Viva Las Vegas!
The first two races of the season, the Daytona 500 and Auto Club 500, had two big things in common, dealing with rainy weather and Matt Kenseth won them both. The 2009 is off to a positive start. The team shuffles, brought on in part by the nation’s economy, have not impacted competition noticeably. The Ganassi/DEI merger is looking solid. Meanwhile, the Petty Enterprises marriage with Gillette/Evernham provided one of the surprise success stories of the Daytona 500. Tony Stewart’s formation of Stewart-Haas racing with Ryan Newman, the one team change created out of strength, not so much economic necessity, looks very competitive despite the fender benders. Despite looking weak leading up to the Daytona 500, Roush is strong at money time. Gibbs and Hendricks has little too sweat, but for Gibbs, Joey Legano is truly a work in progress. They are doing a wonderful job nurturing his talent. Could Rick Hendricks be getting a little concerned about his biggest star without a championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
If there’s a real down story so far this year, it has to be how the #88 team has performed. Poor performance in February is just as costly as events around Labor Day in determining who makes it to “The Chase” when the field is set after the September race in Richmond. Junior “manned up” that the Daytona disaster was his responsibility. The California catastrophe turned out to be engine failure.
Not much can be read into the standings after two weeks, but who would have thought that Michael Waltrip racing would have the only two Toyotas in the top 12 with Mikey himself in 7th and teammate, David Reutimann running in 12th? After a weak season in 2008, Jeff Gordon is the strongest Hendricks team so far. Of the regulars, a handful of teams are deep in the pack right now, Junior is in 35th, Aric Almirola (Earnhardt-Ganassi #8) in 36th, Legano in 37th, Paul Menard (Yates, #98) in 39th, Scott Speed (rookie, Red Bull, #83) in 41st. Early in the season, those high in the standings can fall back to the middle of the pack with just one weak race, but when buried deep, it’s a longer road to respectability.
The hot shots of 2008 are in striking distance but only Carl Edwards is in the top 10, position #9 while Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson are in 18th and 19th respectively.
Now the good old boys descend upon the never ending party, Las Vegas. This year’s race has a nice sound to it, the Shelby 427. Weren’t those old Shelby Cobra’s and Mustangs beautiful machines, not to mention the legendary Ford 427 V-8, Richard Petty’s worst nightmare as Holman Moody and the Wood Brothers put their best up against the Petty “hemi”sphere back in the mid-60’s.
Since the Vegas track was re-engineered with progressive banking, it provides some of the most interesting and hotly contested racing on the whole circuit. Carl Edwards won at Vegas last year. Jimmie Johnson won three straight from 2005-07, and current leader, Kenseth brought home trophies in 2003 and 2004. Generally, Vegas favors Roush and Hendricks (any surprise there?) with strong finishes by the Childress boys.
Put it all together, the odds (a favorite topic in Vegas) look great for a Kenseth 2009 “three-pete” and why not? Roush’s strongest 2009 driver won there last year and Matt already has two wins at the track.
Drivers to watch, Jeff Gordon, he’s strong and hungry ready to break his winless drought soon. Jimmie Johnson sure would like to get the four straight buzz starting with a win. Kyle Busch has much to make up after being eliminated in Daytona. Dale Earnhardt Junior and Mark Martin have not lived up to fans’ dreams so far. Vegas could be a great track for their styles of racing. At a track that has favored Chevys and Fords, what will the Toyota stables and Dodge boys have to try to grab the trophy.
On thing that has not been impacted by the economy so far is the entry list for Sprint Cup events. Every race so far has had plenty of cars to compete for the 43 spots in the field. Daytona always gets plenty of entries. California can pull in some west coast guys, but for the series second cross continent event in a row, there are 51 entries for the Shelby 427. The sad news is eight guys go home. The good news is lots of teams are fighting to make the bottom of the field more of a game where the top 35 will be a much bigger prize in a few weeks once they are fighting for this year’s status not based on the top 35 finishers from 2008.
Viva Las Vegas. Feed the kitty, roll the dice, start your engines, and let the race begin!
