Bleacher Report - Articles by Bryan Davis Keith

Richard Petty Motorsports To Leave Dodge Camp? All Signs Point to Yes

Bryan Davis Keith — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:55:44 -0400

With the announcement today that Richard Petty Motorsports drivers Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler are to share a Braun Racing ride in a limited Nationwide Series schedule this summer and fall, the question has to be asked:

Why are two of Dodge's biggest names going to be driving cars for a Toyota operation?

The answer may be far more significant than the announcement that Kahne and Sadler are going to run a few Nationwide races and may be an indicator of things to come for RPM's Cup operation.

At the start of the 2009 campaign, it seemed the consummate marriage for Dodge...the merger of Petty Enterprises, an operation that brought unparalleled success to the manufacturer, and Gillett Evernham Motorsports, the organization that led Dodge back into NASCAR in 2001.

And on the surface, 2009 has had some positive stories for the RPM teams. They managed to bring Elliott Sadler back into the fold after an ugly spat that saw him briefly lose his seat in the No. 19 Dodge.

Kasey Kahne is a legitimate contender for a spot in the Chase. And the team has done well to extend AJ Allmendinger's Sprint Cup schedule from eight to 26 Cup races, making a full-season campaign for the No. 44 team a real possibility.

Look closer. Things are not all well in the RPM camp and a manufacturer change is a very plausible scenario.

Despite having a bevy of sponsors on their cars during any given race weekend, a look at some of the team's tangible practices at the track suggest that cash is not plentiful for this four-car squad.

Only in the last month has RPM started running Dodge's new motor, a package that Penske Racing has used to great competitive advantage thus far in 2009.

And even though they've now started running the new motor, that only applies to one of the team's cars (Kasey Kahne's).

Need further proof?

Consider this example from last month's race at Richmond. With Elliott Sadler and AJ Allmendinger both running off the lead lap and battling for a shot at the lucky dog, both teams were told that RPM was out of tires and that they were not going to buy two sets for both teams' final runs.

Reporting that you've run out of tires may be commonplace in ARCA or even the Nationwide ranks, but to hear a factory-backed Cup operation unwilling or unable to buy enough tires for their race cars is eye-opening.

That's all, but a smoking gun that there are significant money troubles in the house of Petty...a fact that's been confirmed.

Last week in an interview with The Sporting News, co-owner Richard Petty acknowledged that Chrysler's recent bankruptcy has halted the flow of factory cash into RPM's coffers.

"We have money that was due April 30 that has not been received yet and probably won't be received for several weeks...they've stopped everything."

And while Petty in the same interview made clear that Dodge has assured his operation that they remain committed to NASCAR in the face of their current financial troubles, the news coming out of the RPM camp on Monday begs the question...is RPM able to stay committed to Dodge?

Take a look at the two stories coming from the Petty camp Monday. The Associated Press reported that RPM laid off nine employees while reducing salaries across their entire organization as a result of the Chrysler bankruptcy...and the factory cash that's no longer coming in.

And in a press release distributed late Monday afternoon, the two biggest name drivers in the RPM camp, with the team's Cup sponsors in tow, have been scheduled to contest five Nationwide Series races in Braun Racing entries.

Braun Racing fields Toyotas.

And note this quote from Elliott Sadler in the release:

"I'm looking forward to getting back in the Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Nationwide car."

Not the Auto Value Dodge. The Auto Value Nationwide car. In fact, Dodge is mentioned nowhere in the press release. That's a hugely significant detail that all but affirms that Kahne and Sadler will be driving Camrys instead of Chargers.

Money problems, confirmation that Dodge's bucks have indeed been halted, and now announcements that two of Dodge Motorsports' flagship drivers will be getting behind the wheel of another manufacturer's car...with Dodge Cup sponsors on the hood.

Dodge can affirm all they want their support of NASCAR. But the future is now for their Cup teams. They don't need assurances, they need money.

They need it now.

And in the case of Richard Petty Motorsports, an organization that may well have bit off more than they could chew fielding four full-time cars, that need for cash may well trump their own commitment to Dodge.

Joey Logano's ARCA Win at Pocono Valuable Seat Time: The Stats Prove It

Bryan Davis Keith — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:05:00 -0400

There's really no way to put a spin on it...Joey Logano made winning the Pocono 200 ARCA race on Saturday look really easy.

