John Andretti
NASCAR Season Midway Review
Well, Kyle Busch capped off the season’s midway point at Daytona with his 10th career win and his sixth this season.
NASCAR’s premier series is in their first full year with the Car of Today, and it has undergone some criticism. It actually got so out of hand that NASCAR President Mike Helton called a mandatory meeting to tell drivers to basically, “Shut up and drive.”
The first half of the Sprint Cup Series season has provided NASCAR fans with some good, bad, and very ugly races.
On paper, for the most part, this is a record breaking season for competition. The California race had a record 33 lead changes, the Coca-Cola 600 had 2,580 green flag passes, that was up almost 900 from the 2007 Coca-Cola 600. The Michigan race tied a track-best 3,204 green flag passes.
NASCAR is getting more coverage than ever. TV Ratings are up for the most part from last year. Although some tracks are struggling with attendance, tracks are still selling out.
NASCAR is also going through some economic hardships. Sponsors willing to fork out millions of dollars a year are few and far between. Teams are shutting down, Petty Enterprises sold 50% of their company to Boston Ventures.
The competiton is also even, all four manufacturer’s have won at least three races. All four manufacturer’s are represented in the top 12 in driver points. There has been 10 different race winners, 11 different pole winners, 74 drivers have attempted to qualify for at least one Sprint Cup Series race, and 46 driver had led at least one lap. All evidence that NASCAR has accomplished one goal — make competitors and manufacturer’s even. Chevy no longer has a stangle hold on the field. In fact, the first Chevy in the top last week at Daytona will Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished 8th.
Also, Hendrick Motorsports is apparently struggling. Despite the fact that they only have two wins, and have three of their drivers in the top six in points. At this point in the season, Hendrick Motorsports drivers had 10 wins.
Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, and Ryan Newman all led the points standings for the first time in their careers this year. And, Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle are back! They are both back in the top 12, and Kahne has two wins so far.
And don’t forget. The most-popular driver is showing that he indeeds deserves the attention. He ended a two year winless streak with a win at Michigan, he has matched his 2007 numbers already, which is answering the question on how Dale Jr. would perform in 2008 after leaving DEI in 2007. The answer — Great!
Speaking of DEI, recently, sources close to DEI are reporting that DEI could be sold to Max Siegel for as much as $130 million, which would take Teresa out of the picture. This is still developing, but could get very interesting.
And, you can’t talk about the 2008 season without talking about Silly Season — 2009 edition.
Rumors have been circulating and some are very tasteful.
Sources yesterday confirmed that Joe Gibbs Racing will go to four teams, and Juan Pablo Montoya would be the driver. Now, wouldn’t that be a combination. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Juan Pablo Montoya. Add Joey Logano in the 20 after Stewart leaves to buy into Haas CNC Racing with Ryan Newman as a teammate, and you get headlines for the rest of the year.
Sources close to Tony Stewart say that he is expected to announce his future plans as soon as Indianapolis in two weeks.
As Silly Season continues to unfold, and the season heats up for the chase — stay tuned to NASCAR FanZone for all your NASCAR updates.
Race Re-Cap: “Cowboy” Carl Is King In “The House of Roush”
Alright, alright! Those talking heads that predicted a Carl Edwards victory are smarter than I am. I’m o.k. with that. Today was a day of vindication for a couple of men who had taken a beating over a couple of incidents this season. A couple of good men.
Add those 100 points that Edwards got docked and he’d be 4th in the Cup standings now. Deduction or not, regardless of how of why the oil tank lid came off at Vegas to produce the deduction of points, you’d have to agree that Carl Edwards looks like no less than a top five driver in the 2008 season. The 28 year old roped the wind and held on on a day that a lot of people could not.
For a while, Junior looked like the man- the #88 looked every bit as stout at the onset as it did Friday, with Edwards and Kyle Busch giving a push. Unfortunately for Lil’ “E,” he kept fading on long runs and with the speeds at Texas that produce few cautions (I lost track but I think we had a new record for fewest cautions), Earnhardt was just cursed. The longer they’d run, the looser Junior would get- and there just didn’t seem to be an answer for it. Busch’s story wasn’t radically different. I thought Darrell Waltrip’s comment that Shrub would’ve wrecked that car last year was a keen insight. Busch fought the car, and the car won- but this time Kyle wasn’t stupid about and held on for a solid 3rd place finish.
Edwards’ teammate Matt Kenseth looked as though he might have something for the Missourian. Until a near miss with Juan Pablo Montoya, Kenseth had a good stretch of leading. I’ll bet Kenseth misses Robbie Reiser. It just seems weird to have one of the best pit bosses ever making calls for somebody other than the #17. Kenseth was strong, but like the 41 others that didn’t have the #99 painted on the car- he wasn’t quite strong enough.
Jimmie Johnson looked as good today as he has all season. Johnson took a nice long turn as leader and made some exceptional moves today. Johnson really threaded the needle on a couple of passes and did a great job of hanging onto his Chevy when it got loose. Still, in post race interviews, Johnson admitted he just didn’t have anything for Edwards.
Though Texas Motor Speedway is a track known for parity- we’ve had 13 different winners in 15 Cup races- the Fort Worth track is truly “The House of Roush.” Edwards is the only 2-time winner at TMS, joining Jeff Burton in this select company. Burton’s 1st win at Texas came while driving for “The Cat In The Hat.” Today’s win gives Jack Roush 6 wins at Texas- Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and Mark Martin have won in Roush cars here.
This give me occasion to cut Jack Roush a little slack. I know I’ve made some nasty comments about Roush over “Sway Bargate,” and “Oil Tank Lidgate,” but at the end of the day, he’s one of the savviest minds in the motor sports business. Being the son of a welder/metal fabricator, I can see how Roush might feel a little protective of his handiwork. Roush comes at this with the perspective of an engineer, and it has to be maddening when you find things that you created in somebody else’s shop. I’m not sure the sway bars have done Michael Waltrip any good, but I am growing to understand why Roush made a big deal of it.
Some other random thoughts:
It was nice to see Mark Martin run well today to remind us he’s still got it….It’s a crying shame to see 3 cars in the field with no sponsor on the hood (John Andretti, Travis Kvapil, and David Gilliland)….Nice day for Gilliland to run 15th…David Ragan’s 13th place run proves he’s learning something out there…For all of you that think Jeff Gordon whines too much, I’d say you should’ve seen his in-race interview. No pointing fingers, no whining about the “new car,” just no whining. Period……Some Young Guns sure made some noise…That was quite a dash between Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer at the end…What happened to Kasey Kahne????….
I don’t know this is the best race I’ve ever seen, but as a radio sports guy, I give credit to the FOX boys for some smart insights today. Today was a real education about how a fan could learn about how a car is handling by watching a driver’s hands on the steering wheel.
My “Rocky Balboa Award” goes to Junior and Kevin Harvick. Both of these guys had cars that were horrors and still finished in the top 15. Happy and Earnhardt earned their check today.
I’m not real sure I’m ready to call Edwards a front runner for the Chase this year. And while it’s true that championships aren’t won in April, they can sure be lost in April.
Carl Edwards looks like he really wants to win one.
