Preseason Driver Rankings: #8 Jeff Gordon

02/25/2012 By Leave a Comment

Jeff Gordon
No. 24 Drive to End Hunger/DuPont/Pepsi Chevy
Team: Hendrick Motorsports
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson

2011 Stats
Wins: 3
Top-5s: 13
Top-10s: 18
Poles: 1
DNF: 3
Average Start: 14.4
Average Finish: 13.0
Races Led: 22
Laps Led: 922
% Laps Completed: 97.8%
Points Finish: 8th

2011 in a Nutshell
Before the season, the consensus among the pundits – including myself – was that Alan Gustafson was going to jumpstart Jeff Gordon’s career and take him to a level he hadn’t been at in a couple of years. And that’s exactly what happened; as two races into the year Gordon snapped his 66-race winless streak and went on to win two other events. While it did take some time to build some consistency, eventually that came around as well, and Gordon, at times, looked like the driver of yesteryear.

Reasons to Believe
The chemistry he has with crew chief Alan Gustafson is reminiscent of the bond he used to have with Ray Evernham … Three wins is a strong indicator that the fire still burns within Gordon … Gustafson is one of the best head wrenches in the garage and he knows what changes are needed midrace to make a car better for last 50 miles … In their second year together the rapport between Gordon and Gustafson should be even better … Gordon is an all-time great driver who can win anywhere and has, with the exception of Kentucky and Homestead … His 13 top-fives were the fourth most.

Reasons to Doubt
The 24 team had stretches last year where they were just pedestrian, especially during the Chase where they were just ordinary … Before last season, Gordon had won just once in three seasons … 2007 was the last year the four-time champ seriously contended for the title … An Alan Gustafson led team has never won multiple races in consecutive seasons … Gordon will be hard-pressed to duplicate his success in 2011 … He has to do away with the six finishes of 25th or worse … It’s been 10 years since his last championship.

Area of Strength: Martinsville
Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin may have usurped Jeff Gordon as the King of Martinsville, but that doesn’t mean he has forgotten how to navigate the tricky half-mile track. Seven wins, an exceptional average finish of 6.9 and 17 top-10s in his last 18 starts, more than show that.

Area of Weakness: Collecting trophies
There was a time not too long ago when you could count on Jeff Gordon not only to win in a given year, but to do so many times over. Now though, expecting the guy who’s won 85 times in his career to win multiple races is no given. Since the beginning of the 2008 season, Gordon has made just four voyages to Victory Lane, and has failed to win races in consecutive years. If he is to contend, and possibly secure another title, winning races – plural – is an absolute must.

Best-case Scenario For 2012
10 years after last tasting championship glory, Jeff Gordon does so once again and finally gets that elusive fifth title.

Worst-case Scenario For 2012
Zero wins, a lack of consistency, and while he does get into the Chase, he’s a virtual nonfactor throughout.

In Their Words
“He (car owner Rick Hendrick) provides us with the most amazing equipment and people. As drivers, when you come to work for Hendrick Motorsports, you know you better step up you game. You need to put your game face on.”
–Jeff Gordon

Predicted Number of Wins: 2

The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
As noted above, it comes to winning for Jeff Gordon. If he can find Victory Lane and do so somewhat regularly, he appears poised to finally get his fifth Sprint Cup trophy. Otherwise, if the wins are hard to come by, it will be the 11th straight year where Gordon has failed to win his fifth championship.

Filed Under: 2012, Gordon, NASCAR, Preseason Rankings, Sub-Feature

As The Title Turns In Kansas

10/11/2011 By Leave a Comment

Every battle has a turning point. That one critical moment where things either begin to turn in your favor allowing you to seize control, or turn against you causing you to regress backwards leading to eventual defeat.

While it’s still too early to tell, it’s looking as if Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400 on the mile-and-a-half Kansas Speedway is going to go down as the turning point in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

First and foremost, yesterday was a monumental day for a face we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in Victory Lane in years past, but who’s “struggled” to recapture that same success in 2011.

While the consistency that has become Jimmie Johnson’s hallmark during his five-year reign as champion has been there this year, one thing has noticeably been missing for the No. 48 Lowes team.

Wins.

Before Sunday, Johnson had been to Victory Lane just one this season, and that had came at Talladega, where luck and being in the right place at the right time is more paramount than having a fast car.

But yesterday Johnson sent a loud reverberating message to those whom dare to question whether he was going to be a player in this year’s Chase.

From the drop of the green flag, the No. 48 Lowes Chevy was on a mission. Quickly ascending from his 19th starting position to the front of the field, where he would stay throughout the afternoon. All total, Johnson flexed his muscles by leading a race-high 197 laps, and at one point was so dominant he had a lead of over 14-seconds.

“We showed today what we’re capable of when we’re all performing at the top of our game, and hopefully we can do that for six more weeks,” said Johnson following his win yesterday.

His second victory of the year moved him up to third in the standings, just four markers behind points leader Carl Edwards and made it crystal clear to everyone that the road to the championship still runs through the man who’s now won 55 Cup races in his career and has had a stranglehold on the title these last five years.

However Kansas wasn’t just a turning point for Johnson as there were others who used Kansas to make a statement.

Throughout the race Sunday, Carl Edwards was stricken with an ill-handling Ford Fusion, running mid-pack most of the day, and even was as low as 25th at one point. It was all but a certainty that he was going to take a big hit in the points.

But three-fourths of the way through the 400-mile event, crew chief Bob Osborne finally was able to diagnose what ailed Edwards’ mount.

“We had the wrong front suspension settings in the car,” said an ecstatic Edwards. “Bob [Osborne] and I together in practice, we prepared the wrong setup, and when they dropped the green I realized we were in deep trouble. So Bob made adjustments to the setup, made some bigger adjustments than we would normally make, and then we were very fortunate with the late race caution and being able to get two tires and have a shot to run up there through the traffic.”

The adjustments propelled the Roush Fenway driver through the field, and when the checkered flag flew, there was Edwards scoring an astonishing fifth-place finish. A result which had him beaming post race and proclaiming that this result was as good as a win.

“I cannot believe we finished fifth, it feels like a win,” said Edwards. “I cannot believe from the way the day started, to finish like that is spectacular.

“I do not deserve to be sitting up here. We should have finished 15th or 20th, so it all worked out in our favor.”

It’s easy to see that if Edwards does go on to win his first Sprint Cup title, Kansas is going to be the race where he looks back and says, this where he won it and seized the moment.

A day that could have been catastrophic, instead turned opportunistic as Edwards was able to regain sole possession of first-place in the championship order by one point over Kevin Harvick.

Harvick, like Edwards, is another driver who wrestled with a car that wasn’t up to snuff for much of the day. But like Edwards, Harvick and his Budweiser team continued making adjustments and by race end he was able to leave with a top-10 finish (sixth) and is very much in the title picture with some of his best tracks still to come.

Hunkering down and making the best out of a situation is how championships are won. It’s a lesson Harvick and Edwards are both well aware of, having both been on the wrong end of close championship battles.

Being steady and reliable and being able to turn proverbial lemons into lemonade is what winning championships is all about. But just as Kansas buoyed the championship aspirations of Johnson, Edwards and Harvick, it conversely put a pin in the title balloons of two other drivers.

The popular consensus heading into the Chase was that Jeff Gordon was going to seriously contend for his fifth Sprint Cup title. Instead, the promise which he showed throughout the regular season has disappeared. A fine fourth-place finish at Dover had been sandwiched between mediocre finishes of 24th and 12th at Chicagoland and Dover.