The first two races of the season, the Daytona 500 and Auto Club 500, had two big things in common, dealing with rainy weather and Matt Kenseth won them both. The 2009 is off to a positive start. The team shuffles, brought on in part by the nation’s economy, have not impacted competition noticeably. The Ganassi/DEI merger is looking solid. Meanwhile, the Petty Enterprises marriage with Gillette/Evernham provided one of the surprise success stories of the Daytona 500. Tony Stewart’s formation of Stewart-Haas racing with Ryan Newman, the one team change created out of strength, not so much economic necessity, looks very competitive despite the fender benders. Despite looking weak leading up to the Daytona 500, Roush is strong at money time. Gibbs and Hendricks has little too sweat, but for Gibbs, Joey Legano is truly a work in progress. They are doing a wonderful job nurturing his talent. Could Rick Hendricks be getting a little concerned about his biggest star without a championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
If there’s a real down story so far this year, it has to be how the #88 team has performed. Poor performance in February is just as costly as events around Labor Day in determining who makes it to “The Chase” when the field is set after the September race in Richmond. Junior “manned up” that the Daytona disaster was his responsibility. The California catastrophe turned out to be engine failure.
Not much can be read into the standings after two weeks, but who would have thought that Michael Waltrip racing would have the only two Toyotas in the top 12 with Mikey himself in 7th and teammate, David Reutimann running in 12th? After a weak season in 2008, Jeff Gordon is the strongest Hendricks team so far. Of the regulars, a handful of teams are deep in the pack right now, Junior is in 35th, Aric Almirola (Earnhardt-Ganassi #8) in 36th, Legano in 37th, Paul Menard (Yates, #98) in 39th, Scott Speed (rookie, Red Bull, #83) in 41st. Early in the season, those high in the standings can fall back to the middle of the pack with just one weak race, but when buried deep, it’s a longer road to respectability.
The hot shots of 2008 are in striking distance but only Carl Edwards is in the top 10, position #9 while Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson are in 18th and 19th respectively.
Now the good old boys descend upon the never ending party, Las Vegas. This year’s race has a nice sound to it, the Shelby 427. Weren’t those old Shelby Cobra’s and Mustangs beautiful machines, not to mention the legendary Ford 427 V-8, Richard Petty’s worst nightmare as Holman Moody and the Wood Brothers put their best up against the Petty “hemi”sphere back in the mid-60’s.
Since the Vegas track was re-engineered with progressive banking, it provides some of the most interesting and hotly contested racing on the whole circuit. Carl Edwards won at Vegas last year. Jimmie Johnson won three straight from 2005-07, and current leader, Kenseth brought home trophies in 2003 and 2004. Generally, Vegas favors Roush and Hendricks (any surprise there?) with strong finishes by the Childress boys.
Put it all together, the odds (a favorite topic in Vegas) look great for a Kenseth 2009 “three-pete” and why not? Roush’s strongest 2009 driver won there last year and Matt already has two wins at the track.
Drivers to watch, Jeff Gordon, he’s strong and hungry ready to break his winless drought soon. Jimmie Johnson sure would like to get the four straight buzz starting with a win. Kyle Busch has much to make up after being eliminated in Daytona. Dale Earnhardt Junior and Mark Martin have not lived up to fans’ dreams so far. Vegas could be a great track for their styles of racing. At a track that has favored Chevys and Fords, what will the Toyota stables and Dodge boys have to try to grab the trophy.
On thing that has not been impacted by the economy so far is the entry list for Sprint Cup events. Every race so far has had plenty of cars to compete for the 43 spots in the field. Daytona always gets plenty of entries. California can pull in some west coast guys, but for the series second cross continent event in a row, there are 51 entries for the Shelby 427. The sad news is eight guys go home. The good news is lots of teams are fighting to make the bottom of the field more of a game where the top 35 will be a much bigger prize in a few weeks once they are fighting for this year’s status not based on the top 35 finishers from 2008.
Viva Las Vegas. Feed the kitty, roll the dice, start your engines, and let the race begin!
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