Stock Car Planet

Long Term Health of NASCAR With Investors Coming In

2008-10-02T21:38:00.002-05:00

By: Gregg A. Shultz, www.racefanvote.com

There are many things that happen in NASCAR now that have happened in the past and yet still get reported on as monumental events in the sport. Drivers changing teams that you would have never guessed, manufacturers dropping support or even race teams closing their doors completely. It’s all happened before.

The one thing that is different is the number of teams that are merging, selling part ownership to investors or selling out completely to companies who have never been involved in the sport. What’s even more unexpected is that these are not small, one-car teams involved in most cases.

There are not many teams left that are unencumbered by some sort of mutual partnership agreement, partial ownership deal or flat out the name on the building isn’t who owns it anymore situation.

In most cases the agreements are carefully thought out and offer a substantial boost to the team’s well-being, but all of this is still pretty new yet. Partnerships go bad on a daily basis in the real world and deals get sold to entities not of the partner’s choosing or in some cases, dissolved all together.

Imagine that one of the recently formed partnerships gets involved in a situation where there are irreconcilable differences and the business has to be liquidated. There will be no contracts honored, everyone gets a pinks slip and [insert company name here] is no more.

One of the closest examples of that is what happened with Ginn and their ‘merger’ with DEI. There were a lot of personnel as well as drivers left out in the cold on that deal and possibly it is something that could start happening even more with the infrastructure of the current business model developing in the sport.

Understanding the key focus of a competitive race team is simple. They need money to go fast. They go fast and they command more money and then they go faster and win more. The key focus of an investor or marketing company is to make money, period.

Their bottom line might not always agree with the bottom line of performance. How soon will there be an appreciable payoff for buying a 7 million dollar testing rig or wind tunnel? What is the immediate financial benefit to spending a couple of million dollars on testing? The fact is that there is no ‘immediate’ gain. A lot of race teams tested all season long and are just now beginning to see the benefits of it. Will an investment or marketing firm understand that?

Anyone who follows the sport knows that there are always teams that rise and fall as the normal ebb and flow of performance occurs. This is not limited to small teams, as we have even seen it with the ‘super teams’ especially with the implementation of the new style car. How patient will an investor be that is not as familiar with the sport?

It also applies that in the ‘business’ of NASCAR, not every team & driver expects to go out and run in the top 5 every week, nor do they need to in order to keep the race team operational. An investor may not see it the same way and may rather force out a popular veteran driver who is holding his own and put a different driver in the seat.

Some of this might be beginning to rear it’s ugly head with a driver who has a famous name in the sport who has been in the headlines recently as possibly being forced out of his ride. It’s just a rumor at this point, so I will not say any names, but I will say that there is a color of blue named after the [family’s] name.

It will be interesting to see over the next few years how the investor/race team partnerships fair and if it causes any big shake-ups or shutting doors when the money doesn’t flow as freely as originally hoped.

It takes a racer to know how a race team works [and profits] and the expectations of earnings. To repeat a popular saying in the garage area, to make a small fortune in NASCAR, start with a large one…
Let’s just hope that the marketing firms, investors and new partners in the sport understand that performance is still the key to success and will allow the ‘experts’ in racing to have their input. Making money is important, but it’s not the only thing that fuels our sport. The fans will vote with their dollars if there are too many changes made just for the sake of the bottom line.

Vote On The Poll Question At Our Main website Page:
http://www.racefanvote.com/investorsinnascar.html

New or Old NASCAR Points System. Which Do You Like?

2008-09-30T07:42:00.002-05:00

This is one of the topics that always fires up both sides, how the drivers rank in the points with the old system versus the new? Where would your favorite be right now under the old system and more importantly, you least favorite, where would he be?

The proponents of the Chase like the way that it prevents runaways coming to the end of the season as well as citing the fact that talking about the old system doesn’t matter anyway because it isn’t used anymore.

The purists or the old school fans thought that the points system was fine the way it was and if one driver managed to dominate the entire season, then so be it. He was just that good and deserved to be rewarded for how he performed the entire season.

One of the bonuses of the Chase is that it makes the last ten races more exciting, but does it also make the first 26 less important?

There has been talk that maybe some of the teams were ‘sandbagging’ throughout the regular season and waited to show their cards until after the Chase started.

If the drivers in the top spots aren’t worried about the competition that’s chasing them, they might not do that extra test or experiment with something that could make them better, because why? If you were Kyle Busch heading into the Chase, how much testing and experimenting would you think that you needed to do? Probably not much.

Not to say that it is simple to make the Chase, but that is the one thing that did hold constant from the old system to the new, that if you weren’t in the top 12 with ten races to go that you probably weren’t going to win the Championship no matter which system you were under.