Thusly, Kansas was supposed to represent the place where Gordon’s “Drive For Five” would be kicked into high gear.

But with a blown engine that left him 34th in the final rundown and 10th in the standings, 47 points behind Edwards, Kansas has now become Gordon’s Waterloo.

Unlike Gordon, Tony Stewart struggled dramatically during the regular season, going winless and barely squeaking into the Chase. But unlike his counterpart, once the playoffs started, Stewart found his form, becoming just the second driver to start the Chase with consecutive victories.

Except an awful race at Dover, where he finished two laps down in 25th, stunted his momentum. If Stewart was to be considered a serious title contender, he would need a good result in the Sunflower State.

And for much of the afternoon a good run appeared to be on the horizon. With Johnson running away with things, the race was for second, and for 130-laps second was a position Stewart held.

But a mishap on his final pit stop which saw Stewart lockup his brakes and slide through his pit box sent him spiraling down the running order.

A 14th-place finish isn’t too terrible in the grand scheme of things, but accompanied with what happened the week before, it all but assures Stewart will not be the first owner-driver since Alan Kulwicki to lift the championship hardware at the end of the year.

After a disappointing weekend, and barring something miraculous happening, for Stewart and Gordon, their quest to win another championship is going to have to wait another year.

For Johnson, Edwards and Harvick, their quest to win a title is very much alive thanks to the respective battles each won in Kansas.

 

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Edwards, Gordon, Johnson, Kansas, NASCAR, Stewart, Sub-Feature

Lessons Learned At The Halfway Point

06/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

When the checkered flag waved on the STP 400 last Sunday at Kansas Speedway, it signaled the official halfway point of the 2011 Sprint Cup regular season. What a memorable first half it’s been.

Through 13 races we’ve had unexpected first-time winners in two of the sports biggest events, a legend finding lost glory, NASCAR’s favorite son returning to prominence, Carl Edwards flexing his muscles on the track, with Richard Childress wielding his fists off of it, Richard Petty Motorsports rising up from the ashes, Kyle Busch getting some form of comeuppance, Juan Pablo Montoya threatening legal action against Ryan Newman for punching him, midrace temper tantrums from Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr., which brought in sweeping changes for their respective teams, notable flops from drivers who were expected to contend (Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray), secret fines that weren’t so secret, Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Toyota all having won at least once, and a plethora of other happenings which has made this season a worthy sequel to the phenomenal year that we saw in 2010.

Here’s a look back at some of the lessons we’ve learned thus far in 2011.

●With an emphatic victory at Phoenix which snapped his 66-race winless streak, Jeff Gordon showed the racing community that he still knows how to win. The bad news, his bouts with inconsistency likely will prevent him from winning his fifth Sprint Cup title.

●Not only is Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief, Steve Letarte, proving to be a miracle worker; he’s also proving to be a much better crew chief than I gave him credit for this offseason.

●Instead of going out with a bang in his final season with Hendrick Motorsports, Mark Martin – zero wins, one top-five, and four top-10s – is going out with a whimper. It’s all but a certainty that in what is likely his final full season in Sprint Cup, the driver who has finished runner-up in the championship five times will be on the outside looking in for the second straight year when the Chase commences in September.

●Ford (particularly the Roush Fenway cars) is head and shoulders above everyone else. Counting the non-points All-Star Race, cars with a blue oval on their hood have won five events this season. On top of that, points leader Carl Edwards is the clear-cut championship favorite, while teammate Matt Kenseth, with victories at Texas and Dover, is also a fringe title contender.

●As a follow-up to the above point, the Ford FR9 is everything it was cracked up to be and more. Since working out the kinks last summer of their long developed and much-maligned power plant, Ford has seen cars bearing its name make eight trips to the winner’s circle, including Trevor Bayne’s much celebrated victory in the Daytona 500.

●Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, and Brad Keselowski have all won this season, while Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, and Clint Bowyer all are still looking for their first checkered flag of 2011.

●For fear of getting taken to the woodshed, you don’t mess with Richard Childress. A lesson Kyle Busch now knows all too well after the 65-year-old grandfather sent the 26-year-old cowering to the ground in a fetal position last Saturday in Kansas. Also, the expression “Here, hold my watch” has entered our lexicon as phrase that signals someone’s about to put a whuppin’ on somebody.

●The pipeline of young drivers climbing up through the ranks, which seemed dry just a season ago, is now oozing with talent. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon have all shown that they have the talent to one day be winners at the Sprint Cup level. And that’s not even taking into account 20-year-old Trevor Bayne’s triumph in the Daytona 500. Even better for these youngsters is there are more opportunites to compete at the next level than there were a couple of years ago, when Cup team owners shied away from putting a young driver in one of their cars due to lack of sponsorship and the cost involved in repairing wrecked cars through the inevitable growing pains associated with moving up to NASCAR’s top series.

●There is no more schizophrenic team in all of NASCAR than Kurt Busch and his No. 22 team. One week they look like world-beater’s, the next they look like a team coming apart at the seams. For example, last week at Kansas Kurt Busch started on the pole. Yet, as soon as the green flag dropped, the volatile driver was on his radio complaining he had a 43rd-place car. And what happened? All he did was lead the most laps and would’ve likely won had the race had not turned into a game of fuel-mileage. Judging from some of Busch’s comments this season, you’d think he would be somewhere in the teens points-wise. Instead, with a team he rails against almost weekly, he’s sixth overall and has racked-up the third-most top-10 finishes.

●The curse of finishing second to Jimmie Johnson lives on. A year after finishing runner-up to Johnson in the championship standings, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin all went winless and came nowhere close to the form they showed the previous year. Although he’s ran better as of late, and the expectation is he wins today at Pocono, the fact is Denny Hamlin has struggled for much of the year and is still is looking for his first victory of 2011.

●With just two top-10s and buried back in 27th in points, Jamie McMurray’s magical season of a year ago which saw him win a career-best three times, is looking more and more like a fluke.

●NASCAR’s revamping of how one qualifies for the Chase and implementing the two wildcard spots, is turning into a stroke of genius. The greater emphasis placed on winning has produced some outstanding racing with teams more willing to gamble and go all-out for victories than ever before. The ferocity will only get ratcheted up as the regular season dwindles down and the opening Chase race at Chicagoland gets closer and closer.

●Joey Logano may be all hype with little actual substance. The third-year driver, despite driving for the powerhouse known as Joe Gibbs Racing and having two-time championship crew chief Greg Zipadelli guiding the Home Depot team, Tony Stewart’s handpicked successor continues to languish in mediocrity.

This is just a sampling of the lessons we’ve learned halfway through the regular season. All of which brings us to some storylines I’m keeping an eye on as we enter the second half.

Crew Chief Roulette
Being a crew chief is a tenuous position with your job status always in constant flux. But with many a big-name driver – Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, Jamie McMurray, and the aforementioned Joey Logano – all struggling to find consistent success, perhaps none more so than in the next couple of months.

We saw the first shoe drop earlier this week when Michael Waltrip Racing announced Pat Tryson had been replaced as crew chief for Martin Truex Jr. Not a surprise, considering everyone knew the noose around Tryson’s neck was tightening following Truex’s meltdown a month ago at Richmond, all of which predicated an overhaul of his pit crew a few days later.

