FanHouse Warmup: Russ Friedman 400

Where: Richmond Int'l Raceway
Time: Saturday 7:30 p.m./EDT
TV/Radio: FOX Sports, MRN Radio
Twitter: Live updates at FanHouseRacing
Forecast: 60 degrees, 60% chance of rain
Distance: 400 laps (300 miles)
Pole Winner: Brian Vickers
2008 Winner: Clint Bowyer

Who in the world is Russ Friedman? After winning a promotion though Crown Royal, Saturday night's presenting sponsor, Friedman earned himself naming rights to the event in a program that's been going for a few years now.

Friedman, as it turns out, is a veteran of the war in Iraq and has received -- count 'em -- two purple hearts during his service.

"When I found out in Daytona that I was the winner, I knew I wanted to use the race to celebrate all those individuals who protect our country every day," said Friedman in a press release. "I just hope I can do my part to make my fellow soldiers proud this weekend in Richmond."

Crown Royal has helped Friedman's mission by supplying tickets to service members at many races this season, making 'Thank You' signs for Saturday night's crowd and sending various racing-related merchandise to soldiers stationed overseas.

Last fall, it was a tropical storm that forced the Saturday night event into a Sunday afternoon start, and it appears Mother Nature wants to spoil the show again for Saturday night's race.

Sporadic rain that has been moving across the midwest at a snail's pace has seemed to set in around the Richmond region, leaving the forecast for Saturday for scatterd thunderstorms and Saturday night with a 60 percent chance that the region will get doused with precipitation.

Sunday doesn't look any better, forecast-wise, so NASCAR might be in for a long night to get this one done. We'll keep the fingers crossed.

Roush-Fenway Racing doesn't seem to have improved since the last time it was at a short track. During the season's first two small track events at Martinsville and Bristol, the five car team managed just one Top-10 finish with Jamie McMurray's 10th-place at Bristol.

All five cars will start Saturday night's 400-lapper from 20th or worse with Greg Biffle (starting 20th) leading the pack. David Ragan lines up 22nd, Jamie McMurray 27th, Matt Kenseth 35th and last week's aerial performance winner Carl Edwards starting 37th.

The problem, many of the drivers have said, is that Roush's flat track program is just behind right now.

Twitter has just gotten that much cooler after Motorsports FanHouse officially opted to jump on board this week. We're still new at this, but we'd love to have all you Twitterheads on-board for yet another way to get some breaking NASCAR news and live race updates.

Yep, fire up the cell or the ol' Commodore 64 and follow us at twitter.com/FanHouseRacing for tonight's Russ Friedman 400. It's like a live blog that you can do at your couch!

David Poole's legacy in this sport isn't something that soon move on, and that's deservedly so. FH's Holly Cain talked about his impact earlier this week after the Charlotte Observer NASCAR beat writer passed away suddenly at the age of 50, and it was impossible to find another NASCAR news site that didn't have concurring opinions.

I'm not in any status to write at length about him, but in the sole meeting we had he proved why all of those kind words came flowing this week. He was approachable, respectful, and in my case, gave a complete stranger the time of day to discuss briefly the future of journalism in NASCAR. Most importantly, the fans lost a huge voice of reason in the ever-muddy world that is NASCAR racing.

In a move of utmost respect this week, NASCAR has asked that all tracks remaining in the 2009 schedule leave an empty seat in the media center each week in memory of Poole, and also several teams will be sporting decals Saturday night in honor of his work and contribution to the sport.

Here's to hoping that his family truly understands our gratefulness for sharing him with us for the last 13 years.


I ripped Denny Hamlin a year ago for his on-track antics that brought out an intentional yellow flag and likely changed the outcome of the race, but in the year since he's showed a better level of maturity (see: Martinsville 2009) and an overwhelming competitive desire to be more than just a has-been in Sprint Cup.

None of that, of course, matters when it comes to predicting Saturday's night's winner other than looking at his stats from a year ago. Hamlin led an astounding 381 of the 407 laps ran a year ago in Richmond before a flat tire stopped his all-but-guaranteed ascent to victory lane. There's no reason to believe he can't do the same tonight at the track that is truly his hometown speedway.

He'll roll off 3rd.

Geoffrey Miller: Denny Hamlin

Closing note: Just realized that this post marks my 1,000th entry to this ever-growing world of FanHouse since my start in March of 2007. FanHouse has grown tremendously and I'm grateful for everyone who has stopped by our little corner of the web to make this successful. It's been one helluva ride, and here's to at least a couple thousand more. Thank you!

Enjoy the race.