THE LEFT TURN

NASCAR is California Dreamin' at Auto Club Speedway

Feb 28, 2020, 7:07 am

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NASCAR continues its West Coast swing as they head for the high banks of California for the Auto Club 400. Opened in 1997, this track was sort of the prototype for what we would see 20 years later, only this track is slightly larger as it is exactly two miles in length. Because of how large this track is, usually we see cars get three and four wide especially after a restart. After a while though, the leader is usually able to find clean air and separate himself from the field.

With the spoilers on the rear being so large, one thing I have observed has been how these cars stall out when they get side-by-side. Because the rules package of this year is so similar to last year's, I would imagine that there will be much of the same thing. After the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant last month, NASCAR announced that there will be numerous tributes to the fallen basketball icon. Drivers William Byron and Ryan Blaney will both be racing with a purple and gold paint scheme to pay homage to him and his daughter Gigi and the seven others that passed away in the wreck. Personally, I think that this is one of the best things that NASCAR and their employees have done in a while. As we all knew, he was much bigger than basketball with everything he has done off the court. I am sure wherever he is in the universe, he would be proud that a sport he had little connection to is honoring him. Other tributes will include a moment of silence and his number embroidered in the front stretch grass.

Last week, as predicted Joey Logano went on to claim his 24th career victory at Las Vegas. In the closing stages, Ross Chastain spun out causing a late race caution. In a strange decision, race leader Ryan Blaney and a crowd of others decided to pit with four laps to go, costing them valuable track position and essentially any chance at a victory. While Blaney and others were out of contention, many others including the winner all stayed out. For Logano this was the winning move as he was able to hold off Matt DiBenedetto and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

While the season is young, there have been several drivers who have had some of the best results of their career. One of those drivers has been Darrell Wallace Jr. He started 2020 with a respectable 15th place showing and then backed it up with a sixth last week. While the car wasn't as good in the early stages, Wallace had done a great job making his way back into the top 20 and then found himself in the top 10 after his crew chief Jerry Baxter kept him out on the race track. He was able to hang on with old tires and get a sixth place showing. Another driver who has been impressive this year has been Corey Lajoie. After a bitter-sweet eighth place finish at Daytona, Corey was able to follow that up with a solid 15th place finish. Others that were impressive were Stenhouse who finished third and Dibenedetto who finished second. While the season is still very young, it has been refreshing to see such parity in the sport. I don't think anyone around the sport could have predicted what we have seen so far. It should be fun to watch going forward.

The driver that I have winning this weekend is William Byron. When it was announced that Byron would be inheriting Chad Kanus from Jimmie Johnson last year, many believed that Byron would finally make the leap and contend for wins and while he made the playoffs, he wasn't able to get to victory lane. This year, the young man has been insanely fast. At Daytona he was running in the top five before crashing out, the next week at Vegas he was also up front for a good portion of the race before spinning out on the final lap. This week, I think it will be much different and he will claim his first career win. While he has struggled here in his first two races finishing 15th both times, this team has improved greatly. Not only has Byron improved but his Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott have been fast as well. Over the off-season Chevrolet has made vast improvements to their Camaro including improving the nose of the car, which was a massive obstacle last year. Because of this, I see Byron and his team reaping the benefits and becoming the first Hendrick car to go to victory lane in 2020.

The sentimental favorite this week as he will be every week is Jimmie Johnson. As we all know, this will be the final time he will run at his home-track. Because of this, his wife and daughter will give the command to fire engines before the race starts making it all the more special for the seven time champion. If there was ever a place that he would finally break this long winless streak, this track might be at the top of the list for sure. In the sport's 23 year history here, no one has won at this track more than he has. He even got his first win here all the way back in 2002. I look for Johnson and his Hendrick teammates to battle it out for the victory come Sunday.

(All stats and information used in this article is brought to you by the good folks at driveraverages.com and Racing-Reference.com the best website for all NASCAR stats)

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THE PALLILOG

Here's how the Astros can reap the benefits from latest pitching shakeup

The Astros are utilizing a 6-man rotation. Composite Getty Image.