It’s doubtful that anyone would ‘sandbag’ themselves to 13th though, but how important is 10 points for winning a race [or eight]? Just ask Kyle Busch.

That leads us to the statistics. Where would the drivers be under the old system versus the new? Look at the lists below and see what jumps out at you first.

New Points System (Current Points After Kansas)
1. Jimmie Johnson 5575
2. Carl Edwards 5565 -10
3. Greg Biffle 5545 -30
4. Jeff Burton 5454 -121
5. Kevin Harvick 5439 -136
6. Jeff Gordon 5432 -143
7. Clint Bowyer 5411 -164
8. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 5385 -190
9. Matt Kenseth 5383 -192
10. Denny Hamlin 5332 -243
11. Tony Stewart 5320 -255
12. Kyle Busch 5264 -311

Old Points System (Points After Kansas)
1. Carl Edwards 4186
2. Jimmie Johnson 4111 -75
3. Kyle Busch 4062 -124
4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 3863 -323
5. Jeff Burton 3828 -358
6. Greg Biffle 3825 -361
7. Kevin Harvick 3722 -464
8. Jeff Gordon 3653 -533
9. Tony Stewart 3605 -581
10. Denny Hamlin 3557 -629
11. Clint Bowyer 3517 -669
12. Matt Kenseth 3515 -671

Probably the first thing that you saw is that Kyle Busch under the old system would be 3rd instead of 12th only 124 points out of 1st even without any ‘bonus’ points.
The second thing that you probably noticed is that even though Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has catapulted up to 4th with the old system, he is 323 points behind 1st.
Currently he is 8th, but only 190 points back. Even the current 12th place Kyle Busch doesn’t have that big of a deficit that the 4th place does under the old system.

Under the old system it would be a lot more of a three-man race at this point in the season than it currently is.
Using the statistic that no driver 400 points out of 1st with 10 races left in the season had ever won the Championship, under the old system, 4th back was eliminated when the first race of the Chase began. I am not sure how popular that would have been now.

The one fact that remains is that no matter what the stats say, there will still be fans that want the old system back no matter how skewed it is heading to Homestead.

There can obviously be an argument made for either way, but so far this season it seems like NASCAR got it right. Even if your favorite driver isn’t up in the top 5, he still has a chance, which is something that might not be if the Chase didn’t exist.
One thing is for sure that it isn’t over and if Kyle Busch still has a mathematical chance to come back with 7 races to go then anyone can. It’s a long shot for any driver to win the Championship, so no one is saying that it’s easy, but your driver still has a chance if he’s in the top Chase. Under the old system… not so much.

To vote on the poll question associated with this story, go to our main website story page:
http://racefanvote.com/neworoldpointssystem.html

Read Vote and Listen Top 5 Best and Worst of Kansas

2008-09-30T07:32:00.003-05:00

The third race of the Chase provided us with a mix of good and bad or known here as the Best and Worst. We will cover some of the highs and lows and give you a chance to vote your picks after reading some facts associated with each choice.

The Best

1. Jimmie Johnson maintaining his Championship form
The no. 48 car started out on top, ran well all day and held off a hard-charging Carl Edwards for his 5th win of the season and 1st in the Chase.
If he goes on to win the championship would be the first driver to win three in a row since Cale Yarborough did it in ’76, ’77 & ’78. Yarborough is the only driver to pull it off so far in the history of the sport.
A driver winning two championships in a row has been accomplished 12 times since 1956 where Buck Baker was the first to get 2 championships [1956 & 1957] back to back.

2. Greg Biffle still in contention with a 3rd place finish at Kansas
The pilot of the no. 16 car fielded by Roush/Fenway Racing is still vying to be the first driver in history to win Championships in all three of the top series in NASCAR, Truck, Nationwide & Cup.
Biffle ran up front all day, but faded just a little towards the end. He managed a last lap pass on Jeff Gordon just before the line to move into 3rd, but was not in contention for his 3rd win in a row. He sits solidly 3rd in points only 30 points out of the top spot. The next driver behind him is Jeff Burton 91 Back.

3. Matt Kenseth coming back from a lap124 spin to finish 5th
After Casey Mears came up and tapped the back bumper of Kenseth on lap number 124, the driver of the no. 17 DeWalt Ford did an incredible job keeping his car controlled through the spin and avoiding damage. After a quick trip to pit road for 4 new tires and fuel, Matt drove his way back in contention and managed a 5th place finish. He is 9th in points 192 out of 1st.

