Homestead: Solid, Good Old Racing and History Making Season Finales!

Good solid racing in the Nationwide division is what is attracting more and more fans to watch, even if it is full of Sprint Cup racers too. Saturday's season finale in the Nationwide division was no different but did provide fans with the Kyle & Kevin show much akin to the Dale & Dale shows fans enjoyed in years gone by in the Cup division. Vying for the front spot, fans watched as the two drivers playing chase with each other throughout the night. At one point, Harvick had finally succeeded in finally gaining ground on Busch only to hear his spotter tell him a caution was out, to which Harvick dryly replied, "That's not good." And it wasn't,  as on the restart, Busch took the lead and never looked back all the way to victory lane. While the rest of the field provided moments of "wadded up" incidents, Danica Patrick & her crew chief Tony Eury Jr., confused many in her choice to stay out instead of pitting, thus making her first. The confusion came about because when it came time to start the race, she chose the inside line and promptly fell striaight back through the middle of the pack to 17th, never to reappear up front again. Wow, exactly what was up with that? 

Homestead has become the home of making history in NASCAR and this weekend will be no different. For the first time ever, NASCAR is enjoying the tightest race in the Chase between three drivers. And each driver brings a different point of making history in the sport to the field Sunday. Each driver has played a different game throughout the Chase too. Jimmie Johnson has stayed cool calm and collected maintaining tht he is not worried and what will be will be, even though it looked like a total melt down when crew chief Chad Knaus swapped out the beleaguered 48 pit crew for the sidelined 24 pit crew.  Denny Hamlin has been talking smack from the start. From accusing the RCR teams of being cheaters to smirking and claiming he'll win a race and then going it, Hamlin has been very much like the cat that swallowed the mouse but the tail is still hanging out of it's mouth.  On the other hand, Harvick is like the poker player with the sly smile, never showing his cards til the race end. Sometimes bluffing and then persistantly pulling off a half way decent hand out of nothing! But 3 specific things will happen Sunday:

1) Jimmie Johnson will be making history because if he wins, he will be the first five consecutive championships champion! Not only has Jeff Gordon been driving for five for over five years now, he’s never even come close to doing it consecutively! NO other driver has ever done this in the history of this sport. Granted the entire focus of Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin is to be sure that doesn’t happen but it very well could happen and everyone has seen Chad Knaus’ magic before so make no mistake, Jimmie Johnson has been quietly sneaking up on this championship all year. In which case, the 48 team will have made a mockery of the entire points and Chase system by virtue of their whole season. Whether it was their intention or not, or whether they admit it or not, they’ve learned a lot this season. All they had to do was charge out of the gate and slam out a few victories right off the bat early on in the season to secure those extra bonus points for wins for positioning in the Chase and then stay in the top twelve in points all season long. Hovering in the middle of the pack because, when the Chase hit, they would be number one by virtue of those victories if no one else matched their number of victories. It didn’t hold out for them with Hamlin around but they regained their throne quickly. So essentially it still boils down to winning and only winning. They’ve hit some misfortune though and it just might have backfired on them a little bit. But then again they could be playing cat and mouse with the sport because the media had pretty much made it clear that if Jimmie ran away with the championship in the Chase there would be a fan uproar! Well, what if Jimmie “let” the others play with the top spot until he gets to Homestead and then he’ll just take it anyway? It’s a huge risk but calculated it can work. He’s only 15 points out. A team of this caliber knows what they’re doing and I have no doubt in my mind that they can do it. Only this Sunday will tell. The big problem for Johnson and Knaus is that I believe they’ve underestimated the spirit and drive of the Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing Teams and the extreme drives of Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. If those two mavericks have their way, Jimmie Johnson will be denied that championship in spades and all that shameless crew swapping will be for naught!

2) Denny Hamlin is making history with the Joe Gibbs Racing Team because of Toyota. They have worked long and hard to get their Cup program up strong and it took JGR and their engine department to do it in Sprint Cup racing. Toyota had trucks down pat and had already enjoyed a championship there, but finding the speed and making a championship run in Sprint Cup now solidifies Toyota completely in NASCAR much to the chagrin to the old timer fans of the sport. Neither Ford nor Chevy nor Dodge who are American icons will be able to sport the NASCAR championship if Denny Hamlin wins. I believe we can look to the future with Reutimann bringing MWR to the forefront with Toyota in the Chase which will surprise everyone but the caliber is there too. Toyota is here to stay and has proven themselves. A Championship will be a history making moment at Homestead in Sprint Cup this Sunday, if they aren’t denied by Johnson or Harvick in their Chevrolets. And this is where we finally have a real manufacturers battle. This may spark some fans interest or kill some of the old timers. Time will tell.