With the pressure to perform higher than ever and with the opportunity to sneak into the Chase now an option thanks to the wildcard, owners will not hesitate to make a change if they feel it will jumpstart their chances to get their driver into the playoffs. As with the stick-and-ball sports, it’s always easier to fire the manager than the players. The same theory holds true in NASCAR, where crew chiefs are often looked at as nothing more than scapegoats.

Wild Road To The Chase
The wildcard to getting a wildcard into the Chase is what happens at the two road courses the series visits each year, first later this month at Infineon and in August at Watkins Glen. Say Juan Pablo Montoya wins one or both of these races; the odds are it will be enough for him to snag a spot in the Chase. The same can be said for Marcos Ambrose, another expert road racer who has had a sneaky good year in his first season with Richard Petty Motorsports.

The King Is Dead, Long Live The King?
We say it every year, but it may apply more this year than any other, as there are some chinks in the armor of Jimmie Johnson and the 48 team. The vaunted pit crew which was overhauled in the offseason is still prone to the occasional blunder on pit road, and the magic wand which Chad Knaus often uses to make the Lowes Chevy stronger late in races seems to have run out of pixie dust. More than anything though, Johnson’s reign may come to an end not because of anything he or his team did or did’nt, but simply because the Roush Fenway camp is that much better. Particularly points leader Carl Edwards who, with the exception of Martinsville, has been stout week in and week out.

What’s Mark Going To Do?
Mark Martin has repeatedly said he has no plans to retire at the end of the year and that he plans to race somewhere in 2012. The question is for what team and in what series? No one wants to see one of the classiest and well respected drivers to ever turn a wheel put out to pasture, but the way things are unfolding there doesn’t look to be a ride for the 40-time Sprint Cup winner.

To be honest, I’m not sure Martin is set on enduring the 38-week grind known as the Sprint Cup Series. Look for an announcement sometime this summer that Martin will run a full Nationwide slate for Turner Motorsports with a handful of Cup races sprinkled in.

Danica Mania All The Time; But For Which Team?
Speaking of pending announcements, it’s all but a certainty that in the next month or two Danica Patrick will make it known she will be leaving IndyCar and will be making a fulltime move to NASCAR, where she will run the entire Nationwide schedule next year in preparation for move up to Sprint Cup in 2012. Like Martin, the question is which team will Patrick align herself with?

Conventional wisdom says she’d be foolish to leave Hendrick/JR Motorsports where she’s grown quite comfortable working with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and where the equipment is always second to none. However, there are those who say it’s no guarantee that Patrick will continue her association with Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and that she, along with sponsor Go Daddy.com, will be taking her services elsewhere.

The Year of The Surprise
From Daytona to Kansas, 2011 has undoubtedly been the year of the surprise. Even after improbable winners at Daytona and Darlington, and an unlikely winner in Kansas, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see another unexpected race winner or amazing finish the rest of the year. One that will collectively make everyone go, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” However, with the way things have been going, there is always a chance. I’m not sure who it will be next, or when over the next 13 races it’s going to happen, but the way this season has gone, I think its fair to say expect the unexpected.

 

 

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Allgaier, Ambrose, Bayne, Busch, Danica Patrick, Edwards, Ford, Gibbs, Gordon, Hamlin, Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, Letarte, Logano, Martin, McMurray, Montoya, NASCAR, Penske, Roush, Sub-Feature, Truex Jr., Tryson

Answering Questions on Danica, Carl’s Future and more

03/17/2011 By Leave a Comment

I did a mini-mailbag a few weeks ago and I felt bad afterwards because I wasn’t able to get to more of your questions. So, as we come off our first bye week of 2011, there is no better time then the present to answer more of your emails.

Going forward, I can’t promise I’ll do this every week (although I’d like to) but I will do my best to be somewhat consistent in putting together a mailbag I affectionately dub “Ask The Geek.”

As always, if you have a comment, complaint or anything else to send my way, please feel free to send it over. The best way to do so is either email me at jordan@theracinggeek.com or via Twitter.

Now, with that rambling preamble out of the way, let’s get to your questions.

Q: What are your thoughts on Randy Bernard putting up $5 million to any driver not an IndyCar regular who can win the Las Vegas race? Do you think any NASCAR driver will do it or is it much ado about nothing?
–Kim

A: Intriguing, but ultimately gimmicky. In no way should this be construed as me saying I don’t like the concept. I do, and I absolutely love the way Randy Bernard is not afraid to ruffle some feathers and think outside the box. That’s exactly what IndyCar needs if they’re ever going to be relevant again.

The reason I think it’s gimmicky, is the fact there is zero chance a NASCAR driver the caliber of Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson would commit to running a race in a series in which they’ve never competed in previously.

Not to mention, the Vegas race is on the same weekend as the Charlotte Chase race, which makes it next to impossible logistically. If you’re a driver in the Chase, good luck explaining to your car owner and sponsors why you’re jetting back and forth between Charlotte and Vegas when you should be focused entirely on winning the Sprint Cup.

Also, perhaps most importantly, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota aren’t going to be too keen on seeing their drivers go race Honda powered cars. They’re simply not going to sign off on that.

Let’s say for example, Jimmie Johnson took the bait, went out to Vegas and against all odds, ended up winning. You don’t think the IndyCar Series and Honda might run an ad or two trumping the fact that one of the most recognized and accredited drivers in the world just won a race which awarded a $5 million bonus?

Of course they will. How do you think Chevy is going to feel seeing their driver adorned in Honda insignia?

If a NASCAR driver is going to compete for the $5 mil, look for it to be J.J. Yeley, Robby Gordon or someone of that ilk – a backmarker, who isn’t concerned about points and isn’t contractually tied to a manufacturer.

The best-case scenario for the IndyCar Series to snag a NASCAR driver would be to get Brad Keselowski, who because of his connection with Team Penske, decided to give it a go with the backing of Miller.

Speaking of IndyCar and NASCAR, an “Ask The Geek” wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory question about Danica Patrick.

Q: Yes or no, does Danica come to NASCAR fulltime next year?
–Sam

A: With the continued progress she has shown in the Nationwide Series and with the money being too good to pass up, yes, I think Danica Patrick will be competing in NASCAR fulltime in 2012.

At this point, the only question left unanswered, is for what team?

Obviously, no matter what, she’s going to be affiliated with Hendrick Motorsports one way or another. But if Danica does decide to run in NASCAR’s top series, it can’t be directly for Hendrick which is already at the four-team cap.

In that case, do Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. then elect to move JR Motorsports up to Sprint Cup as a single-car team with a “technical alliance” with Hendrick? Or does “The Godfather” (my nickname for Rick Hendrick) finagle a way to get Danica a seat with an already established team. Say for example, a third car at Stewart-Haas Racing?

Here’s an email I got after Jeff Gordon snapped his 66-race winless streak a few weeks back at Phoenix.

Q: You mentioned it in your Monday recap, but you didn’t go into specifics, what are the differences between Steve Letarte and Alan Gustafson?
–Joe

A: Besides one having an engineering background and the other not, I think the biggest difference is how they call a race.

My biggest beef with Letarte these last few years hasn’t been how uncompetitive the 24 team has been. Because as Jeff Gordon’s four runner-up finishes last year and 919 laps led can attest, the 24 car wasn’t lacking for speed.

The biggest complaint I had, was his late-race decisions which often left Gordon on an island in the closing laps. There were far too many times when Letarte would gamble on either not pitting, take two tires when he should have taken four or vice versa.