It took him only 15 laps to get to the front of the pack. His toughest competition on the track, Parker Kligerman, fell victim to multiple left front tire failures and was unable to mount a steady charge against Logano's Toyota.

And polesitter Justin Lofton had absolutely nothing for Logano on a late restart, leaving him completely unmolested for the race's final five lap run.

One look at the straightaway speed that Logano's Toyota had made it very clear that his No. 25 Camry was the class of the field, and that a handful of competitors, if that, actually had a chance to contend with him for this victory.

But, despite a disparity in equipment that made the Pocono 200 Logano's even before the green flag dropped, the decision to put "Sliced Bread" in a race that he was sure to dominate was an astute one by the folks at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Because as recent Cup history has shown, getting Cup rookies seat time in an ARCA car at Pocono has proven invaluable...and the statistics back that claim up. Just look at the recent history of Cup rookies that have run ARCA's 200 milers on the Pennsylvania triangle.

In 2003, Casey Mears won ARCA races on back to back days prior to the Cup show in July (the June ARCA race was rained out). That Sunday, he led eight laps (more than he led the rest of the season combined) and was running on the lead lap before a late race wreck (he finished off the lead lap in his first Cup start at Pocono in June).

2004 saw Scott Riggs come from the back of the field to hold off Ken Schrader and win the 200-miler in June. The next day in the Cup show, Riggs turned in a 16th place finish. When the Cup circuit returned to Pocono in July, Riggs didn't run the ARCA race, and ended up finishing the Cup show outside the top 20.

Travis Kvapil dominated the 2005 ARCA race in June, winning from the pole in a Penske-prepared Dodge before finishing 17th in the Cup race. Upon returning in July, with no ARCA seat-time, Kvapil finished 38th in the Pennsylvania 500.

Even David Stremme, who after winning the pole for the June ARCA race in 2006 managed to complete only two laps before bowing out with transmission failures, posted a better finish in the June Cup race than in the July event.

In fact, the only two Cup rookies since 2003 to run the June ARCA race at Pocono and not post improved Cup results with the extra seat time are Paul Menard and Johnny Sauter...two drivers that have shown no aptitude for Pocono, period.

In their respective Cup careers, Menard and Sauter have average career finishes of 30.2 and 38.0, respectively. Plus, Menard struggled all through Cup happy hour practice on Saturday, posting the 36th fastest time while being outrun by teams including Furniture Row Racing and TRG Motorsports.

It's naive to think that because Logano was able to convincingly put the ARCA field to rest on Saturday that he's ready to score a Cup victory in Sunday's Pocono 500.

But past history has shown that the seat-time and the confidence that he gained Saturday will translate into cold hard results. A top 20 finish tomorrow would be another solid performance for a youngster that's starting to figure out big-time stock car racing.

Kyle Busch's Shots at Dale Jr.: Head-Scratching at Best

Bryan Davis Keith — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:35:16 -0400

You've got to give ESPN credit...they make their favorites the news.

And like Tim Tebow has become the face of college football, Ed Hinton and the rest of ESPN's racing team has made Kyle Busch the focus of all things NASCAR in 2009.

This weekend, when asked about personnel changes with the No. 88 team, Busch took a swipe both at Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport's most popular driver, and the same Hendrick Motorsports organization that booted him for Jr. following the 2007 season.

And while even Dale Jr. has admitted that some of what Busch said has merit to it, it doesn't change the fact that Busch's comments regarding his fellow competitor and former team were, well head-scratching.

Let's put 2009 in perspective. Yes, Dale Jr. has had a rough season as a driver. Between missing his pit stall on numerous occasions during pit stop cycles and incidents such as triggering a "big one" in the Daytona 500, it's not surprising that he's sitting 19th in points, well over 200 markers out of the Chase.

And yes, it was definitely time for a change atop the pit box of the No. 88 car. Because while Dale Jr. has been off his game, Tony Eury Jr. has also done nothing to alleviate the handling woes that have plagued his Chevrolets.

The past race weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Jr. fell through the field like a rock as soon as the green flag dropped. Jr.'s car was so loose that he was having to save his car every single time he exited Turn Four.

