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June 20, 2007

COT Meets Road Rage
Fantasy Insight-Infineon Raceway
By Dennis Michelsen
Turning right and left is not a regular happening for NASCAR drivers unless they are about to wreck! So far this season the reviews for the Car of Tomorrow have been consistent among the drivers that this car is harder to get to turn. Now NASCAR takes the new design to the first road course of the year. Infineon Raceway is a track that demands great car control and handling. Will the lack of any experience in the Car of Tomorrow eliminate the road ringers from contention? How will success on ovals this season with the new design translate to the road course? So many questions will have to wait until the first practice to get any answers. Despite all the road course ringers invading the series at Watkins Glen and Infineon over the years, they rarely score a top five let alone win the event. The NASCAR regulars spend more time learning the nuances of road course racing more now than ever before. One interesting entry is the No. 91 of Marc Goosens. This road course-racing expert will drive the very first Nextel Cup entry for Riley-D'Hondt Motorsports. There is no one in racing that understands that front splitter better than those guys but what that will mean in Nextel Cup racing is a mystery. This week for your fantasy picks put your money on the best road course racers in Nextel Cup. The fact that two of them race for teams that have mastered the COT is a nice bonus! Good luck with your fantasy picks this week.

Fast Facts of the Week
No one has won more road course races in NASCAR than Jeff Gordon

Most Top 5 Finishes Among Active Drivers: Ricky Rudd with 26

Road Course Ringers Include Ron Fellows (96), Terry Labonte (55), PJ Jones (00), Klaus Graf (49), Butch Leitzinger (23 instead of 36), Marc Goosens (91), and Boris Said (60)

12 of the 18 winners have started in the top 5

Worst starting position for a winner was 13th in 1991 (Davey Allison)

Rowdy Fantasy
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Fan1st Fantasy Racing
Fan1st is giving race fans a chance to win the greatest prize in Fantasy Racing history. Can you imagine being picked up for the race at your hometown airport in a private jet and flown to Daytona International Speedway? You can invite three people along for the experience of a lifetime learning what it is like to be an owner in the Busch series! Fan1st.com is the sponsor on the No. 32 car driven by driver Dave Blaney in the Busch series for owner Todd Braun. This year their Fantasy Racing game is included in their Diamond Membership package or you can purchase entry to the race game separately. Fan1st puts the fan in charge voting on important team matters! Their Fantasy Racing game has the best prize every offered and is a bargain to enter for $75 for the whole season! You build your team selecting a driver, crew chief, manufacturer, and owner in a salary cap format.

http://www.fan1st.com/index.html

Prize Note: Tom from Connecticut wins a Diamond Membership playing Fantasy Insight's FLIP FLOPS. Listen this week on www.racetalkradio.com Wednesday night at 10pm ET to see how you can play and win this week's prize!

Fantasy Racing by the Numbers
My unique Power Ratings are back and better than ever for 2007! Combining the three most important factors the numbers never lie. Separate the pretenders from the contenders each week with track type, horses for courses, and consistency factored into one easy to use Power Rating. The key numbers to remember are 80 and 250. A rating of 80 is an acceptable risk for any of the individual ratings and 250 is the cut off for the complete Power Rating. Drivers topping these minimums have a much higher percentage of top ten finishes over the past three seasons! (Only drivers meeting the minimum will be shown in the individual ratings with the top 25 for Power Ratings shown)

Picking a Winner
Each week I will attempt to handicap the winners showing the three drivers I think are most likely to come home a winner! Also the TOP ROOKIE and BEST OUTSIDE TOP 20 will be forecast so you get a complete handicapping picture for the upcoming race.

Winner- Tony Stewart
Last Week 37th
Hungry for a win and excellent turning right and left

Place- Jeff Gordon
Last Week 1st
More road wins than anyone else in NASCAR history

Show- Denny Hamlin
Last Week 42nd
Driver and team solid on road courses

Top Rookie-Juan Pablo Montoya
Last Week 43rd
Busch road win already this season

Outside Top 20 in Points-Ricky Rudd
Last Week 32nd
One of the best road course racers in NASCAR history

Road Course Ringer-Ron Fellows
Gibbs support for the No 96 will help

Wednesday on Race Talk Radio
7pm Eastern- Cargo Light Review with Lori Munro
Every week let RaceTalkRadio's Lori Munro take you for a ride…literally! Strap in tight because this will be an adventurous tour of all things truck racing from the inside of her Chevy Silverado. Join Lori every week for the most unique thirty minutes in radio, she might even buy you a cup of coffee at the drive through. It's racing news, fun, and great music every week on the "Cargo Light Review."

7:30pm Eastern-Getting Dirty with CJ Swank
Join OntheBullRing.com's CJ Swank and get down and dirty inside the world of dirt track racing! From the World of Outlaws to the Modifieds and Late Models to those all important support divisions, CJ covers it all. You have read her reports on dirt track racing from the Northeastern quarter of the USA at OntheBullRing.com now tune in every week to hear CJ get down and dirty!

8pm Eastern-Fantasy Insight-Need help with your Fantasy Racing lineup? Each week we go beyond the stats to pick winners! Join Dennis Michelsen and Mike Harper every week as they play head to head in Flip Flops. You can win great prizes by picking the winning fantasy handicapper each week.

8:30pm Eastern-Racing Rock Star with Gannon Hollywood-Gannon is the jackman on the No. 47 NASCAR Busch team, and yes that is his real name! His videos will be featured on SPEED CHANNEL and his exclusive radio show will be heard on www.racetalkradio.com every week!

9pm Eastern-Quick Change- Dennis Michelsen, Mike Harper and Lori Munro bring you cutting edge commentary and their own personal unique spins on the world of all things racing. Our weekly guests will try to keep up! Tune in and just try to hang on every Wednesday night.