The Astros should schedule an Old-Timers Game, if not annually maybe every other year. Only the Yankees have regularly played Old Timers Games and it’s a highlight in the Bronx every season. The Astros have plenty enough history to welcome back an ample number of guys to make for a fabulous event. Maybe they could tie it into their now annual Hall of Fame Weekend. Anyway, don’t you feel that if Jose Altuve took part in an Old Timers Game in 2050 he’d bang out a couple of hits, and then if the Astros played him in the regular game he’d line one more hit somehow, at age 60?

After missing the first 43 games of the season while recovering from his broken thumb, Altuve went 0 for four in his first game back, but has since been generally fantastic with his OPS through nine games played at 1.013. It won’t stay that high, but Altuve is a direly needed upgrade to the Astros’ offense which has been utterly mediocre. Offense is the reason the Astros continue to look up at the Texas Rangers in the American League West. The Rangers’ offense has been fantastic, outscoring the Astros by a whopping 100 runs through the first third of the season.

As the regular season entered its middle third this week, the Astros are in the middle of playing a game in 17 consecutive days. It’s their longest stretch of the season without an off day. They are inserting Ronel Blanco as a sixth starting pitcher in the rotation for a couple of turns. The point of mixing in a sixth starter isn’t that the Astros are teeming with guys who belong in a big league rotation. The 29-year-old Blanco is not a notable prospect. This is about lightening the load a little on two guys: Cristian Javier and Hunter Brown.

In becoming a rotation mainstay last season, Javier blew past his previous biggest season workload by nearly 50 innings. He’s on pace to go another 25 innings beyond that this year without even accounting for the playoffs. Hunter Brown last year set his professional high with 130 innings pitched encompassing work with the Space Cowboys and Astros. Brown is on pace for about 170 innings this regular season. That’s a significant jump, and of course the Astros are hoping for another postseason of multiple rounds. Javier, Brown, and Framber Valdez are the three most critical pitchers on the staff, and the Astros hope they remain healthily so for several more years.

Lance McCullers’s latest recovery setback makes his plight increasingly sad. Well, except for him on payday. The odds now lopsidedly favor McCullers never again pitching a near fully healthy and effective season. His only one to date was 2021 (until he broke down in the playoffs), the year before his five year 85 million dollar contract kicked in. McCullers pulls down 17 mil this year (And again next year. And in 2025. And 2026), exactly two and a half times what Framber Valdez makes. I reckon Framber’s representation is aware of this, as it is of the five year 63 million dollar deal the Astros struck with Cristian Javier. Framber is more than three years older than Javier, but has been better, and can hit free agency after the 2025 season, the same time Javier could have gone to market.

Timing isn’t everything but it darn sure can matter. The Astros’ two best relief pitchers through May were Hector Neris and Phil Maton. Neris enters June with a 1.19 earned run average, Maton even better with a teeny-weeny 0.68 ERA. Maton has been especially amazing, given that last year while not pitching very well he posted his career best ERA at 3.84. His 2022 ended ignominiously when after giving up a hit to his brother Nick in the regular season finale, Phil took the ding-a-ling of the week award by breaking his pitching hand punching his locker, sidelining him for the postseason. The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2010. Now Maton is up for Best Pitcher (per inning worked). Both Neris and Maton were James Click acquisitions. Both become free agents after this season.

Up next

Four games with the Angels at Minute Maid Park through the weekend mean the amazing Shohei Ohtani is in town. It’s “Sho-time” on the mound Friday night in a doozy of a pitching matchup with Framber, with Ohtani batting in at least three of the four games. In one player the Angels have a pitcher as good as Cristian Javier and a hitter better than Kyle Tucker. And the Angels will probably miss the playoffs again anyway. And then lose Ohtani in free agency. After the Angels series the Astros are on the road next week. They start with four games at Toronto against the Blue Jays’ very potent lineup, then it’s three at Cleveland vs. the Guardians whose offense has been pathetic so far this season.

Walk this way

Geek Astro factoid of the week: Jeremy Pena drew two walks in Tuesday’s win over the Twins. In his rookie season, Pena had only one two walk game, also in May, also against the Twins. Tuesday’s bases on balls finally got Pena into double digits for the season. He has just 11 walks drawn (largely explaining his weak .307 on-base percentage) vs. 50 strikeouts.

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