=== This Week in Auto Racing April 22 - April 24 ===
by Steve Schwarz, Motorsports Editor
Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - Nextel Cup travels to Phoenix, Arizona for a first-ever night race at the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval. Meanwhile Formula One visits Imola, Italy. Will the Ferrari stranglehold on the drivers and manufacturers championship end in its own backyard?
NASCAR
Nextel Cup
Subway Fresh 500 - Phoenix International Raceway - Phoenix, Arizona
While Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle remained one-two in the Nextel Cup standings, the rest of the top-10 suffered wild swings, blown engines and crashes last week.
Rusty Wallace managed to keep his nose clean, finished 10th and jumped four positions to third overall. Defending series champion Kurt Busch used a seventh-place result to leap five places and Sterling Marlin made the biggest move using a top-five to jump six spots.
The big losers at the Texas Motor Speedway were Tony Stewart, defending TMS champion Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne.
After seven events, there are a lot of "big names" sitting outside the top-10. The list includes Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2003 Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne.
That must be a little worrisome for NASCAR officials who obviously would not like a "Chase for the Nextel Cup" to be run without at least some of those drivers to be involved.
How much crying would we hear from the Earnhardt Jr. contingent if the No.8 Chevrolet were not in the "Chase"? Or Stewart? Or Jeff Gordon? And how low would the television rating sink?
No, its not just Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart fans rooting for the No.8 Chevrolet and the No.20 Chevrolet.
Earnhardt Jr. has begun to show signs of life over the past three weeks. Following a third-place finish at Daytona, "Junior" faltered with consecutive finishes of 32nd, 42nd and 24th. But he has rebounded with a fourth at Bristol, 13th at Martinsville and a solid ninth at Texas.
"We're working hard," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I've stepped up my commitment. I started out the year relaxed and allowing those guys to get used to the change first and with me coming in there I didn't really want to push them hard at the start."
Stewart has run into a "wall" the last two weeks finishing 26th and 31st. But the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 2002 Nextel Cup champion has always been a slow starter who heats up as the temperature rises.
His 2002 championship season began with a last-place finish at Daytona and he was in just 10th place after 10 events. Then Stewart won at Richmond and followed that victory up with 16 top-10s (including two more wins) en route to the title.
Now its on the Phoenix. Earnhardt Jr. has made five starts on the desert oval and owns two wins. Stewart has six starts and one win so both drivers figure to be in the mix.
But when coming to Phoenix, the favorite must come from the Ford family. The manufacturer has won 11 of 17 Nextel Cup events at Phoenix and had at least two top-five finishes in the first 16 races. Mark Martin has a record 13 top-10s in 17 starts including one win and five runner-up finishes.
One driver who has never won at PIR is Gordon. It is one of only four tracks in which the four-time champion has never made a trip to Victory Lane (Texas, Chicagoland, Homestead are the others).
Will Gordon get win No.72 at PIR? Will Johnson continue his amazing top-10 streak? Find out Saturday night.
Busch
Bashas' Supermarkets 200 - Phoenix International Raceway - Phoenix, Arizona
Martin Truex Jr. won the inaugural Busch Series race on the road course in Mexico City and finished fourth in the season opener at Daytona, but to date his season could be considered "troubling."
The defending series champion sits seventh in the drivers championship, 347 points behind leader Carl Edwards. His DEI-powered Chevrolet has struggled to stay up with Roush horsepower and the No.8 team has already finished 30th or worse three times. In last year's title-winning season, the No.8 finished 30th or worse just one time - race No.28 at the Kansas Speedway.
That might explain why we have heard rumors this week that Truex Jr. might be interested in jumping the DEI ship.
The 2004 Busch Series champion has been in negotiations for a new contract and has denied the rumors that Evernham, Robert Yates and Hendrick Motorsports had interest in the 24-year old.
"I don't know where these people come up with these things," Truex Jr. told PRN Garagepass. "You know we're in negotiations trying to get our contract signed for the next three years and I guess somebody knows about it and thinks we're out there looking for a ride...I think it's pretty stupid."
While Truex Jr. has been searching for his 2004 form, series points leader Carl Edwards has not.