The 40th place finish that resulted was the worst performance in his accomplished career short of a 2004 race at Las Vegas that saw Jr. forced to the garage when his No. 8 car couldn't meet minimum speed on the track.

Had Busch made these comments or statements, there would have been no controversy whatsoever. Had this been the extent of the remarks, Jr. would have spoken accurately: "Kyle's right."

But the most hated driver in the sport today couldn't stop at making these observations. He just had to take his shots.

On Dale Jr. the driver: "It's never Junior. It's always the crew chief."

"If Junior doesn't run well, he [interim crew chief Lance McGrew] will be the problem again."

ESPN writer and avid Kyle Busch fan (whether he'll admit it or not) Hinton wrote that Earnhardt's statements in later interviews made it clear that Jr. agreed with Busch and that Busch, while candid, was right.

Wrong.

Read Earnhardt's comments for yourself. Yes, Earnhardt acknowledges that his new crew chief McGrew will face the most intense scrutiny of any driver in the Cup garage. And yes, Earnhardt is well aware it is ultimately him that will dictate whether or not he truly lives up to the legacy of his father.

Those statements, however, do not come close to meaning, as Hinton so craved to put it, "Kyle was right."

In fact, they're just the latest example of statements/actions that have kept NASCAR's most prolific winner and one of its greatest talents from becoming something more than the polarizing figure that he is right now.

For Busch to assert that "it's always the crew chief" when it comes to Dale Jr. is completely inaccurate and short-sighted.

First of all, the struggles that Jr. have endured so far in 2009 are the exception, not the norm, with regards to his career.

For crying out loud, Jr. has more NASCAR national championships and Cup wins than Kyle Busch. Plus he's got that nifty little Harley J. Earl trophy that Busch wants, oh so bad.

When talking about Dale Jr., one may not be talking about a career that rivals that of his legendary, 7-time Cup champion father, but a career with 18 Cup wins, a Daytona 500 triumph, and two Busch Series crowns is hardly something to dismiss.

And it's hardly the resume of someone that's consistently being saved by blaming the crew chief. Dale Jr. is a supremely talented race car driver, and the results say just that.

What Busch's comments ignore is that in this sport, no matter how good the driver, driver/crew chief relationships do go stale. Dale Earnhardt Sr. had to change crew chiefs during his career, as has Jeff Gordon...and those two have 11 Cup titles between them.

More than anything though, Busch's decision to take shots at his replacement driver and the team that cut him smells of sour grapes and jealousy.

And why should the hottest driver in NASCAR be jealous?

Despite all the money Toyota has pumped into Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports is still the reigning Cup champion. Despite all the wins that Busch has racked up (many by massacring the minor league ranks of NASCAR), the younger Earnhardt is still by far the fan favorite driver.

And despite all the best efforts of Darrell Waltrip and ESPN, the majority of race fans out there don't care to see Rowdy in victory lane.

Sure, the No. 88 team has not done what the No. 18 has since Busch switched seats. But the world over at Hendrick Motorsports has kept on spinning, even without God's gift to racing behind the wheel.

And to be asinine enough to buy from a dejected Kyle Busch that an organization like Hendrick Motorsports and a driver the caliber of Dale Jr. are simply making excuses is just that, asinine.

That's ESPN's NASCAR coverage, and Kyle Busch, for you.

Carpentier for Green the Wrong Move for SK Motorsports, No. 07 Team

Bryan Davis Keith — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:12:53 -0400

A note of interest on the entry list for Friday's Nationwide Series race at Darlington surfaced earlier this week. SK Motorsports announced that Patrick Carpentier, a Rookie of the Year contender in the Sprint Cup Series ranks in 2008, replaces the team's regular driver, David Green, in a one-off deal.

A shakeup in the cockpit is not surprising for the No. 07 team. Through the season's first nine races, Green has scored only one top 15 finish.

But this is Darlington, meaning the Nationwide Series is tackling NASCAR's most difficult oval on Friday.

SK Motorsports' decision to yank the 1994 NASCAR Busch Series champion and a veteran driver in Green for Carpentier, who has made only one Darlington start in his two-year stock car career and who hasn't raced in NASCAR all season is perplexing at best.