4. A.J. Allmendinger pads his stock car resume
After the announcement that A.J. would not return to drive for Team Red Bull Racing in 2009, the best thing that the open wheel notable could do for his future in NASCAR was to race his way to a top 10 finish in what could possibly be his last race in the no. 84 car. He did just that running up front most of the day ending it out in 9th.

5. The closing laps between Edwards and Johnson
After attempting a dive-bomb pass on the inside of Johnson, Carl Edwards said that he was expecting to hit the wall in a move that he had practiced in the video games, but wasn’t expecting it [the wall] to slow him down as much as he did. Johnson managed to get back past Edwards coming to the checkers earning the win with Edwards remaining in second.
The finishing order at Kansas in the top 3 is also the top 3 drivers in points respectively with Greg Biffle rounding it out 3rd.

The Worst

1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. suffering his mid-race handling issues once again
In a continuing theme, the no. 88 car ran decent through the first half of the race and began to fade at the mid-point. Any adjustments made to try to improve the handling of the car were neutral as he only managed to maintain a position just inside the top 15 up to the conclusion of the race. With an average finish in the Chase of 14th , hopes of Earnhardt getting his first Cup Championship are not looking good.
Even with a lackluster finish of 13th, he did manage to gain of one spot in points to 8th, 190 points out of the lead.

2. Tony Stewart dropping in points and still winless for 2008
In what could have been retaliation for a pit road incident, Tony Stewart got into the no. 83 car driven by Brian Vickers and spun down into the infield grass doing damage to his front splitter. After a lengthy pit stop to repair the damage, Stewart went 7 laps down finishing 40th, dropping 4 positions to 11th in points. Two decent finishes in the first two Chase races and a dismal race at Kansas is probably not how Stewart wanted to close out his JGR/Home Depot career in his fames no. 20 car. The frustrations are liable to come out even more as the season finishes out.

3. Juan Pablo Montoya disqualified from the pole
Rear shock pressure being to high was the verdict for why the no. 42 car’s pole winning qualifying time was disallowed. You might vote this one as the number 1 worst because it was good to see Montoya with his first pole or for the fact that they were cheating.
In an interview with Montoya after he won the pole, but prior to the disqualification, he proclaimed that his crew chief was extremely nervous and apparently rightly so, but for a reason different than Montoya assumed.

4. Joe Gibbs Racing falling to the bottom of the Chase ranks
Despite Denny Hamlin placing 9th at Loudon and 11th most recently at Kansas, his 38th place finish in the 2nd Chase race in Dover has him relinquished to 10th in the points. Just behind him is Tony Stewart 11th and last place, Kyle Busch in 12th. [Kyle gets his own ‘worst’ below].
The wheels have come off of the JGR & Toyota machine big time so soon into the ‘playoffs’ with the biggest surprise being the no. 18 car. If there is another scenario that makes the point better as to how difficult the top level of stock car racing is, there is no telling what that would be. It is the epitome of hero to zero only three races into the Chase.

5. Kyle Busch’s mechanical issues continue shutting the door to the Championship.
For the 3rd race in a row, the regular season points leader going into the Chase, Kyle Busch, showed mechanical issues early at Kansas.
Thinking that the fuel delivery system was malfunctioning, the team had planned to change the carburetor under yellow. It was reported that the team had found something in the intake, but Busch denied that after the race.
Whether they discovered the root of issue or not, the no. 18 car was never a factor in the race and has all but mathematically eliminated himself from the championship.

Any time that we feature a Kyle Busch comment, we have to include it in both the ‘Best & Worst’ column [for voting only] or we get 2,000 emails asking us to do so. Vote away!

To vote, visit our main website with this story page at:

http://racefanvote.com/top5bestandworstkansas.html

You can also find the link for the internet radio broadcast of this topic.

Is The Chase The Best Way To Determine A Champion?

2008-09-12T06:09:00.000-05:00

The Chase is designed to tighten up a ‘runaway’ season in the points, just like a caution does in a race, but does it allow the most deserving driver to win?

Maybe not, but what is the description of the most deserving driver?

This is not an article designed to generate comments about what should be done differently to make the Championship battle better, but more to discuss if what we have is the best possible representation of a true Champion in our sport.

It’s not as tough as it is in the stick and ball sports where in football, for example, a team can win every game of the season and still lose the Championship game and that’s it, they lost.

Stock car racing isn’t near as tough. There is not one, final race that a driver has to necessarily win in order to win the Championship. He can simply perform well throughout the ten race Chase and acquire the most points during that time and be crowned the Champion.

Even with bonus points for wins during the regular season, the points system is still structured to award consistency more than just wins. That is evident from a few seasons back when Kasey Kahne had the most wins going into the Chase and nearly didn’t make it in. Ironically, he has two wins this season and is out of the Chase.