After eight events the No.60 Roush Racing Ford driver has a 76-point lead over Reed Sorenson. Edwards has yet to finish outside the top-10 and has three top- fives in the last four races. He swept both the Busch and Nextel Cup events in Atlanta.
"This guy is our next superstar," Jimmie Johnson said.
Edwards is running full-time in both the Busch Series and the Cup Series.
"It's a perfect situation for me," Edwards said. "I'm loving every lap of it. The more laps I can get, the better - especially with a lot of Cup guys running the Busch cars."
That can't be good news for Truex Jr. and the rest of the Busch Series drivers.
FORMULA ONE
San Marino Grand Prix - Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari - Imola, Italy
As the teams arrive for the fourth race of the 19-event F1 season, there are more questions than answers to the 2005 season.
Is Renault THAT much better than everyone else?
Has Toyota finally arrived as a legitimate contender?
Has Ferrari and Michael Schumacher fallen that far in just six months?
Has BAR-Honda really gone three races without scoring a point?
The quick answers are yes, maybe, no and yes.
At this point in the season, Renault has the best aerodynamic package and engine package with the result being that they have swept to wins in the first three races of 2005. They have won all three poles as well.
And the news gets worse for the other nine teams. The Renault R25 is scheduled to use their new and improved engine soon. Though they were expected to introduce the B-spec engine in Spain, it is possible that Giancarlo Fisichella will install the powerplant this week in San Marino.
"Following Giancarlo's engine failure in Bahrain, we saw the opportunity to accelerate the build of a race engine to this spec to fit in his car," said engine technical director Rob White. "However, the final decision on its use will depend on dyno tests, and the detailed analysis of results from testing last week in Paul Ricard."
Meanwhile, Renault's top driver Fernando Alonso has won the last two races in stunning fashion, beating Jarno Trulli by 24.3 seconds in Malaysia and by 13.4 seconds in Bahrain.
"I can't see any weaknesses with him," said Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who knows a good driver when he sees one. Briatore ran Benetton when Michael Schumacher won his first two titles in 1994 and 1995.
"He keeps high in his rhythm during the races. He knows his own limits and those of his car and never exceeds them."
He is also just 23-years-old and the prospect of Alonso driving for Renault for the next 10 years must scare Ferrari. Why else would they be rumored to want Alonso to succeed Schumacher when his contract is up at the end of 2006?
"Ferrari aren't the only team that would like to have Fernando," Briatore said recently.
While Renault has enjoyed their early-season success, Toyota has also stepped up it program. In the last two off-seasons the team hired two top-notch drivers in Trulli and Ralf Schumacher and upgraded its technical end with the addition of Mike Gascoyne.
Gascoyne began his F1 career in 1989 and has become a "aerodynamics guru." In 2001 he moved to Renault and in just a couple years made their car competitive despite a horsepower disadvantage. He jumped to Toyota last year and the results are obvious. Toyota is second in the manufacturers championship and has collected top-fives from both drivers in the last two events.
And now to the most important question - Ferrari and their troubles. The team that won 15 times in 18 events in 2004, has zero wins, zero poles and just 10 championship points (eight from Rubens Barrichello) in 2005.
They brought out their heralded F2005 version Ferrari for the Bahrain GP and finished ninth and 17th. The results are that Michael Schumacher is 24 points behind Alonso after three events and has a long way to go to just get back into the race.
At San Marino they will have both the F2005 and a new Bridgestone tire as well. If they come up big at "home" (San Marino Grand Prix is run at Imola, Italy) then there is still hope for the Ferrari faithful. If however they continue to struggle at San Marino, then they will not be a championship threat in 2005.
In 2004, Ferrari ran away with the title, but BAR-Honda was the "best of the rest." Jenson Button accumulated 13 top-fives and teammate Takuma Sato added five more. So far this season, Button has failed to break into the top-10 and Sato has been worse, finishing 14th and 15th in two outings.
The team has tested quite a lot over the past two weeks and the results have been very good with Button setting a lap record at Barcelona last week and Sato setting an unofficial record at Paul Ricard this week. Whether that translates into points this week is the big question.
If someone doesn't step up soon to challenge Renault, the race may be over before the heat of the summer.
For Ferrari, Toyota and BAR-Honda Sunday afternoon will be an important moment if they hope to challenge for the title in 2005.