The decision doesn't appear to be sponsor-driven. As of Thursday night, no announcement regarding a partner for the unsponsored No. 07 team has been issued.

That leaves performance on the track as the deciding factor. There, Carpentier doesn't come close to stacking up to Green.

Carpentier made his only Darlington start last season at the Cup level. He was fast in the early going, but after heavy contact with the wall and lengthy pit work for repairs, the former open-wheeler was mired in traffic until his engine expired.

The 40th place finish was far from sterling.

As for Green, while his resume at Darlington suggests that the Lady in Black is not one of his best tracks, it offers far more hope than an inexperienced stock car driver with one race under his belt.

Green has made 24 starts in his Nationwide Series career at Darlington, with five top-10 finishes to his credit.

More importantly, Green's career average finish at the track is in the top 20, and he has scored four lead lap finishes in his last five starts.

Green likely would not have contended for the win on Friday, but he more than likely would have finished.

And that's all the No. 07 team needs on the treacherous egg-shaped circuit this weekend.

Though they sit in the top 25 in the owner points, the No. 07 team has less than a 100 point cushion over 31st, the owner's point cutoff between racing into the field and being locked in to the race.

If you go by the numbers where Carpentier and Green finish on average, that's a 60-point swing this weekend alone (43 points for 40th, 103 for 20th).

Plus, as team owner Armando Fitz should know after last year, driver by committee is not conducive to improving a team's performance on the track.

Last year, Fitz's No. 22 car scored four top-15 finishes in the season's first six races with Mike Bliss behind the wheel.

After Bliss left and Fitz allowed his car's seat to become a revolving door, his team posted four more top 15s—in the season's final 29 races.

With SK Motorsports being a new operation, it is hard to fathom why the team would throw the consistency of having a past champion in their car who's been there all year away to give a driver still in the infancy of a stock car career the keys.

This isn't meant to be a knock on Carpentier. He got the short end of the stick considering his efforts at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports last year.

But it's likely going to be SK Motorsports getting the short end of this deal.

Wake Forest Football Spring Game at Home at Doc Martin Practice Complex

Bryan Davis Keith — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:45:41 -0400

Somehow, in my four years as a student at Wake Forest, I never managed to make a spring football game. Whether I was out of town for conferences, sick, or in the case of my freshman year unable to wake up on time, I managed to miss every spring game during my time in college.

That said, this year was the first time I ever attended Wake Forest's spring game, and as I was driving to Winston-Salem this morning I consistently kept asking myself "Why are we not playing at BB&T Field?"

And, reflecting on the afternoon's scrimmage and my experience attending it, I'll never ask that question again. The Doc Martin Practice Complex is the right location for our football program's first showing of the season.

Sure, the practice facility isn't the most fan-friendly of venues. With Earth Day, guest lectures and a million other things going on on campus this Saturday, parking was in short supply for those who didn't want to walk from one end of the campus to the other.

Further, once fans made their way into the practice complex, seating was at a premium, and a number of people found themselves climbing the uncut hills around the facility to try and get a better view of the field.

However, these minor annoyances did little to take away from what I found to be a truly unique college football experience.

Arriving about an hour prior to kickoff, it was very cool to see campus, rather than the off-campus stadium, abuzz with visitors, all decked out in their black and gold.

Everywhere I looked, Wake fans of all ages were out in force, the energy level similar to that of an actual game day. Everyone was excited to be there.

What's more, in addition to perfect weather and a game day atmosphere on campus, scrimmaging on the practice fields allowed for some picturesque sights that were breathtaking for Wake fans.

Just getting the chance to stand in the corner of the south end zone and watch Riley Skinner drop back to pass with the steeple of Wait Chapel in the background made the six hour drive all worth it.

More importantly, since the scrimmage was on a practice field, not in a stadium, all of the fans that showed up got to stand on the sidelines with their team. And Deacon football supporters took advantage.

Another of my favorite moments of the day came when Jordan Williams dropped a wide open pass on the sideline. On the next play, Skinner went right back to Williams, who made a superb catch down the sideline that put his side in scoring position.

