Jul 9

Written by: The Commish
7/9/2010 10:57 AM 

The deadline for Super 7 Sweep starters is always 12:00 AM on the day of each weekend's race ... except for one occasion in August, when trucks run at Bristol on a Wednesday evening.  For that round, the deadline is 12:00 PM or noon on the day of that round's first race.  (HINT:  Log in to https://windtunnel.fmfl.net now, go to RD#30 and plug in your seven starters now so you don't forget.)

The midnight before the day of the first race rule was set both because and despite some weekends having one or more series' qualifying results already in the books prior to the deadline.  The rule maintains a level playing field; everyone has the chance to go online to find what happened during time trials before the deadline.  And as to which series will qualify prior to the deadline and which won't, that's what keeps players on their toes.

This happens to be one of those weekends where no qualifying results were available prior to the picks deadline.  Tonight the Nationwide series races in Chicagi, tomorrow Cup runs at the same track and on Sunday it's the F1 race at Silverstone, trucks at Iowa and the ALMS race in Utah.  But by this evening we'll all know where our NNS and SCS picks are starting.

For the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Jimmie Johnson leads three more Chevy drivers (Gordon, Happy Harvick and Stewart) in pick popularity, with Denny Hamlin next as the the most-picked Toyota, Kurt Busch as the higest picked Dodge driver then Kasey Kahne as the first Ford driver on the starter stats list -- with only 2.1% of the picks.  Boy howdy does Big Blue and especially Roush Fenway need some wins to become FMFL-relavant again.

It should be no surprise that Brad Keselowski has supplanted Shrub as the favorite for the Nationwide race with Card Edwards third behind Kyle.  Joey Logano is the fourth most popular pic, just ahead of Kevin Harvick, and who'll be surprised if Happy roughs up Logano at some point during the race just because he can.  Jamie McMurray is a good darkhorse pick with only .2% of all players including him in their starting lineup, only slightly better than Danica, who earned six votes as a potential points-earner.  Best of luck to those six players who picked the pretty-but-struggling No. 7 GoDaddy Chevy driver.

Ron Hornaday was picked by more than 57% of all FMFL teams that submitted picks for the NASCAR Camping World truck race at Iowa with Todd Bodine and Aric Almirola the second and third most popular choices.  Kyle Busch was next which will turn out to badly for 78 players as Brian Ickler will be driving the No. 18 Toyota while Kyle does double duty in the Windy City.

I sure wish John Dadgy's ALMS preview article on  speed.com had been posted yesterday.  Not that I would have definitely changed my lineup but I'm sure some players have forgotten there are a couple of P1 cars that could give the most-picked No. 1 Acura P2 some real competition for the victory. 

That brings us to F1, where Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are the prohibitive favorites over Mark Webber, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.  Most teams double up on the GP and ALMS starters because of the smaller fields (compared with NASCAR) and limited number of entries that actually have a chance of qualifying up front and finishing on the podium.  So I like the fact that a couple of Super 7 Sweep daredevils have included Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg in their lineups.  If a big crash or some strange mechanical maladies fell a couple of the favorite -- which will make a lot of us cringe -- some players may have a chance to pick up some spots in their private leagues or the overall standings.

Then again, I'm still wondering when the ALMS starter stats will show nothing but prototypes at the top since the chances of a GT3 Corvette or BMW earning triple digit points will always be slim.  Although, to be fair, their chances are brilliant compared to picks that don't appear on an entry list.

And that's what we love so much about the Super 7 Sweep.  Ya gotta pay attention, because this game's for hardcore fans.  You know, the ones who love all kinds of racing and are addicted to watching Wind Tunnel!