Add in the fact that 5 of the 12 drivers in the Chase have no wins at all in the regular season and the point is made even further.

What about the other end of the spectrum? Kyle Busch has 8 victories so far this season, took the points lead after the second race of the season and only relinquished it once, then quickly took it back. After the points reset he has Carl Edwards hot on his heels just 30 points behind. For the traditionalist, under the old points system Busch would have a 207 point lead over Edwards.

Depending on how the Chase unfolds will no doubt determine the ‘success’ of the Chase system in that if anyone beside Kyle wins the Championship it will have worked perfectly. Especially if under the ‘old’ points system he would win the Championship despite how he performed in the final ten races of the season.

Forget popularity, forget making it more ‘fair’ for all of the drivers in the Chase or more exciting for the fans, is it the right way to determine a Champion in our sport?

The fact of the matter is that if Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had 8 wins so far this season and had locked the Championship up with ten races to go, to a large percentage of the fans the points reset would be the worst thing that NASCAR had ever done. Being that it’s Kyle Busch, not so much.

That’s the problem with any rule or system that the sanctioning body implements in that depending on who the beneficiary is and who it hurts will affect the opinions of it by the fans. It’s what is known as the double edge sword in that it can cut both ways. Don’t forget that this is the system that denied Jeff Gordon his 5th Championship in 2004 and again in 2007. We have all been reminded of that plenty.

Is the fan’s hope that Busch will struggle the last ten races and fall by the wayside? Would that be some sort of vindication of the criticisms of the Chase format if that is the way it works out?

It doesn’t seem fair, but quoting one of the beat writers, David Poole, “Fair is where you buy funnel cakes”.

In using the football analogy, it is no different than in other sports to have a team dominate the season and yet after the reset fall short and lose the title. It just hasn’t been this way in stock car racing.

The Craftsman Truck & Nationwide Series have seemed to work out their points ‘blowouts’ the old fashioned way, by leveling the competition. They do not operate under a ‘playoff’ system and yet in both series the points battle is extremely close as well as exciting.

The end result might wind up be the same, but it just seems more legitimate when the driver who prevails in the series did it unmitigated and steps up to be crowned Champ in New York without any tweaking of the points.

It’s not so much a manipulation of the outcome because all of the drivers have an equal chance to perform well in the final 10 races in the Cup series. Call it more of a mini-series or a microcosm of the season that will determine the eventual no. 1 driver.

The purists still don’t like it and don’t mind even if it is a 700 point blowout under the old system. NASCAR in preserving the ‘Show’ has decided that would not be a good thing and they may be right.

I still say that the popularity of it will depend on who is crowned The Champion after Homestead.

Have NASCAR Fans Gotten What They Wanted In 2008?

2008-09-10T13:48:00.000-05:00

So far the predictions of a more competitive season have not panned out as earlier thought. The lack of different winners, usual suspects and first timers in victory lane and domination from one driver is not what was expected when the season began. Is this a trend or just a temporary condition that is sorting itself out as we speak?

Early season expectations
The predictions are based on the email comments we received from the fans at the start of the season in regards to how they thought the year would progress. The overwhelming majority said that because of the implementation of the COT there should be a wider array of winners, more first time winners and a more evenly matched chase field when it drew down to the end of the season.

Big names winless
We all expect to see certain teams struggle throughout the season and even a few top level teams dropping off in performance, but no one could have predicted the big names that are winless so far this season.
If someone had told you that at the beginning of the year that Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick would all be winless headed into the Chase you would have said they were crazy.

Lack of different winners, underdogs and first timers
After Richmond [the Chase cutoff] there have only been ten different winners and of those 6 of them only have one victory each. In addition, there are no first time winners or a driver that could be declared an ‘underdog’ other than possibly Kasey Kahne after his struggles the past few seasons, but even that’s a stretch.
Kahne has 9 career wins in Cup including the 2 this season, so he is hardly an underdog.

Can the winless drivers still win?
There are ten races left in the season, but it may be a better opportunity for those drivers who are on the outside of the top 12 looking in to score a victory. It’s no secret that when a Chase/Championship contender is looking at ‘big picture’ points racing they are less likely to gamble with pit strategy or fuel mileage and the driver might not be as aggressive going for a win and settle for a top 5 finish to get the points. Those on the outside don’t have as much to lose as the drivers who are battling for the Championship and who also may take a more conservative approach.