The race that comes to mind most notably is last year’s race in Las Vegas. On that Sunday, Gordon clearly had the fastest car, but on the day’s final pit stops, Letarte elected to take two-tires over four and opened the door for Jimmie Johnson, who had four fresh Goodyear’s, to pass his teammate for the victory.

This all goes back to what a championship winning crew chief told me a couple of years ago, “When you have a fast racecar and you decide to pit late, you always, always put on four tires unless its an usual circumstance.”

Too often Letarte went against this mantra, and more often than not, it would come back to bite him.

Q: There’s no way Jack Roush lets Carl Edwards leave. You’re crazy if you think that.
–W.J.

A: No, I don’t think Jack Roush is going to let Carl Edwards leave when his contract is up at the end of the year. I merely said “The Cat in the Hat” is going to have some stiff competition for Edwards’ services unless he inks him to a contract soon.

From speaking with Roush, it’s clear how much he values Edwards and wants to keep him behind the wheel of one of his racecars. While he didn’t say it, I think its evident Roush recognizes that out of all the drivers he has, it’s Edwards and not Greg Biffle or Matt Kenseth, who has the best chance of winning him his third championship as a car owner.

The biggest hang-up in my eyes is whether Roush, who’s notorious for not paying his drivers top-market value, blows the dust off of his wallet and pays Edwards what he’s worth on the open market.

But what Roush has working in his favor, is the limited number of options Edwards has if he did decided to look elsewhere.

Barring something unforeseen, neither Richard Childress Racing nor Hendrick Motorsports are going to have openings. Red Bull Racing, which will pay top dollar, will surely have a seat available with Kasey Kahne leaving at the end of the year. Except, the two-car team isn’t in a position to offer Edwards consistently competitive equipment that would allow him to win races and compete for a championship. As Edwards made it known on Media Day, this is the most important thing to him.

Joe Gibbs Racing would like to add a fourth team, but not until they find a sponsor willing to foot the bill. Plus, I have a hard time envisioning Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch all on the same team.

As I’ve said before, I firmly believe the sleeping giant in the race to sign this season’s most coveted free agent is Penske Racing.

Let’s say for example, Brad Keselowski turns in another disappointing year like the one he had last year. How do you think that’s going to sit with Miller Lite?

I can’t image they’re going to be very happy seeing their car struggle to run 20th every week, all the while Kevin Harvick and Budweiser are winning races and contending for the championship. That kind of mediocrity might be enough to prompt The Captain to go all-in to keep his longtime sponsor happy.

But, we’re only three races into this season, so let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Plus, in the end, I think all this speculation is a moot point, because I don’t think Carl Edwards is going to leave the only team he’s ever driven for.

Let’s wrap things up with an interesting question fans booing drivers.

Q: Your story on Jeff Gordon got me thinking. Has there ever been a driver who was booed throughout their career? If not, will Kyle Busch be the first?
–Neil

A: Great question Neil, and one that really made me think.

If we take a look at the drivers who were more lustfully booed by the masses in the last 20 years – Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt – eventually all of them by the end of their careers could be classified as a crowd favorite.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, fans always have had a hard time accepting a young driver coming into the sport and challenging the status quo. No one likes to see their favorite driver get their butt kicked by a young upstart. Plain and simple.

Secondly, eventually over time the brashness, perceived lack of respect for veterans, and winning too frequently that made each of the above drivers hated by fans, goes away. Over time, they become the elder statesmen of NASCAR and become the drivers fans symbolize as the face of the sport.

Not to mention, fans have a much easier time sympathizing with someone who no longer wins with the same regularity as they once did.

So for the second part of your question, no, I don’t think Kyle Busch will be hated like he is now throughout his career.

I already think the tide is starting to turn in his favor. Whether people want to admit it or not, I think the majority of fans appreciate the ferocity in which Busch competes.

Be it a Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Truck Series race. You can never question the passion he has and how bad he wants to win, and I think in a period where a lot of drivers are inclined to keep their feelings and emotions in check due to pressure from their sponsors, there’s a secret respect towards Busch for being true to who he is.

 

 

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bernard, Busch, Danica Patrick, Edwards, Gordon, Gustafson, Hendrick, IndyCar, Keselowski, Letarte, Mailbag, NASCAR, Roush, Sub-Feature

From The Top Down, Optimism Abounds In NASCAR

03/10/2011 By Leave a Comment

If you listen real close you can hear it.

It sounds kind of like a swarm of bees, but not quite as loud.

It’s a buzz and it appears to be emanating from somewhere in northeast Florida.

It’s the sound of a sport, beaten and bloodied these last couple of years, on its way back to prominence.

You see, unlike the past few years, when the headlines were filled with stories of empty seats, television ratings taking a nosedive, sponsors leaving in droves, and myriad of other issues which detracted from an on-track product that was as good as it’s ever been, everything is now coming up sunshine and roses for NASCAR as the Sprint Cup Series heads into it’s first off-week of the 2011 season.

Gone are the long faces and in its place are wide smiles. None more so than on the faces of NASCAR’s brass. They are the ones who have taken the majority of the slings and arrows as of late, but now, just three races into the year, have a lot to be proud of.

The season opened with a fantastic Daytona 500 which featured a record number of lead changes, with the winner an unlikely a 20-year-old driver with a smile and personality of a teen pop star. In a sport where the opportunities for young drivers has been vastly limited, Trevor Bayne bursting his way onto the scene and winning The Great American Race was something the sport sorely needed.

Overnight, the Knoxville, Tennessee driver became a sensation. In the week following his monumental victory, Bayne made appearances on a variety of late night and daytime television shows and everything in-between.

Almost instantly, NASCAR had another big name to add to the marquee to go alongside names like Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Then, the following week at Phoenix was yet another memorable race with another popular victor. This one however, didn’t feature an up-and-coming driver breaking through. Instead, it was the grizzled veteran; Jeff Gordon, returning to the winner’s circle for the first time in 66 races.

Gordon’s inability to win consistently has been a factor as to why NASCAR has undergone some of the struggles that it has as of late. Longtime fans of the four-time champ haven’t had much reason the last couple of years to tune in and cheer for their favorite driver.

But with a shift in team personnel over the offseason, Gordon has started the year with a renewed sense of vigor and appears as determined as ever to win championship number five.

After Jeff Gordon’s resurrection in the desert, it was on to Las Vegas, where more good news awaited NASCAR.

First, there was Danica Patrick with a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, where she became the highest-finishing female in a national touring series race since 1949.

With a decision looming on whether she’s going to come to NASCAR fulltime in 2012 or continue to run in the IndyCar Series, this very well could be the catalyst Patrick needs to make the plunge fulltime into the NASCAR waters.

At least temporarily, according to NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France, it quelled those who may not have thought Patrick had the talent to be competitive wheeling a stockcar.

“I think that elevated her,” explained France. “There was some discussion, did she have the right stuff to compete in the Nationwide Series. You know, I think she dispelled a lot of that. There’s always circumstances in the start of a new career; but sometimes things are out of your control, people can crash in front of you, a hundred other things.

“I think she elevated herself quite nicely. That’s nice to see. She’s a very competitive person. She’s always said she’s here to compete, not just happy to be here. That fits my criteria.”

If she did decide to run fulltime in either the Nationwide or Sprint Cup Series, it would be yet another feather in NASCAR’s cap. While at the same time striking another blow to open-wheel racing, which has been experiencing a rejuvenation of sorts and is on the on the road back to being relevant again.