Ball in hand, play made, dozens of Wake fans got a chance to give Williams a personal thumbs up, telling their receiver that he made a nice play and knowing he heard it.

Meanwhile, younger Wake fans all got to see their local heroes up close and personal, even getting to toss their own footballs around on the field following the scrimmage.

This was truly a community event, and truly representative of the community Wake Forest University prides itself on. Everyone, the players, the coaches, the fans, all got to be on the field Saturday, not a few miles away in the shadow of Deacon Tower, but on the campus that is our team's home.

Sure, when compared to Alabama packing 90,000 fans into Bryant-Denny Stadium, Wake's spring game might seem amateur.

But, even though Jim Grobe and his program continue to turn WFU football into a program capable of contending with the best in the nation, it's important to remember that no matter how many bowl games the Deacons go to, how many ACC titles they contend for, Wake Forest will never be an Alabama.

The Wake Forest football community, just like the University it represents, is a small and tight-knit unit. And that community felt right at home, on campus, at Doc Martin on Saturday.

Morgan Shepherd: A Racer Who Just Won't Quit

Bryan Davis Keith — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:02:43 -0400

I didn’t start following NASCAR until the 2003 season, and entered that year as a curious viewer with absolutely no knowledge of the sport’s history or its competitors. Thus, I had absolutely no clue who Morgan Shepherd was.

All I saw was a 60 plus year old man who just couldn’t give up a sport that had seemingly passed him by. 2003 saw Shepherd qualify for only two Sprint Cup races, scoring last place finishes in them both.

In fact, until 2008 I saw Shepherd running at the finish of only three of the 89 races that he started across NASCAR’s top three national divisions.

So when he announced that he was planning to run a full Nationwide Series schedule in his own No. 89 cars, I didn’t give it a second thought, dismissing his campaign as nothing more than the same field-filling I’d seen him engaging in for the past five years.

And for the first nine races of 2008, it was more of the same. Shepherd failed to qualify for the events at Daytona and Mexico City, while failing to finish the other seven that he did make the field for.

Then came Talladega.

As usual, the restrictor-plate racing offered at the high-speed Alabama oval resulted in a great deal of attrition, with lots of the fastest cars bowing out early with crash damage. Shepherd, meanwhile, stayed in the back of the pack and missed the wrecks.

Once the field thinned out, the then 66 year-old driver put the pedal to the floor and into the lead drafting pack, cracking the top 10 for much of the race’s final 30 laps and even challenging for the lead at one point.

By day’s end, Shepherd finished on the lead lap in the 13th position, a finish that turned eyes everywhere from the garage to the grandstands.

What did Shepherd do after this? Excited, he surprised everyone in the racing community when he called-in as a guest to Tony Stewart’s radio show the following week.

The call proved fruitful; impressed both with Shepherd’s top 15 finish the weekend prior plus his unvarnished enthusiasm to still be racing, Stewart and announcer Matt Yocum decided to pick up Shepherd’s tire bill for the upcoming race at Richmond.

Shepherd accepted the tires, and completed the race at Richmond in 28th, his best short track finish in any form of NASCAR racing since 2001.

The week after that, with tires again bought and paid for, Shepherd tamed the famed “Lady in Black” that is Darlington Raceway, finishing in the 16th position while outrunning some of the Sprint Cup Series’ brightest stars, including Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin.

Shepherd ended his 2008 campaign with eight top 25 finishes while finishing 29th in the Nationwide Series standings. Suddenly Shepherd wasn’t the old guy who couldn’t let go anymore.

Instead the Nationwide Series had a 67 year-old racer on their hands, defying the odds with a skeleton crew and race cars that carried the decals not of big corporate sponsors, but of Racing with Jesus ministries.

And the NASCAR community took notice. While star drivers including Cup champions Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart picked up the tire bill for Shepherd on numerous occasions in 2008, Kevin Harvick took that one step further, offering Shepherd technical help where he could at the track through his own Kevin Harvick, Incorporated operation.

I’ll never forget the sight of seeing the elder Shepherd jump from his underdog ride after practice at the Nationwide race in Charlotte in October, only to sprint through the garage straight to Harvick’s hauler, eager to hear from a driver more than two decades younger than he anything he could do to his machine to qualify for the night’s race (he failed to make the field that night nonetheless).

