the chase has quickly boiled down to a 3 driver race ... the 2008 sprint cup champion will be two-time defending champion jimmie johnson ... or carl edwards (-10) ... or greg biffle (-30)trailing the 3 leaders is a group of 7 drivers between 100 and 200 points behind ... for any one of these drivers to get back into the championship hunt ... he would have to win at least 2 of the 7 remaining races ... be in the top 5 every week the rest of the way ... all while johnson, edwards and biffle were finishing outside the top 10 more often than not ... not gonna happen ... please tell me what jeff burton (-121), kevin harvick (-136), four-time champion jeff gordon (-143), clint bowyer (-164), dale earnhardt, jr (-190) or matt kenseth (-192) have done this season to convince you any one of them can get there ... nada
as for johnson, edwards and biffle finishing out of the top 10 ... in 3 chase races ... the big 3 have finished 1-2-3, 1-3-5 and 1-2-3 ... at new hampshire and dover, 8 of the top 10 finishers were chasers ... and at kansas, 7 of 10 were chasers ... this kind of consistency is the worst enemy of those chasing from 100-200 points behind the leaders
reality is ... the only drivers capable of winning 2 or more of the last 7 races other than the big 3 are kyle busch and kasey kahne ... but kyle is in the "toast in the chase" category ... and kasey isn't chasing
did anyone believe we'd be sitting here 3 races into a 10 race chase ... and all 3 joe gibbs drivers would be out of contention ... toast ... racing for 2009 ... remember back to earler in the season ... back to when toyota seemed to be dominating both nationwide and sprint ... toyota horsepower was the hot topic ... penske dodge finished 1-2 at daytona ... childress drivers finished 1-2-3 at bristol in the spring race ... the hendricks all-star lineup appeared to be underperforming ... and rousch-fenway didn't even seem to be in the discussion ... how the season changes over 36 races
ok, taladega ... used to be white knuckle racing start to finish ... drafting of the most dangerous kinds became the norm ... the big one was always one wrong move away ... airborne, tumbling and flaming race cars were not uncommon ... enter the car of tomorrow ... white knuckles, drafting, the big one ... not so much ... the dynamics are different in the new car ... cars are more spread out now ... they drive in multiple packs ... the push from the draft doesn't seem as dynamic as it used to be ... and these cars don't often take flight or tumble ... i'm wondering if the car of tomorrow has been tested at taladega (or daytona) without the restrictor plate
don't get me wrong here ... drafting is still a critical component to success at taladega ... you still have to have and find and make friends throughout the race to succeed ... so let's just think about the last 50 miles of sunday's race ... of the chasers ... johnson, gordon and earnhardt, jr are teammates ... carl and his mom, biffle and kenseth are teammates ... harvick, burton and bowyer are teammates ... smoke, shrub and the whiner are teammates ... and kasey kahne, brian vickers, a j almandinger, ryan newman and kurt busch could be factors ... so who plays with who ... and how does the chase and the desperate need for points change the dynamics of who plays with who ... hmmm
who plays with who ... johnson and gordon usually play well together ... smoke likes to play with junior and kasey kahne ... junior seems to find playmates everywhere ... everyone wants to play with shrub because he's good ... and nobody wants to play with him cause he's unpredictible ... i'm not sure how well the rousch-fenway drivers play with each other or with others because their restrictor plate program has been unimpressive for the most part ... and im having trouble recollecting much superspeedway partnering of childress drivers ... so what does it all mean ... absolutely nothing ... because when it gets down to the last 50 miles at taladega ... in the middle of the chase to the sprint cup ... with a desperate need for points ... anyone will partner with anyone who will help advance them toward the front ... and not dump them into the sucker hole ... teammates will mean little ... gordon and jr need to beat johnson ... kenseth needs to beat edwards and biffle ... and the jgr boys will be right there trying to sweep the points for themselves
good to see brad keselowski is going to get a couple starts with the big boys ... he's earned it ... driving jr motorsports #88 in the nationwide series ... keselowski has won twice ... with 10 top 5 and 17 top 10 finishes ... he's a solid 3rd in the nationwide standings ... behind sprint cup chasers bowyer and edwards ... keselowski will drive hendricks motorsports #25
in case you missed it ... nhms is working with the town of louden and neighbors toward getting approval to install lights ... hmmm ... if they start racing at 7:30 pm ... and finish by 10:30 pm ... it would be near 1:00 am before the parking lots started emptying onto route 106
anyone have insight as to why red bull is booting a j almendinger just when it seems his team is coming together ... and giving him a chance to show the kind of talented driver he is ... i know, the answer is some kid named scott speed ... who? ... just hope dinger doesn't decide to go back to open wheel racing
2 comments:
great rant! lets see, so many things to comment on. Talladega, its going to be pretty exciting especially coming off an exciting win by Johnson at Kansas. I do hate crazy cousin Carl, but i did gain a little respect for him this past weekend after trying to slam dance the wall to attempt to steal a win. Got to love the passion! His comments in the post race interview were priceless "It has worked a few times in video games..."
Poor JGR, i cant help thinking that the issues over the summer with the horse power in the nationwide series has affected the organization as a whole, some focus has been lost on the cup side and all three cars are be affected. Amazing how the mighty do fall... Lots can be said about this, bad decisions made by a few members in the organization....but lets set that aside for now and go back to the beginning, where i think the problems started...NASCAR gives the teams the "box" to play in, jgr made a better engine with more horse power and reliability, they kicked everyone’s ass...NASCAR then came in and said "you are doing too good at your job and its not "fair" to the other teams that cant figure it out. so we need to take away some of what you have..." That’s just nuts!! its like mlb saying that john lester is too good of a pitcher, so for now we are going to cut his thumb off so the other teams will have a more fair advantage....fair??...sometimes NASCAR just pisses me off!
I wouldn’t count Gordon out just yet. The team has shown some impressive moves in the last couple of weeks. Jeff’s entire organization has just gone up a couple of notches with the awesome display at Kansas. Looks like Jeff and Steve and finally on the same page. Poor guy was down and out all week with a nasty cold, could have gotten out of the car around lap 20, but he didn’t he stuck in there. It took Biffle 30 laps to pass him on the last lap of the race. It would be ironic if he did win the cup this year, after being behind all year long, when last year he lost the cup after being so far ahead coming into NHMS.
Speaking of New Hampshire. I need to take a look at the seasons tickets, with the economy changing I’ll bet that some of the season ticket holders are going to decide to release their tickets……I would love to get my hands on the seats we were in this year……
two thoughts before i head off to bed
thanks for your words of encouragement for my driver ... no doubt he has done better the past 2 weeks ... 7th at dover and 4th at kansas ... but like the others, jeff isn't in control of his own destiny ... he can all of a sudden start winning again ... he could even win a couple races ... but unless johnson, edwards AND biffle falter ... and more than once or twice ... it's going to be awful hard for jeff to gain enough on the leaders to make much difference
with access to sirius nascar programming ... you surely know more about the toyota horsepower issue you refer to ... i'm familiar with nascar's seemingly annual in-season adjustments to even the playing field among manufacturers ... but i don't recall reading anything about such mandates or adjustments this season ... if changes were made, how did it negatively impact kyle busch ... who seemed to still be at the top of his game until 3 incredibly ill-timed engine related failures ... in the final 3 races before new hampshire, gibbs drivers finished 2-3-8 at bristol ... 3-7-22 at california ... and 2-3-15 at richmond
and, while there isn't much chance mlb is going to cut off the thumb of a star of the future in the making ... there is precident for the type scenario you suggest ... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3553475
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