3) Kevin Harvick will be making history just being part of the closest Chase battle in history, and being the underdog coming back and possibly taking his championship despite a system practically designed to deny it. Harvick was the points leader most of the season, and then for the Chase has overcome one obstacle after another to stay in the fight. Like the way he came into this division, it’s been difficult. Harvick’s crew chief, Gil Martin is full of confidence going into Homestead, so much so that he’s taking the crew deep sea fishing out of Key West this week for some relaxation before the race. Martin commented on the smack talk between the Hamlin and Johnson camps, “One, I'm surprised that we have stayed out of it because we're usually in the middle of most of this kind of stuff," Martin said. "But secondly, I mean, I think it's kind of a waste of time to do a lot of smack talking with the 48. They have been in this position many times. They haven't been trailing going into Homestead [in previous championship seasons] -- but a team of that caliber, you're not going to do a lot of smack talking and bother them a whole lot. They're going to go down there focused with a mission, and I think a lot of that has the potential of backfiring on you."






As a writer, I am supposed to be objective and appreciate pretty much whatever comes along. I’ve had the most difficult time of my life doing that with the Chase and made no bones about it in the past in all my writing that I am not a fan of the Chase. I still am not. I believe the points system can be tweaked to properly reward competition so that racers can race to the finish every week of every race and honestly come up with the most points at the end of the season without sandbagging or strategizing themselves into some position that someone won’t like or think they manipulated themselves into. Even with the Chase, CONSISTENCY is still the key so the very thing that won Matt Kenseth the championship that started this whole shenanigan, AND has kept him in every single Chase but one since it’s inception is the very thing that has made this year’s Chase the most exciting and possibly historical of all time. And naturally, it will seal the Chase for everyone who’s a proponent, who can then say, “see, it really does make racing more exciting.” Still this system is too socialistic,  let the points reward the best. What sport rewards those who manage their points right and not those who win the most or work the hardest to get right?

Tony Stewart Visits Daytona... Another Track Owner's Viewpoint

(Daytona) On October 28, Tony Stewart visited Daytona to see how the repaving was coming along and help paint the beginning of the finish line. After taking a long drive around the speedway with Speedway President Joie Chitwood and North American Testing Company's Senior Director of Construction Bill Braniff. Stewart's excitement was downright palpable! Like a kid in a candy store, he was all grins from ear to ear talking about how wonderful everything looked and how smooth the track was. Tony stated that the racing here was going to be unbelievably exciting for the Daytona 500 and fans are not going to want to miss it! He predicted five wide, all out racing like we've never seen before. If Stewart's predictions are right, the racing for the 2011 Daytona 500 should be something we've never experienced before!

Then much to Stewart's delight, he was presented a core piece of the track from the finish line area, for a souvenir of the old track and it's glorious history. Stewart was thrilled, replying with, “As you grow up in racing and as the years go by, you learn the history where you go to and importance of the venues you go to,” Stewart said. “To think of the great champions that crossed over this piece of asphalt to win the biggest races of their career. Whether it was in the Rolex 24 Hour race, or the Daytona 500 or the Nationwide race, the Firecracker 400 even. Think of the great people that have crossed over the start/finish line. This is a piece of racing history that you can’t put a price tag on this.”

Stewart talked about the overall track conditions and how amazed he was at the progress and quality of the job. While talking about his drive around the track a Chevrolet Camaro, Stewart said, “I got to rip through 3 and 4 and it’s not the same race track. This place is going to have a totally new look and a totally new feel to the drivers and teams. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can promise you that we are going to fill every square inch of this race track with cars now because we’re going to have that flexibility because this surface is going to be in such great shape when they get done with this last layer.”

When asked about winning the Daytona 500, Stewart replied,"I just have a problem with timing, I figured out how to do it on Saturday, I've just got to figure out how to do it on Sunday." Besides trying to figure out how to win the Daytona 500, Stewart is also working on his own track, Eldora and figuring out new ways to market and promote a small, dirt short track in the midwest during tough economic times. So, I asked Stewart if he could relate to this process more because he IS a track owner and he replied tht he could definitely relate more because of his own track, even though it's not an asphalt track. He just found this whole process fascinating. 