Has the Champion already been determined?
You would like to think that some of the other drivers from 2nd on back in points are showing some vigor to catch the top driver in points, especially with the reset.
Carl Edwards started out the season strong, waned a bit in the middle and then came on strong again leading up to the Chase.
Jimmie Johnson has stepped back up with 3 wins since Indy with a total of 5 top 10’s. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is coming up on a stretch of tracks that he usually runs well at.
Greg Biffle, who has had a decent run recently finished 14th at the Richmond cutoff race, had a runner up finish two weeks ago at Fontana and a 4th at Michigan.
The next driver back who has placed consistently in the top 10 is Kevin Harvick finishing 8th or better in the past 6 races including 3 top 5’s.
Denny Hamlin has strung together 3-3rd place finishes in a row heading to the chase.

The points reset a saving grace?
The Chase points reset has brought all of the competitors in the top 12 a minimum of 80 points together and some as close as 30. It almost has to be looked at like a yellow flag in how it draws the field back up, but if the leader was driving away before, then there is the possibility that it will just happen again.
The three-way battle at the top that is getting a lot of media play might be the way that it continues, but as mentioned above there are some drivers whose performance the past five races could be indicative of a pattern and propel them to the top in one or two races.
Last season, Clint Bowyer went from 12th to 4th in one race with his win at Loudon and finished out the season 3rd in points.

Popular Winners and Champions
This is strictly based on past poll questions on this site, but the fans are not satisfied with the recent race winners and Championship Title holders. The current points leader and not coincidentally the driver with the most wins this season, Kyle Busch, wasn’t very popular with the fans even before he wrecked Dale Jr. at Richmond. Jimmie Johnson, the Champion last two years in a row was voted 8th most popular driver last year. Not saying that the fans would want a driver to be successful just because he is popular, but it would increase enthusiasm and interest in the sport if they were.

The new style car
The handling issues that the teams have been dealing with opened the door for the few that seemed to figure it out. The most frequent statements from the teams are that making adjustments before and during the race is like walking on a razorblade edge. What worked in the past adjustment-wise either has no affect or goes too far to the other side. When you hear a driver say that he is loose in [to the turn] tight in the center and then loose off, that’s three different adjustments needed that are all opposite in nature. It’s no wonder that a lot of the teams and crew chiefs have been left scratching their heads and tossing out old set-up note as they try to figure out what the car needs.
You almost have to chalk 2008 up as a big learning curve for the teams across the board. There is a pattern beginning to develop amongst the teams that you expect to perform well on a weekly basis, which could make for a very interesting battle for the Championship.

Where is the parity?
Maybe the true ‘parity’ aspect of the new style car is coming in 2009. Any time a sport goes through major changes like NASCAR did in the Cup series with implementation of the new car, there are going to be teams that get a handle on it quicker than others. Going into 2009 the normal ebb and flow of the team’s performance will show as well as the struggling teams getting a handle on their performance issues. Even though some of the teams excelled this season, expect even more to be up to speed come the drop of the green at Daytona in 2009. Perhaps that is when we will truly start to see the benefits of NASCAR’s directive and begin to see the competitiveness that we were all promised.

The final ten races
The pressure is off for the drivers out of the Chase and now they can start experimenting with set-ups and determining strategies that play in with the new car and its handling characteristics. This could be just what they needed to find that extra amount of competitiveness that they have been lacking.

The next ten races should divulge more than just who the Champ will be. It should show which teams are gaining ground on the new style car and give us a preview to what we can expect for next season as well.

NASCAR Fast Stats Track Of The Week Richmond

2008-09-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

These are the numbers prior to the 2008 late summer race at Richmond to give you some insight and interesting info on the upcoming race. Most wins active and all time, fewest starts with a win, most starts with no wins and a lot more interesting statistics. Some you might have guessed and others might surprise you.

Thanks to our friends at Racing-Reference.info for the stats. You can click on their link in our partner site section to the right to check out their site.
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The Cup series has been competing at Richmond since 1953 and Lee Petty won the inaugural event. There has been a total of 104 Cup races held there since.

Active drivers with wins at Richmond:
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 3
Terry Labonte 3
Tony Stewart 3
Jeff Gordon 2
Jimmie Johnson 2
Joe Nemechek 1
Kevin Harvick 1
Kasey Kahne 1
Matt Kenseth 1
Mark Martin 1
Jeremy Mayfield 1
Kyle Petty 1
Ryan Newman 1
Kurt Busch 1
Jeff Burton 1
Clint Bowyer 1
Bill Elliott 1

Richard Petty has the most wins of all drivers there with 13 as well as the most starts with 63. He has the most top 5’s with 34 which is over 50% of his races.

Active drivers with the most starts at Richmond are [fill-in] Terry Labonte with 54 starts and Kyle Petty with 53.