The day following Patrick’s NASCAR-best finish, the back flipping, crowd celebrating Carl Edwards secured his first victory of the season. This win firmly established him as a serious challenger to unseat Jimmie Johnson from the title throne in which he’s sat on for the last five years.

“It’s way too early for us to start thinking championship,” said Edwards’ car owner Jack Roush in the winner’s post-race conference last Sunday in Las Vegas.

“We’ve got to keep our eye on the ball; we can’t make a misstep, we can’t squander the opportunities now that we’re running better than we did last year. But it certainly feels more like 2008, even better.”

It’s no secret fans have been desperately clamoring for someone to take it to Johnson for a while now. Although there have been many a serious challenger – including Edwards in 2008 and Denny Hamlin last year – to date no one has been able to do it. But Edwards’ win on a track where Johnson has frequently dominated, is a positive sign to the masses that his reign may soon be over.

Add everything up, and fans have responded accordingly. In part due to a rebounding economy, ticket sales are up and the grandstands have been fuller than they have been in recent memory.

However, the best barometer to gauge NASCAR’s resurgence comes in the form of its television ratings.

After hitting record lows in 2010 on almost a weekly basis, the TV ratings have experienced almost a complete turnabout.

Viewership for the Daytona 500 was up 17% compared to last year, while the Kobalt Tools 500 in Phoenix rose 5%. But the biggest jump, and perhaps the most staggering, was that last Sunday’s race in Vegas jumped an astounding 29%.

That the clearest sign yet NASCAR is on the road back to being healthy and viable again.

“No one around here is celebrating,” said France today during a teleconference with reporters. “We’re obviously pleased we’re up dramatically in our ratings. But we know that is an ebb-and-flow thing. We’re focused on a lot of things that will give us growth down the road.

“We’re going to work on those, not get too excited or too down.”

The only thing that could have been even better for the sanctioning body was is if Dale Earnhardt Jr. would have won one of the first three races.

But if it’s your only quibble after all the turbulence NASCAR has experienced recently, I’m sure you can learn to live with that. From the continued progress the 88 team has made each week, it might not be too long before the sports most popular driver is back in victory lane celebrating.

If that were to happen, it wouldn’t be a buzz radiating from Daytona; it will be the sound of champagne corks being popped.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bayne, Danica Patrick, Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, France, Gordon, NASCAR, Sub-Feature, Television

Monday’s Thoughts: Stewart Stumbles; Carl Cashes In

03/07/2011 By Leave a Comment

When you’re in Las Vegas, it’s only natural to gamble. After all, that’s what you do when you visit the city where you have the option to pop a quarter into a slot machine at every corner.

Like the majority of those who come to the desert looking to strike it big, Tony Stewart left Sin City disappointed, frustrated and wondering where it all went wrong, after a late gamble saw the owner-driver give away a race that he should’ve won.

Throughout the day, Stewart’s No. 14 Chevy was the class of the field as he led a race-high 166 laps and consistently pulled away from the field with relative ease.

But Stewart’s house of cards came crashing down on lap 153. It was then, during a pit stop, an air wrench got stuck in the left rear of his car. Unaware, Stewart drove off with it still attached. That’s a penalty under the NASCAR rulebook, one that requires the offending party, in this case Stewart, to serve a drive thru penalty.

The punishment dropped the 2002 and ’05 Sprint Cup champion back to 23rd and from there he was in catch-up mode the rest of the afternoon.

In an effort to recuperate his lost track position, crew chief Darrian Grubb called for two-tires on the team’s second to last pit stop of the day. The move worked as Stewart jumped his back in the lead.

But the gamble came with a price.

With just about everyone behind him taking four tires on the same pit stop cycle in which he took two, it put Stewart in a position where he was going to have to get four fresh Goodyear’s on his final stop. While at the same time, it opened the door for those who had taken four tires to go with just two during their final pit stops of the afternoon.

A classic no-win proposition for Stewart in a town filled with them.

“I honestly think we had the car to beat today, we just gave it away,” said a dejected Stewart. “Just shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row now.”

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Stewart, as his runner-up finish moved him into a tie with Kurt Busch atop the standings. Not that Stewart was thinking about that afterwards.

“I probably should (feel solace in finishing second), but that’s not in my makeup,” said Stewart. “I mean, it kills me to throw a race away like that, especially at a place we haven’t won at yet. This was a big deal today, and when you lead that many laps and have a car that’s that fast and you lose it.”

When you gamble trying to hit it big, the odds are you’re going to roll snake eyes. A lesson Tony Stewart now knows all too well.

###

If there’s a driver who can sympathize with Tony Stewart’s plight, it would be the guy who was celebrating in victory lane at the end of 400 miles of racing.

A week ago in Phoenix, Carl Edwards had a car underneath him that was as good as he’s ever driven. It was a car that should have won the race, as long as he kept the engine running and the car in one piece.

Except that’s easier said than done.

Contact with Kyle Busch led to Edwards hitting the wall and a potentially winning racecar was turned into a crumpled one.

The emotions Edwards felt then were the exact feelings Stewart felt seven days later. Funny thing is though; Edwards didn’t feel like he was owed one after what happened in Phoenix.

“It is amazing that it worked out this well,” Edwards said. “It isn’t something you can count on you know. It was a long week.”

With the win he lost now found, Edwards can rejoice in what has been a fantastic start to his 2011 season. Three races into the year, the Roush Fenway driver has had a car good enough to win each week, and as a result, he finds himself just seven points out of first in the standings.

“This is the best start to a season that I have ever had, said Edwards,” who won for the 19th time in his career. “I am really excited about the season. This is a great start.”

It is a great start that could easily turn into more, as five of the 10 previous winners in Las Vegas have gone on to win the championship.

Although it’s hard to call anyone a favorite so early in the year, it’s clear which driver has asserted his dominance heading into the first bye week of the season.

It’s the same driver who’s won three of the past five races dating back to last year and left Vegas like so few of us do – a winner.

###

There was an international flavor Sunday among front running cars, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose each turning in outstanding runs, which netted them third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively.

Montoya’s third-place finish represented the second time this season he’s finished sixth or better. Add it up, and he’s a solid fourth in the standings, just seven markers behind co-leaders Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. A far cry from last year when a 37th-place finish in this race saw him leave Vegas 26th in the standings and already on the verge of being eliminated from the Chase.

“To get a top-five here today in Vegas after what happened the last few years here it’s amazing,” Montoya stated. “We had a really good Daytona, bad Phoenix and we ran good here. Three good finishes at least in points is good.”

Ambrose, making his third start for the revamped Richard Petty Motorsports team, this was a day that he needed after a disappointing Daytona (37th-place finish) and a subpar day at Phoenix (16th.)

“There was a ton of good energy out here today, just a ton of good energy,” said the Australian native. “I am really happy with the finish.”

In his third race with a new team, the former Australian Touring Car champion is hopeful this is the start of something special.

“It was a great day. It was a great first top-five for RPM. I have to thank Richard Petty for believing in me and giving me a shot. It is going to be a great year.”

###

It hasn’t been flashy nor has it been necessarily pretty, but the pairing of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Steve Letarte is quickly proving to be an effective combination.

The 88 team struggled to find the handle on their Chevrolet throughout the weekend. They never were quicker than 25th in practice and in qualifying they were only able to clock in the 33rd fastest time.

But like we’ve seen at Daytona and Phoenix, the 88 team is proving to be a gritty bunch. Earnhardt didn’t get down on himself like he has the past couple of years, and as such, was able to provide good feedback to Letarte, who continued to make good adjustments with each passing pit stop. The end result was a car Earnhardt could drive through traffic and by mid-race, was solidly in the top-10.