In the meantime, I found it fascinating that the young driver, who was so tempermental in our sport a few years ago, has developed into a former Champion, a track owner, and is now a Sprint Cup team owner as well as continuing driver duties full-time. One moment with Stewart's PR man, and asking him how Tony keeps up with his massive schedule of activity now, and he replied, "there's an army of people around him."  Without a doubt, our sport and Tony Stewart have come a long way! And if everything, everyone is saying comes to pass, the Daytona 500 for 2011 should be something else to watch!

"Have At It" Taking It's Toll- Just ask Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch

Six races into the Chase and Jeff Burton's words rang true when he said the "intensity levels would be ratcheted up" during the Chase with this "Have At It" attitude. Just ask Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon if it's affected their championship shots.  All season long, it's been pondered, if not spoken aloud, just how would this look if a Chaser gets delivered this attitude while driving for the championship. And NASCAR has set the stage all season long by just watching and then not delivering much more than a slap on the wrist for such attitudes on the track. When everyone epected Carl Edwards to get dealt a really heavy blow for taking out Brad Keselowski at Atlanta, NASCAR gave him a general penalty and probation. Carl referred to remembering he's on probation during Martinsville, which admittedly caused him to hesitate on messing with Juan Pablo Montoya a bit more than he did.

At Kansas, Kyle Busch started out in a good position to chase the championship but appeared to have had trouble with David Reutimann early on in the race and then found himself taken out by David Reutimann after Reutimann felt slighted by Kyle on the track. Naturally this turned out to be very bad news for a Chaser. It just happened that the "non-Chaser" (Reutimann) wasn't afraid to "have at it" with the Chaser (Busch). And in the long run in the big picture, it hurt Kyle a lot more than it hurt Reutimann. In fact, it probably benefitted Reutimann by virtue of the fact that he had the guts to mess with Kyle! Too often many fans figure anyone not in the Chase just let's the Chase driver go by, and this certainly proved that wasn't so. Three races later, Kyle Busch is finally back up to fourth place which puts him back in the hunt for the championship, albeit a longshot but closer than anyone else outside the top three.



Kurt Busch takes out Jeff Gordon at Martinsville (NASCAR)

 At Martinsville, Jeff Gordon watched his champsionship hopes fall away when he tangled with Kurt Busch. Gordon is more than 200 points down and sitting in 5th place, however, there have been stranger things to happen with Talladega looming next week. It's still possible to count Gordon from 5th place and even Edwards and Stewart in 6th and 7th respectively still in the Chase at this point. The big keys to Talladega for the general picture will be what NASCAR throws out there next week. For example, will there be a larger restrictor plate like the drivers got at Daytona in July?  Will the tire be as readily agreeable? Any other potential changes that NASCAR can dictate can change how the drivers all run together either in freight trains or in the dicey racing packs we've been enjoying the last couple times.

With the way Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick ran so close together throughout the race at Martinsville and haven't let themselves out of each others sight very much over the past six races, being caught up in a wreck together is very easily a possibility. Talladega's reputation is it's glory for being so famous for their incredibly nasty, big wrecks that everyone gleefully calls, the "big ones". One wreck could easily collect the top contenders and turn the points chase into a top seven Chase very quickly.

Headlines this week said nothing much would change from Martinsville. I disagree. A lot changed. Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick raced a smart race staying in contention of each other, but Hamlin tightened up the race and Harvick gained on both. Next, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards both gained a position while Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart both dropped a position. In the end, the Chase became more competitive as they roll into one of the most treacherous tracks of all: Talladega. Try as they might to race her smart, Dega has a mind of her own. Likewise, so do the other 31 drivers not involved in the Chase who at Talladega can be a winner too.  Talladega isn't about racing anymore, it's about surviving, after Talladega, THEN the Chase may be decided who's really in it.

Burton Admits Surprise by "Have At It" Attitude Effect on Season

[photo by Debbi Willis, AV/SCR]

Daytona, September 8, 2010- As the Chase looms on the horizon, Richard Childress Racing is poised to place all three drivers in the Chase in 2010 after an abysmal 2009 season that left everyone wondering what went wrong. The only race that usually rearranges the lineup, Richmond, stands before them and essentially only Clint Bowyer will be fighting to stay in the Chase. Jeff Burton visited Daytona to see how the repaving was going on behalf of his sponsor, Caterpillar and also participate in burying a time capsule with Daytona Speedway President, Joie Chitwood III.