Active driver with the most polls, Jeff Gordon with 5.

Driver(s) with the most starts at Richmond without a win is tied between Ken Schrader & Sterling Marlin each with 44 starts and no wins.

Active driver with the least amount of starts and a win is Clint Bowyer with 5 starts and 1 win which came earlier this season.
Among all drivers, Tim Flock had only 2 starts at Richmond and won there on his very first attempt in 1955.

The driver who has earned the most money at Richmond is Jeff Gordon with $2,634,029.00.

Of all drivers, Richard Petty led the most laps at Richmond with 5136 led of 21,135 run.

Driver who has led the most laps at Richmond without scoring a victory is Denny Hamlin with 448 laps led in 5 races with no wins. He also has the most laps led overall in the last 5 races at Richmond.

Driver with a win at Richmond who has led the least amount of laps is Clint Bowyer with one victory and only 17 laps led.

Active driver with the most top 5’s is Mark Martin with 14 in 45 races.

Active driver who has competed in the past 5 races at Richmond with the best finishing average is Kevin Harvick with a 5.2 average finish.

Active driver who has competed in the last 5 races at Richmond with the worst finishing average is Joe Nemechek with a 33.0 average finish.

Active driver who has competed in the last 5 races at Richmond who has earned the most prize money there is Jimmie Johnson with $848,730.00

The best finish for a driver who only raced at Richmond once was Fonty Flock driving for Carl Kiekhaefer in the 1955 Richmond 200 where he finished 2nd behind his brother, Tim Flock. For their efforts, Fonty was awarded $650.00 in prize money and Tim earned $1,000.00 for the victory.

Open Wheel ‘Invaders’ Not Given A Fair Chance?

2008-09-03T21:02:00.000-05:00

The uproar began when the dominos began to fall after a fairly successful season by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007 prompted a mass of open wheel drivers to migrate to the ranks of stock car racing. Since then the uproar has turned into to a murmur as one by one the ‘threat’ seems to be succumbing to the difficulties associated with being successful in the upper ranks of the sport.

Without going into all of the details that have been published and broadcasted plenty in regards to the problems that have plagued the transplants, the nuts and the bolts of it is that sponsorship has been hard to come by and expectations of performance were possibly set way too high.

The initial concept seemed brilliant, place a past Indy 500 winner, Formula 1 star or IRL Champ in a stock car and the sponsors would be beating down your door and the team would be running in the top 5 consistently. The problem is it didn’t happen that way, not even close.

It’s no secret that the ‘other’ forms of auto racing in the U.S. have in recent past been taken over by drivers who have names that are hard to pronounce and give their post race interviews with accents so thick that the average stock car fan has a hard time understanding them. There was a certain amount of nervousness that the same fate my occur in the top levels of stock car racing.

Right or wrong it was a concern that was voiced on the call in shows, chat forums and other website message boards in large volumes by the fans. They weren’t happy at all about the changes occurring in the sport.

It seems a little silly that everyone was so upset given the outcome, but maybe the boisterousness of the fans is what initiated the problems for the ‘invaders’. It’s not speculation that sponsorship has been the biggest thorn in the side of the open wheel converts and we’re talking about teams that have not had issues solidifying sponsorship in the past.

Perhaps companies were reluctant to jump on the bandwagon with a well known driver from other racing series in fear of actually doing more harm than good with their affiliation with an ‘outsider’. Keep in mind that the sponsor’s goal is to win over NASCAR fans and convince them to buy their products and if their logos are on the hood of a car driven by the ‘enemy’ how’s that going to work for them?

The other issue that should be glaringly obvious whether you are for or against these guys coming in seems to be the fact that they weren’t given much of a chance before the rug was pulled out from under them. Half a season to prove themselves or in some cases, just a handful of races isn’t a very good representation of their talent. If that was the norm we would have no second season drivers in the series, because if they didn’t go out and win a couple of races as a rookie they would be gone. It doesn’t seem like the open wheel transplants were given the same courtesy as what is normally given to a rookie driver in NASCAR.

If you figure in most cases these guys were given cars that were first season with no owner’s points or out of the top 35 when they took the ride over and had to qualify their way into the races, they had a huge hurdle to clear. Even the series ‘regulars’ who were in the same position had a hard time making races. Names like Joe Nemechek, John Andretti, Johnny Sauter, Ken Schrader, Mike Skinner, Bill Elliott, Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs all missed races this season by not qualifying. With that said, what chance did these guys have with limited experience in a stock car going up against experienced veterans in equal equipment?

This is not intended to be a commentary piece written to make you think about being unfair to ‘outsiders’ or that we should make special consideration for drivers based on their pedigrees in other forms of auto racing, but more just a statement of the facts.

