Does anybody remember 2005?  The C-Group was loaded with young guns Scott Riggs, Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch.

Flash forward to 2008 where it looks like Riggs and Vickers have finally come back to the form they showed in 2005 and we can only wish that a guy like Kyle Busch was available to us.

Scott Riggs in 2005 drove the #10 Valvoline car for then MB2 Racing.  The car was powered with engines from Rick Hendrick.  After a couple of years of Riggs scuffling around in the same #10 Valvoline car for Evernham Racing, it appears that Riggs change back to Chevy’s powered by Rick Hendrick engines was exactly what he needed to put him back on the fantasy radar…..at least in the Yahoo C Group.

Brian Vickers in 2005 actually drove for Rick Hendrick in the then #25 GMAC car (a car that basically now belongs to one Dale Earnhardt Jr).  Vickers provided plenty of really good C Starts in 2005 that he was moved up to the B group.  He switched to Toyota and began to drive the #83 Red Bull car last year and was un-usable in the B-group but we are very happy to see him and his revamped team in the 2008 Yahoo C Group this year.

So with Scott Riggs and Brian Vickers we have half (18) of the 36 starts we need out of the group to complete our season.  I will go ahead and pencil in that we will get two starts out of the Boris Said and Ron Fellows group on the road courses.  That gives us 20 of our 36.  Now, before I move on, the key to those 18/20 starts is not when you use them, it’s what you get out of them when you do use them.  The last thing you want to do is use Vickers or Riggs and get a 36.  You have to balance using them when they are hot to conserving them for later in the year, in an attempt to maximize the finishes you get out of those 18/20 starts.

So, now onto the other 16 starts we need to find out of this group.  Now the best thing to do would be to find our 2008 version of the 2005 Kyle Busch.  Kyle was a rookie in 2005 after driving just a handful of races for Rick Hendrick in 2004.  Kyle jumped into the #5 car for Rick in 2005 and displayed the immense talent that we see out of him today.  Now chances are we will need see that guy in 2008.  There are no real rookies driving for the super-teams of Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs or RCR.  The closest thing would be Aric Almirola in the #8 car for DEI, but at this time he is only scheduled to race in about 12 races.  Will be real hard to get more then 3 to 4 starts out of him.

The next closest thing would be the influx of open wheel racers we have here in 2008.  With the likes of Sam Hornish Jr in the #77, Dario Franchitti in the #40 and Patrick Carpienter in the #10 in the second half of the year we, with any luck, will come across a driver or two that can give us some quality starts.

Last year, we did have a Jack Roush rookie, David Ragan, that came through for us big time in the second half.  Again, with any luck, we might be able to emulate that success with either Regan Smith in the #01 DEI Chevy OR with Michael McDowell in the #00 Michael Waltrip Toyota.  However, again we are really probably looking at second half drivers here.

Other then that we are pretty much stuck with some “filler” drivers that at this point need to show me more before I am able to count on them.  There are some with some upside like David Reuitimann, Paul Menard and Travis Kvpail.  And then there are others that are just old veteran drivers, that when used right can steal you a quality finish.  That list would include Michael Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader and Kyle Petty.

It is my 2008 game plan to go ahead and use Brian Vickers and Scott Riggs as much as I humanly want to early in 2008.  I will not conserve them just to conserve them.  If they have a good car and I have them on my roster I will use em.  I don’t care If use them both up in the first 25 races or not.  My game plan involves then finding the right guy in the second half whether it be Hornish or Franchitti or McDowell or Regan Smith or somebody we have not even heard of yet (remember Carl Edwards got brought up to Jack Roush racing at the end of 2004 and was inserted in the C-Group…a guy like Bryan Claussen or Landon Cassill) that will be able to HOPEFULLY provide me with the same quality starts I was getting out of the 2008 versions of Scott Riggs and Brian Vickers early in the season.

