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?