When the checkered flag waved, Earnhardt crossed the line in eighth and had his second top-10 finish in has many weeks.

“We made some great adjustments and the car just drove better and better,” said a smiling Earnhardt. I just kept describing what I was feeling and what I thought I needed and Steve was really hitting right on it about every time.

“I’m happy. It’s a fun team; a great group of guys. I’m proud to be a part of it and hope I can keep working well and keep doing well.”

It was a happy, confident, and dare I say optimistic, Dale Earnhardt Jr. That’s not something we’ve seen too much of in the last couple of years.

###

Odds & Ends

●It was an unhappy homecoming for Kyle Busch, who rolled into this weekend as the points leader, but dropped 13 spots in the championship order after a motor failure 107 laps into the race.

●Jeff Gordon was a victim of one of the numerous tire failures we saw on Sunday. Last week’s winner lost his right front tire 74 laps from the end and slammed the wall hard in Turn-4 and finished 36th. Luckily for him, the Safer Barrier allowed him to escape without injury.

● Brian Vickers’ 10th-place finish was his best effort since finishing 10th at Darlington last May, when he was forced to step out of the car the following week for the remainder of the year, due to blood clots.

●Despite starting last due to a pre-race engine change, Denny Hamlin turned in his first top-10 finish (seventh) of 2011.

●Jimmie Johnson was a non-factor and had a pedestrian 16th-place finish.

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Ambrose, Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Gordon, Hamlin, Johnson, Las Vegas, Letarte, Montoya, NASCAR, Stewart, Thoughts, Vickers

A Jeff Gordon 180

03/03/2011 By 2 Comments

I remember a time not too long ago, when a Jeff Gordon victory caused fans to roll their eyes and mutter “Again? Why can’t another driver win?”

I remember when the loudest boos during pre-race introductions weren’t for Kyle Busch. They were for the driver of the rainbow-colored car, who at one time ruled over the sport with an iron fist and a fast DuPont Chevrolet.

From 1995-2001, Gordon won 56 races and four Sprint Cup championships. While those numbers may not seem as impressive in an era where Gordon’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, has won five consecutive series crowns, at the time he was redefining the word dominant each and every week.

That was then and this is now.

Jeff Gordon is no longer the same driver who fans protested that he won too much. He was the driver that everyone in the garage knew that if they wanted to win the championship, they were going to have to go through the 24 team to do so.

As hard as it is to imagine, it’s been 10 years since Gordon’s last championship. The once frequent trips to victory lane are no more. They’ve been replaced by rare excursions to the winner’s circle, as the iconic driver has a scant two victories in his last 115 starts and entered last weekend immersed in a 66-race winless streak.

“When you go on that kind of a streak and drought, no doubt about it, it’s frustrating,” said Gordon Sunday, in his first post-race winner’s press conference since April 2009.

However, last Sunday in Phoenix, the Subway Fresh Fit 500 represented a trip down memory lane.

Taking a car that lacked top-end speed all weekend, Gordon drove from his 20th starting position and ascended to the lead by lap 77. From there it was vintage Jeff Gordon: leading laps, setting the pace of the race and making it known he had the car to beat on this particular afternoon.

And in the closing laps, the four-time champion found himself stuck behind slower cars and victory again appeared to be slipping out of his grasp. However in this race, the fire and determination that marked the early part of his career, returned.

Gordon was aggressive, but not to the point of carelessness. He drove his way around Tony Stewart for second, who clearly didn’t have the car that Gordon had on this day, and set his sights on race-leader Kyle Busch.

Busch, who called Gordon his hero post-race, did everything he could to hold off the 24. But sometimes things are inevitable and Busch knew it was only a matter of time.

With eight laps to go, Jeff Gordon was back in the lead and headed to place he’s been to 82 times previously.

While every victory is special, this one was different than the others. Before Sunday, Gordon had been subject of whispers that perhaps his best days were behind him. That age, combined with fatherhood had made winning less important.

But as he raced under the checkered flag for the 83rd time in his illustrious career, Jeff Gordon answered the legion of doubters who seemed to be growing larger with each passing winless race.

“That’s what made this victory so sweet, it’s not like we lucked into it,” said Gordon. “It’s got me excited about the rest of the season. I think we can do this at other tracks, as well.”

As we’re just two races into a 36-race grind, what direction Jeff Gordon’s 2011 season heads in is anyone’s guess.

It would be foolish after just one win, to sit here and say Gordon appears destined to get Sprint Cup championship No. 5. The one he’s long sought after and the one which coined the ever popular “Drive for Five” mantra.

But it would be just as unwise to discount his chances to win another title.

He is after all, driving for the same organization which has won the last five championships. Not to mention, the chemistry between he and new crew chief Alan Gustafson appears akin to the relationship Gordon had with Ray Evernham during his heydays of the 90s.

Wouldn’t it be something if it were Jeff Gordon, and not Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin or another young hotshot, who was the one to unseat Johnson from the championship pedestal?

Gordon, the guy who gave Johnson his opportunity with Hendrick Motorsports, showing his prized pupil that the old sage still has a couple of tricks left in his bag.

And the fans, who once jeered Gordon at the beginning of his career for winning too much, would instead be cheering him in his attempt to take down the driver who replaced him atop the NASCAR food chain. The very driver who represents what Gordon used to be.

The driver once viewed as a villain, would most likely be remembered as being the “People’s Champ.” I can’t say I ever saw that one coming.

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Gordon, NASCAR, Sub-Feature

Monday’s Thoughts: Fired Up Gordon Resumes His Winning Ways

02/28/2011 By 1 Comment

If you’re a multi-time winner in Sprint Cup and it’s been a while since you last tasted victory, apparently all you need to do is take a trip to the desert for a spin around the one-mile oasis better known as Phoenix International Raceway.

Last season Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman both snapped lengthy winless streaks, 70 and 66 races respectively, while two years ago Mark Martin saw his 97-race winless streak come to an end.

On Sunday, another driver returned to victory lane after a lengthy absence.

This time it was none other than Jeff Gordon, who with eight laps to go powered under leader Kyle Busch coming out of Turn-4, drove away by a margin of 1.1-seconds and thus ended his 66-race drought.

When you’ve won as frequently as Gordon has over the course of his career, 83 and counting, it becomes easy to take winning for granted. But with the win well having dried up recently and the four-time champ having won just once in the past three years, it’s easy for a driver, even a driver of Jeff Gordon’s caliber to have self doubts.

“You hear it from the media, you hear it from the fans, and it’s hard to ignore that,” an elated Gordon said post-race. “I think that when you’ve had the success that we have had in the past I guess every race car driver knows that there’s going to be that time in their life when they are not going to go to victory lane again and you don’t know when that time is going to come. I was so hoping that time was not for me now.

“I felt like I still have it in me. I know how passionate I am about it. But things have changed in the sport. The cars have changed. Tires have changed. Competition has changed. So when you go through a streak of without winning, you think, okay, is it me or what is it.”

But the offseason decision by team owner Rick Hendrick to swap the crew chiefs and teams of Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems to have rejuvenated something within Gordon.

“I think he’s (Jeff Gordon) a competitor, he’s a champion, and you know, everybody gets down,” explained team owner Rick Hendrick. “I get down. We all get down. And you have to have some reason to get excited again, and that’s what this re alignment this year was all about.”

