers won the 2005 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship and moved up to the West Series last year, where he earned rookie of the year honors. This season, Sellers is attempting to run a full Busch East schedule.

He was fourth at Greenville-Pickens.

"All my guys are pumped here," Sellers said. "They've been working a lot of hours, trying to get all the equipment ready."

Sellers knows the dividing line between running well and going home will be razor thin this weekend.

"There's no room for error," Sellers said. "We're going to go out and give it all we've got. The West Coast has a lot of good competition, and the East Coast ain't too shabby, either.

"It's going to be a good mix. It's going to be good for TV; it's going to be good for NASCAR."

The Minnesota 150 at Elko (9 p.m. ET Friday) and the Featherlite Coaches 200 (3 p.m. ET Sunday) will be shown on HDNet. They will be re-broadcast on SPEED.

Elko Speedway is a high-banked three-eighths-mile oval just south of Minneapolis, and has been a NASCAR track for more than 20 years.

"The facility is an awesome venue," said Caisse, who compared the layout and banking to Lake Erie Speedway in Pennsylvania. "It will be kind of interesting to see how guys run the top and the bottom during the race. That sort of thing plays an interesting role in the race and the final outcome."

Following Friday's event, it's a three-hour drive to Des Moines, Iowa, and then a short jaunt east on I-80 to Newton, where Iowa Speedway is located. A seventh-eighths-mile oval with 12-14 degrees of compound banking, the Iowa opened this past September and was designed by former Cup champion Rusty Wallace.

"Beautiful facilities," said David, who also made the trip last week with Caisse, West Series driver Andrew Myers and Busch East driver Chase Austin. "Both of them are first-class tracks. It looks like it will be a two-groove race at both tracks, so that will be exciting."

Three days.

Two races.

Three-hundred-fifty laps.

One helluva weekend.

"It's a lot of driving; a lot of experience," Caisse said. "I'm going to learn a lot."

And have some fun along the way.