After 5 Races the B LIST is starting to look really thin

Remember you need 72 starts

GREAT STARTERS
Kyle Busch
Ryan Newman
Greg Biffle
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Martin Truex Jr
Kasey Kahne

Assuming you get 9 from each there thats 54 starts
Leaves 18

AWFUL STARTERS
JJ Yeley
David Gilliland
Elliott Sadler
David Ragan

I could be wrong on Sadler and Ragan…but can you really count on this entire group for more then 1-2 starts?

That still leaves 18 really

THE REST
Mark Martin – part time driver
Bobby Labonte – can you ever really count on him
Robby Gordon – 2 Road Courses
Juan Montoya – 2 Road Courses plus whatever else you can get
Reed Sorenson – Does provide some upside
Casey Mears – should be the best of the bunch but awful start
Dave Blaney – Not in the top 35
Jamie McMurray – Not in the top 35

Subtracting the four from Montoya and Robby leaves 14 starts.

Trying to maximize the 14 starts from the group might be the key to the 2008 Fantasy Season.  That along with maximizing the C Group starts but that is a whole other area.

 We will examine both the C Group and the A Group in future articles

After a wreck between Jamie and Dario Franchitti a little over halfway in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol sent McMurray’s #26 Crown Royal Ford to a 43^rd place finish McMurray now stands at 36^th in the owners points 4 points behind Sam Hornish Jr for the coveted 35^th place in the owners standings.

And to that, I say…You deserve it!  In this writers opinion, while Franchitti did start the action by clearly getting lose and walking up the track and getting into the side of McMurray’s car, to me, it was McMurray’s retaliation to this action that caused the wreck that sent innocent cars (Menard – 32^nd, Newman – 33^rd, Labonte – 38^th and Schrader – 41^st) to awful finishes.

To me, clearly, McMurray was upset with Franchitti and turned his car left to hit the side of Franchitti’s car.  When that happened the entire wreck unfolded that would up with Franchitti car unable to improve on a 36^th place finish and left McMurray’s car in dead last and outside of the top 35.  You have got to know better.  He knew when the race started he would need a good finish to keep his car in the Top 35.  When you have a great sponsor like Crown Royal that should be your first priority…keeping the car in the top 35 to guarantee your spot in the field on race day.

Unfortunately for McMurray he lost sight of that and instead will now have to fight on qualifying day to get is car in the field and to save his job with Roush Racing.  All I can say is that he deserves what he gets…weather that means he is replaced at Roush Racing or not we will just have to wait and see.

Ok…so all the results are in

1)      NASCAR did not penalize the #99 team for the tire that was not secured by the pit box.  They judged it not to be in the teams control that an outside source was the reason the tire bounded across pit lane and through the infield.

That’s fine, but did they forget that Tire changers will no longer be allowed to roll tires from the stock car to the pit wall. “We saw the tire changers whipping the tire toward the wall and on days when their aim is correct, it looks pretty good,” Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said. “On days when there’s an air hose in the way or a competing team coming across the wall, it’s not a good situation. Somebody is going to have to hand roll or carry the tire back to the inside of the pit box.”????

2)      NASCAR later hit Carl Edwards and team owner Jack Roush with a 100 point penalty, loss of the 10 point bonus if the team makes the chase, and suspended crew chief Bob Osborne with a 6 race suspension.

The penalty is consistent with other penalties levied to teams found messing with the COT.  I am OK with it.  I think the 10 point bonus lost is something that did not have to be done.  I mean if Carl had finished second there would be no additional penalty.  Not sure why they had to include that but that’s fine.

3)      Robby Gordon has his penalty lifted and regains his 100 points that he was previously docked.

Congrats to NASCAR on this one.  This is why you can appeal penalties.  This was obviously not in the teams control and numerous people (namely the folks at Dodge) stepped up and took the blame for this.

I guess at the end of the day I give NASCAR a Thumbs Up on these rulings, though its really hard to reward them for doing what they where supposed to do in the first place.