Perhaps it has something to do with being paired with new crew chief Alan Gustafson. Gustafson is cut from the same mold as Ray Evernham, the guy Gordon had so much success with in the 90s.

Like Evernham, Gustafson has a background in engineering and has a knack for making a car better as the race moves towards its conclusion. Something that’s clearly been missing from the 24 team the last few years, as Gordon’s Chevrolet would often get worse, not better in the latter stages of a race.

Yesterday however, the 24 car was at its best at the most critical of times.

After losing the lead during green flag pit stops, Gordon found himself trailing race-leader Tony Stewart and second-place Kyle Busch. With the help of four fresh tires, Busch wasted no time pulling away from the owner-driver, who took just two tires during his previous stop

With a fast car that led a race-high 138 laps, Gordon like Busch, had no trouble working his way around Stewart and then up to the back of the 18 car. With a little help from his front bumper, he got by a driver with a reputation for not being the easiest to pass.

And all in a weekend where it appeared Gordon was going to struggle, having posted the 20th and 28th fastest times in practice, and qualifying 20th overall. Not to mention the damage the 24 car sustained to the right side of early in the race after contact with Carl Edwards pushed Gordon into the outside retaining wall.

“You know, it’s just so cool to get back to winning and have a dominating performance like we had today with all of the issues,” said the driver who has finished in the runner-up position eight times since his last win. “Just over the off season, talking to Alan, talking to Rick, with the changes, and just seeing the things that they were doing, I just felt like we were doing the right things.

“But then we showed up here and qualified 20th, I was like, ‘oh, man, that was a little bit of a letdown.’ But when they dropped the green today, I was like, ‘ahh, that’s what I thought it would be like.’ To pull it off, it’s awesome, it’s a great feeling.”

How does the saying go, about adversity making success all the more sweeter?

###

The “Big One” isn’t supposed to happen on the tight confines of the Phoenix mile. Multi-car wrecks that decimate the field typically occur at Daytona and Talladega. Apparently, yesterday was the exception.

On lap 67 of the 312 lap race, Brian Vickers appeared to be squeezed into the outside wall by Matt Kenseth, triggering a 13-car melee and a 14-minute red flag.

Afterwards Vickers left little doubt where he thought the blame should lay.

“The 17 (Matt Kenseth) ran us into the wall, door slammed us into the corner coming out of turn two, just 67 laps into a very, very long race,” said a clearly frustrated Vickers. “I felt like it was unnecessary and I’m sure it will come back to him.”

The carnage left many a driver wondering why we’ve seen so much aggressiveness and so little patience through the first two races of the season. Among them Clint Bowyer, who for the second straight week had a fast car but was swept up in wreck he didn’t start.

“They were driving like it was the last lap! Man, if we keep this up we’ll only have about four cars to end all these races. I have no idea what happened. Everybody was checked-up all over the place and running into the back of us and we got crashed. But it’s just stupid. To be racing this hard this early in a race; we’re all smarter than this.”

The end result, besides a pile of junked racecars, was Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray and David Reutimann, all of whom were expected to contend for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, instead are sitting 21st, 32nd, 31st and 26th in the standings.

The irony in all of this is with NASCAR placing greater emphasis on consistency, making up these lost points will be harder than ever and will require drivers to race with even more urgency. All of which in turn, could easily lead to more of what we saw yesterday afternoon.

###

Carl Edwards made it known last year, that he’s not afraid of seeking retribution against a driver whom he feels has wronged him. If you don’t remember, just go back and take a look at what he did to Brad Keselowski at Atlanta and Gateway.

So it was no surprise when Kyle Busch quickly accepted blame and apologized for sideswiping the No. 99 car and sending the driver who clearly had the fastest car on the day to the garage prematurely. Lest he end up on Edwards’ hit list, both figuratively and literally.

“Hopefully we can get past this and go on,” said a contrite Busch. “I know it’s early in the year and all that stuff, but it doesn’t matter even if was late in the year. It was just a mistake on my part.”

The good news for Busch, besides Edwards showing leniency (at least temporally), is with a second-place finish, he jumps six spots in the standings and sits first overall as the series heads into his hometown of Las Vega. Making things all the better, his older brother Kurt, who finished eighth, is right behind him in second.

###

In NASCAR, you can go from obscurity to overnight sensation in a blink of an eye. The latest example is Trevor Bayne.

Last Sunday, he was doing the improbable and winning the Daytona 500 in his second career start. This past weekend, it was a jarring dose of reality for the 20-year-old driver.

On Friday, in the opening round of practice on his very first lap on the track, Bayne locked his brakes and pancaked the right side of his primary car which necessitated a change to his backup car.

Sunday things weren’t any better.

A mere 50 miles into the race, Bayne cut in front of Travis Kvapil and the result saw his Wood Brothers Ford spinning into the wall. As it was on Friday, his racecar was destroyed.

“I don’t know what happened,” Bayne said. “Either I came up or he (Travis Kvapil) poked his nose in there at the last second on the top of us getting into one. After that, there was nothing we could do. I tried to stay in the gas and keep it turning, but it just backed into the wall.

“That’s tough coming off of our high at Daytona to come to this, but we’ve got a great race team behind us. I hate it ended this way this weekend, but we’ll be back.”

From the ultimate high to crashing twice in a single weekend all in the span of seven days. Further proof that this sport can humble you like no other.

###

Odds & Ends

■Jeff Gordon’s victory was the 83rd of career Sprint Cup victory, and moved him into a tie with Cale Yarborough for fifth all-time.

■Gordon’s last win came in the 2009 running of the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

■Kyle and Kurt Busch are the only two drivers to post top-10 finishes in the year’s first two races.

■The massive reconfiguration project of PIR, which will include widening the track and laying down new asphalt, commenced immediately following the Subway Fresh Fit 500. Track officials say it will take 4-5 months to complete the remodeling and there’s no concern the facility won’t be ready when NASCAR makes its return trip to the desert in November.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bayne, Bowyer, Busch, Edwards, Gordon, Gustafson, Hendrick, NASCAR, Phoenix, Thoughts

Preseason Driver Rankings: #5 Jeff Gordon

02/20/2011 By 1 Comment

Jeff Gordon
No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevy Impala
Team: Hendrick Motorsports
Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson

2010 Stats
Wins: 0
Top-5s: 11
Top-10s: 17
Poles: 1
DNFs: 4
Average Start: 12.7
Average Finish: 13.4
Races Led: 20
Laps Led: 919
% Laps Completed: 97.8%
Points Finish: 9th

2010 in a Nutshell
For most drivers, recording 11 top-fives, 17 top-10s and being in front for 919 laps, the year would be considered a good one. Except, most drivers aren’t four-time series champions and the winner of 82 Sprint Cup races that drive for one of the premier teams in the sport. When you don’t win once for the second time in three years, it’s fair to say 2010 was a bit of downer for Jeff Gordon.

Best-case Scenario for 2011
New crew chief, Alan Gustafson, reenergizes Gordon and he not only pushes his Hendrick counterpart Jimmie Johnson, Gordon dethrones the five-time defending champ and wins his fifth series crown.

Worst-case Scenario for 2011
Much like we’ve seen in the last few years, Jeff Gordon is good, but not good enough and suffers through another year without a win. On top of that, the writing on the wall becomes ever clearer, that his days as an elite driver are done and over.