[photo by Debbi Willis AV/SCR]

The twofold event involved fans gathered with the media for the burying of a time capsule on the frontstretch and a question and answer session with Burton. Joie Chitwood III welcomed everyone and explained what was in the capsule and how the capsule was designed to last the next hundred years. Fans asked Burton various questions, such as, "do you purposely hang in the back of the pack, then come to the front towards the end of the race?" and Burton responded with a smile, "no, not really" but went on to explain that he usually isn't doing what the announcers seem to think he is doing but it appears that way and it works out that way. He also noted that he doesn't watch the race he's raced until he's about to race there again. Another fan asked about concerns with multicar teams in the Chase such as RCR receiving "team orders". Burton assured them that no such orders exist in Richard Childress Racing because for their fans, their sponsors and with each driver, they feel it’s only fair they each race their own race. They share their information, but they don’t have "team orders" favoring one driver over another. On a humorous note, Chitwood interjected that this was not the “other side of the pond” and “that” racing series. Fans enjoyed volleying various questions back and forth to Burton until it was time for Burton to go drive the Caterpillar Motor Grader, a huge piece of equipment used to grade the surface in preparation for paving.

Musings in May about the Season

2010 is sure shaping up to be quite interesting! The usual suspects seem to have been hamstrung by the new spoiler while others have risen to the occasion and are enjoying the fruits of their labors! With headlines like "Harvick's points lead not likely to hold at Darlington"  and then it certainly did to the tune of 110 point spread, the season just isn't very predictable!

Major congrats to the Richard Childress Racing stable for coming out strong and staying strong! Who would have guessed Kevin "Mr. Where did he come from" Harvick would be riding the biggest points lead of the season rolling into May and Jimmie "I'm the champion- again" Johnson would have found his achilles heel in this new spoiler?  A couple of DNF's already and Johnson's wondering where his season is going.

And congrats to Jamie "Daytona 500 winner" MacMurray, way to come out of the gate for your old boss and then give us another great show at Talladega with Kevin Harvick for his return to victory lane! Who said knee surgery would slow down Denny Hamlin? Obviously it hasn't. as he's just matched Jimmie Johnson for three victories  each this season. Hamlin's hot! In the meantime, teammate Kyle Busch, who won at Richmond, is now sporting the "new" and "old" Kyle.  Hmm, "new" ?  Doubt it, maybe masked, but not "new"! (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

The First Decade of the 21st Century in NASCAR in Retrospect

Another Season is here… and it always makes me pensive. 2009 thankfully came and ended a long arduous decade full of many changes to a sport that a fan base, whose roots go back over 50 years, probably never thought they'd ever see.

As the first decade of the 21st century wound down, it was continually highlighted by one story that overrode everyone's minds still nine years later: Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001. How could we forget? We can’t. (I hear those non- Dale fans saying: “the Dale fans won’t let us!” That’s the way fanship goes.) On the cusp of a new decade, post Y2K, post-millennial fears, scares, and apocalyptic speculations and the 2000 domination of the Ford freight train races of Daytona and Talladega, February 2001 brought us our worst nightmare: the loss of the sports’ greatest star and driver. Don McLean's old song "American Pie" sings of all the changes in music and the world, and the "day the music died"... I'd venture to say, February 18, 2001 is the day NASCAR died. And then it spent pretty much the rest of the decade trying to resuscitate itself.

As I read headline after headline for they year-end stories, it was obvious: nine years later, Dale Earnhardt is still the number one story of the decade despite the multiple accomplishments of many others. Jimmie Johnson and the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization has done a fine job of keeping the sport alive beginning with Jeff Gordon's championship in 2001, unfortunately his last before the Chase would take over and seemingly seal his fate for anymore.

The heart of the sport stopped that day. The impact is undeniable. Kevin Harvick came out of the gate with the fire the sport needed to revive it, but the powers-that-be squashed that really quick, denying him the chance to champion Richard Childress Racing early on in his career as he should have. The results have been obviously detrimental to that organization both in personnel morale and media/fan perception. Then, seasons later after many others showed they had personality and fire, too AND that fans really do like that, NASCAR encouraged the drivers to become more themselves again... but once burned, very wary.