The drivers were not necessarily welcomed by the fans, sponsorship seemed to elude the teams and the timelines given to them to perform were unusually short. If nothing else the message has been sent that if you think that the money looks good over here in NASCAR land and you want to come jump in a car that goes in circles and only turns left, you may want to think twice.

NASCAR is a tight-knit sport and is often referred to as a family of sorts, so it’s no wonder that when unfamiliar names were trying to come in people objected. Given that the list of names shown above who are drivers who have arguably put in their time and paid their dues in the sport and yet are some of the drivers forced out by the open wheel drivers, it’s easy to see why some fans were unhappy.

We NASCAR fans want drivers with names that are easy to spell and pronounce like Gilliland, Kvapil, Earnhardt, Keselowski, Reutimann and Nemechek [sarcasm]. But what we as fans do want is drivers who have paid there dues in the sport, coming up through the ranks and earning their place in a premier stock car ride. Not having one handed to them because they have a recognizable name in another form of auto racing and expect a free pass to the top in NASCAR.

A definite exception to the rule is Scott Speed who was an American seemingly unwelcome in Formula 1 who has come back to the U.S. to give stock car racing a try. He is doing it right running in the ARCA Series where he has attained legitimate success as well as in the Craftsman Truck series with wins in both series.

This season has definitely served notice to the team owners who thought that they could take the express route to hiring a marketable driver and open wheelers hoping to cash in on the NASCAR boon, that you are not guaranteed a spot just because people know your name. You have to pay your dues and the sponsors have to know that the fans are behind you, otherwise it’s all and exercise in futility.

Edwards Better Rival To Kyle Busch Than Dale Jr.

2008-09-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

On lap 469 at the Bristol night race, Carl Edwards stated that he had to make a decision when he drew up on the rear bumper of the no. 18 car driven by Kyle Busch who was leading the race. He made the decision to get into him and get Kyle loose, performing the textbook ‘bump-and-run’ at a place where we thought it was gone.

Carl took the lead with 30 laps to go and never relinquished the top spot. It is his 2 win in a row and 6th for the season.

It was looking like no one was going to have anything for the no. 18 Toyota fielded by Joe Gibbs racing, but with Edwards winning 3 of the last 4 races, he will have some bullets in his gun when the points reset after Richmond.
After Edwards, there are only two other chase contending drivers who have more than one win. Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne have each managed to earn 2 victories, a handful with just one victory and some surprising names with no wins so far.

It was established early in the season that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had the potential to be rivals with Kyle Busch since in a round about way Junior took Kyle’s ride at Hendrick Motorsports and the Richmond ‘spin-and-lose’ incident solidified the rivalry with the fans. It also made sense to pit the sports’ most popular driver against arguably the least popular.

As the season progressed there were not too many instances of Kyle and Dale battling it out as the two seemed to not be around each other much. When asked whether the rivalry existed or not, Dale Jr. replied that it was sort of assumed that he should be gunning for Kyle, but he wasn’t really subscribing to the whole deal. Busch was winning races, but equally impressive was the methodical way that Earnhardt was clicking off good finishes and hovering in the top spot in the points. He had dismissed the Richmond incident as just being a racing deal and didn’t seem too concerned with any of it.

Earnhardt is dealing with his own set of circumstances and being involved in rivalry doesn’t seem to fit his new demeanor driving for Hendrick.
Staying in the top 5 in points in the Cup Series, wearing the hat of a championship contending Nationwide series team owner and partnering with Rick Hendrick seems to be enough on his plate to be bothered by a rivalry that probably doesn’t amount to be a hill of beans with him.

Then along came Carl Edwards who just signed a new record deal with Roush with a new sponsor, crossing paths with Kyle Busch whom a lot still say that he is motivated to show the world that Hendrick made a mistake letting him go. Carl is motivated to win his first championship and the only thing standing in his was is the no. 18 car.

The feud exploded when Busch rammed the side of Edward’s car twice in the cool down lap after Edwards took the checkers, which in response Edwards returned the favor by dumping Kyle in a round of turn about is fair play.

The rivalry between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch makes a lot more sense in many ways. First of all, if Earnhardt and Busch tangled many more times, the no. 18 car wouldn’t fit the templates after the team added all of the armor and bullet proof glass. Busch and Edwards can beat each other’s fenders in and the fans will cheer especially if the result is the same as at Bristol. Carl is the type of driver who seems to perform better when something has him fired up. He has already established that the way that he viewed the no. 18 car as simply as an obstacle that was between him and 10 bonus points in the chase and that Busch is going to get driven the way he has driven others.