More importantly, Harvick gave Shepherd a special gift for the 2009 campaign…one of his own KHI Chevrolets.

And Shepherd has put his new hot rod to work. Not only has he qualified for the first four races of the 2009 Nationwide Series season, he posted two top 20 finishes at Fontana and Las Vegas. Both of these western tracks are long, horsepower driven and heavily dependent on aerodynamics. In short, they’re a nightmare for underdog teams.

That didn’t stop Shepherd from outrunning multi-million dollar super-teams from Joe Gibbs Racing, JR Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing.

And that’s why, despite having endured two destructive crashes at Bristol two weeks ago that left his prize KHI Chevrolet a mangled wreck, I don’t see Shepherd missing the field for this weekend’s upcoming Nationwide Series race at Texas. Nor do I see him having a hard time being competitive.

Morgan Shepherd is not going to win the 2009 Nationwide Series title. Chances are but nil he’ll even come close to winning a single race. But, even pushing 70, Shepherd is playing with the big boys of NASCAR racing today.

With minimal sponsorship and technical support, he is accomplishing more on the race track than youngsters less than a third his age.

That may not rival the exploits of Shaquille O’Neal or Kurt Warner in many sports fans’ eyes. But to those who follow NASCAR and know how hard it is for underdog racers today, it truly is something significant.

See you in Fort Worth, Morgan.

Bristol Comes Just In Time for Brad Keselowski and the No. 88 Team

Bryan Davis Keith — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:54:44 -0400

Brad Keselowski must feel a lot like Mark Martin these days.

Despite coming into 2009 as a title contender, with top-notch equipment from Hendrick Motorsports and a solid race team around him, everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s protégé in 2009. A late brush with the wall at Daytona and two wrecks not of his own making out West have left Keselowski 22nd in points, with no top 20 finishes in the first three races of the Nationwide Series season.

Bristol Motor Speedway may just be the most beautiful thing young Keselowski has seen in a while. The first short-track of the season is not only a venue that Keselowski has enjoyed tremendous success at, it's a chance to return his short-track roots and to get his pursuit of a Nationwide Series title on track.

Keselowski's history in the Nationwide ranks at Bristol has been impressive. In his first start at the bullring back in 2007, in the underdog No. 23 of Keith Coleman Racing, he posted a 12th place qualifying run, which was the best the team had ever earned. And though he was involved in an early race incident that removed him from contention, Keselowski earned valuable exposure, both on TV and off, with his efforts.

Later that season, after landing in the driver's seat of the competitive No. 88 Chevrolet at JR Motorsports, Keselowski's true short track abilities shone through, as he finished seventh in the notorious Bristol night race.

Fast forward to 2008, and his No. 88 entry finished fourth in a rain-shortened spring race that saw both he and Mike Bliss running down eventual race winner Clint Bowyer before the weather turned sour.

This constant improvement at the track peaked in the August race later that season. Second in points behind the same Clint Bowyer that bested him in the spring, Keselowski ran a masterful race coming from the back quarter of the field, moving into the second position late in the running and stalking Bowyer's No. 2 Chevrolet. And his cool, collected pursuit paid off.

With 24 laps to go, Bowyer slightly bobbled entering a corner, and Keselowski made him pay with a quick, clean pass for the lead. Bowyer rode all over Keselowski's No. 88 for the duration, but never was able to force a mistake, as the youngster from Michigan headed to Bristol's Victory Lane in only his fourth outing at the track.

Considering this, what better place to get the 2009 campaign back on track for the No. 88 team?

The JR Motorsports brigade has had cars to contend for the win at every track on the circuit thus far, and now that the Nationwide Series is returning to the short track racing that Keselowski first made a name for himself in, everything points to a great weekend being in the cards for this bunch.

And they need one. With Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards both proving stout in the early season races, the No. 88 crew is out of mulligans already if they want to stay in the title chase. For a Nationwide regular team such as Keselowski's to compete against two of the best the Cup Series has to offer, the top five finishes and wins have to start coming now, not later.

Coming from a largely short-track background, it's not surprising that Keselowski has proven a force to be reckoned with at BMS. And it wouldn't be surprising to see him follow up his win in August with another this Saturday.