Reasons to Believe
As he demonstrated at Texas, in his Kung Fu match last year with Jeff Burton, the fire still burns with the four-time titlist…You get the sense that if this team can just knockdown the barrier to victory lane, the victory floodgates will open up…Led the fourth-most laps in 2010…Alan Gustafson has a reputation as a mastermind crew chief…Rick Hendrick is committed to turning around the 24 team…Has won on 21 of the 22 tracks on the schedule (Homestead is the lone exception).

Reasons to Doubt
Has won only one race in the last three years…Hasn’t been the same since losing the 2007 championship to Jimmie Johnson…Though it’s hard to believe, Jeff Gordon at age 39 is no longer a young man…It often seems Alan Gustafson’s reputation is more hype than actual substance…Hendrick Motorsports as a whole, suffered from a lack of top-end speed in 2010

Area of Strength: New Energy
The 24 team had grown stagnant the last couple of seasons. Now working with a new crew chief and team behind him, Jeff Gordon seems revitalized. There’s an aura of freshness about him; a belief that this is the year where he’ll turn back the clock and have on-track success on a weekly basis.

Area of Weakness: Winning
I can’t believe I’m going to say this.

(Deep breath)

(Long pause)

Jeff Gordon doesn’t win enough races, and he will never have a genuine shot at another championship until he starts making frequent trips to victory lane.

He isn’t completely responsible for the winning well drying up. Too often, particularly last year, when he was in position to win, his team would let him down.

With a new crew chief, the expectation is that Gordon will start winning again. But until that actually happens, this is most certainly an area of weakness for the driver of the No. 24 car.

Predicted Number of Wins: 3

The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
Yes, predicting Jeff Gordon to win three times this season may seem a bit unrealistic and a smidge misguided. But I’m buying into the hype that Alan Gustafson is the missing piece to the “Jeff Gordon can’t win anymore” puzzle. By the number of top-five and top-10 finishes he’s amassed the last couple of seasons, along with the number of laps he’s been out front, it’s evident that Gordon can still compete and run with the sports best.

Whether he can beat them enough to win a championship is a different story, but for this year, expect the original four-timer to win races (plural) and post a respectable finish in the standings.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: 2011, Gordon, Hendrick, NASCAR, predictions, Preview

The Heat Is On For These 10

02/09/2011 By Leave a Comment

Some thrive under it, while others wilt under its weight. It’s called pressure and in big-time sports, it’s part of everyday life. In NASCAR, drivers, crew chiefs, team owners, broadcast partners and the sanctioning body itself, all have to learn to deal with the weight of expectations. Sometimes they’ll fail, other times they’ll succeed, but the expectations will always be there regardless. Call it an occupational hazard if you will.

So who’s under the gun heading into 2011? Well, everyone, but each to varying degrees. As the expectations for Jimmie Johnson are vastly different then they are for Joe Nemechek. However, the following five drivers and crew chiefs have more at stake than anyone else.

Drivers
1) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just like he was last year, the sports most popular driver finds himself No. 1 on this list. But just as it was a year ago, the facts remain essentially unchanged. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still immersed in a long winless streak, all the while driving for a good, if not one of the best teams in all of motorsports, depending on your perspective. On top of that, NASCAR continues to see its television ratings go down and the grandstands less than full. It’s no secret both of those trends could be reversed, if the 18-time race winner could find a way to get back to the winner’s circle. Few athletes can affect the popularity and perception of a sports organization the way Junior can; and that’s what we call pressure.

2) Joey Logano
When Joe Gibbs Racing named Joey Logano as the guy to fill the enormous seat – both literally and figuratively – created by Tony Stewart’s departure, everyone knew it was going to take some time before the then-teenager was ready to be competitive on a weekly basis. After making gradual gains through his first two seasons, this year there will be real pressure put upon the 20-year-old driver’s shoulders. Not only will he be expected to win at least once this season, he’ll be expected to contend for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Anything less and the year rightfully will be considered a disappointment.

3) Carl Edwards
The driver I dubbed the “Smiling Assassin” will be in a position he’s quite familiar with entering 2011. Like he was in 2006 and then in 2009, Carl Edwards is considered one of the favorites to win the Sprint Cup championship. But throughout his career, the native Missourian has had difficulty living up to the expectations that have been placed on him. Both in 2006 and ’09, Edwards not only didn’t contend for the title, he even didn’t win a race. That can’t happen this season. The Roush-Fenway driver doesn’t have to win the title, but he needs to win races and needs to finish in the upper half of the standings. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

4) Jeff Gordon
Like his Hendrick teammate above, Jeff Gordon finds himself in a protracted winless streak. But the excuses, along with Father Time, are starting to run out for the four-time series champion who’s won just one race in his last 108 starts. With the highly-respected Alan Gustafson atop his pit box in 2011, Gordon will be expected to produce. If he doesn’t, there are going to be some serious questions as to whether he can be relevant again on the track.

5) Denny Hamlin
How is the guy who dominated the Chase, came within 33-points of knocking off Jimmie Johnson and winning the title find himself feeling the pressure? Easy. Last year, Denny Hamlin should have won his first series crown. Except he and his team took their eye off the ball and left the door open for the 48 to sneak in and steal what should have been theirs. Consequently, Hamlin is left wondering ‘What if?’ As a result he will have to repeatedly answer questions about last year while constantly concentrating on trying to replicate his success of 2010. That’s no easy task, and it’s one Hamlin is going to have to deal with for the next nine months.

Crew Chiefs
1) Steve Letarte
When the driver you’re working with is in the midst of a 93-race winless streak, and driving for a team the caliber of Hendrick Motorsports. Yeah, there’s going to be a bit of heat on the new crew chief that is expected to turn things around. But when the driver in question is Dale Earnhardt Jr., the heat in the kitchen is more than just hot, it’s scalding.

2) Mike Ford
NASCAR has always been a “What have you done for me lately” sport. While guiding Denny Hamlin to eight wins and a runner-up finish in the standings was well and good, it was how the season ended that have many, including myself, questioning Mike Ford’s job security. It’s not too far fetched to think Ford will be made the sacrificial lamb if the 11 team is sluggish out of the gate. That my friends, is the very definition of pressure.

3) Jimmy Fennig
Being a crew chief naturally comes with an expiration date. However, that short shelf-life is the equivalent of day-old milk when you’re calling the shots for Matt Kenseth. Considering the recent history it’s hard not to imagine Jimmy Fennig going the way of Chip Bolin, Drew Blickensderfer and Todd Parrott if the 2003 Sprint Cup doesn’t start winning with some sort of regularity.

4) Pat Tryson
The Martin Truex Jr. and Pat Tryson driver-crew chief combination was supposed to produce results in their first year working together at Michael Waltrip Racing. Instead, the duo recorded just one top-five finish, finished a disappointing 22nd in points and never built any momentum heading into the offseason that hinted of bigger things to come. While Pat Tryson may be one of the best head wrenches in the garage, it will be he, and not Truex who will be forced out unless progress is made. And soon.

5) Alan Gustafson
The book on Alan Gustafson is that of a highly intelligent crew chief in the Ray Evernham mold, who is one of the best in the business. Except one thing; the results for the most part have rarely matched the hype. Now, Gustafson will be tasked with reviving the fortunes of one of the best to ever drive a racecar. That kind of responsibility that will either reinforce his place on the crew chief hierarchy or prove he’s nothing more than another Lance McGrew.

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: 2011, Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Gordon, Gustafson, Hamlin, Letarte, Logano, Mike Ford, NASCAR, Preview, Tryson
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