Another element that makes it more attention-grabbing is how vocal that Carl’s team owner, Jack Roush, has been about the Toyota teams. Jack has been a critic of Toyota on all levels and has pulled no punches when talking about their ethics and procedures in the sport. It makes for not only a driver/team rivalry, but one that also crosses owner and manufacturer lines to really heat things up.

Even team owner Joe Gibbs got involved when he approached Edwards in the garage area after the race and informed him that “you reap what you sow”. Carl responded by saying that he believed in that [unspoken rule] and that’s exactly why things went down the way that they had. The biggest irony was that Gibbs was referring to the manner in which Carl raced Busch who has done his fair share of ruffling feathers this season.

One thing is for certain, it’s probably not the last we have seen of the ‘feather ruffling’ this season as things continue to heat up in the battle for the championship.

Predicting The Chase For Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2008-08-15T20:44:00.000-05:00

After a slip in the points from 2nd to 4th from questionable pit strategy at Watkins Glen, what can the fans expect for the rest of the season for the no. 88 team? Before this article turns into a story about the crew chief on the team, let’s steer it over to the side of what tracks are left on the schedule and how Junior has finished on those tracks historically.

The next race is at Michigan where Earnhardt received his first and only (points) victory for 2008 which is still fresh in most peoples minds, but what about the rest of the tracks?

Below is the list of tracks and the number of wins at each or the highest finishing position for him.
* denotes 2nd race at this track in 2008
*Michigan [1-win 2008]
*Bristol [1-win] 2008 5th
*Fontana [2nd with 3-top 5’s] 2008 40th
*Richmond [3-wins] 2008 15th
CHASE BEGINS
*Loudon [3rd with 4 top 5’s] 2008 24th
*Dover [1-win] 2008 35th
Kansas [6th with 4-top 10’s]
*Talladega [5-wins] 2008 10th
*Charlotte [3rd with 5-top 5’s] 2008 5th
*Martinsville [3rd with 7 top 5’s] 2008 6th
*Atlanta [1-win] 2008 3rd
*Fort Worth [1-win] 2008 12th
*Phoenix [2-wins] 2008 7th
Homestead [13th with an average finish in 8 starts of 21.2]

Statistics.
Eight of the 14 tracks Earnhardt has at least one win at, 4 he has finishes in the top 5 with one [Kansas] just outside with a 6th and his worst track being Homestead with the stats shown above.

Improvements.
When Earnhardt was struggling the theme was that the car would start out good early in the race and fade as the race went on. In the case of last season on the upcoming stretch, motors were an issue as he suffered engine failures at Watkins Glen, Richmond and Talladega. In spite of the complaints in regards to Tony Eury, Jr. he has shown vast improvement in the ability to keep up with changing track conditions and staying ahead of the adjustments in the car. The other issue of motors has been a non-issue with the seemingly bullet-proof Hendrick power.

The Competition.
Kyle Busch, the fan-appointed nemesis of Dale Jr., sits solidly in the top spot and will continue to with his minimum 80 bonus points when the points reset.
Carl Edwards is a man as hungry as anyone for a championship and being from the Roush Camp wouldn’t surprise anyone if he cranked it up and came on strong during the last ten races.
Then with Jimmie Johnson, his performance this season has not mirrored those of his past two dominant runs, but you can never count him out especially with his position in points at the moment.

What it will take to win the Championship.
There have been seasons in the past where the driver who managed to run consistently, stay out of trouble and finish in the top 5 week after week had a legitimate chance to win the championship, but 2008 seems like that will not be enough. The talk of past years where each driver could have a “mulligan” and that one bad race probably wouldn’t take you out of contention for the championship doesn’t apply. Not only can the potential champ not afford a bad race, they will more than likely need at least two wins to even have a shot at it. When you look at the above mentioned three [Busch, Edwards & Johnson] you can almost guarantee that one of them will string together a minimum of a couple of victories and to have a chance a contender will have to do the same.

Can he do it?
Looking above at the list of tracks remaining on the schedule, Junior knows how to get around a large percentage of them where 15 of his 18 career wins have come on those tracks. It is however the same old story as every year past in that if one driver comes out and racks up multiple wins without stumbling, then they will probably be the champion. Who is to say that will not be Dale Earnhardt, Jr. though who pulls that off. More important than a feeling or hope, statistically he could do it.

Points Racing?
Talking about points racing in years past meant to go out, be safe and not necessarily go for the win. With the bar being set so high this season, points racing may now mean to go out and try to win the race at all costs. That could cause a shake up in the points and open the door for anyone in the chase to move up and contend, so it should be an interesting stretch to say the least going down to Homestead.