2009 Off to Splendid Start as Sprint Cup Racers Face First Milestone
If Sprint Cup fans were to pick one driver who could completely dominate a race, setting the record for the most laps led at a track with a long history who would be the guy? Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Jimmy Johnson, or how about a fellow named Busch? Kyle put on quite a show at Las Vegas, but wait a minute, it wasn’t Kyle Busch, it was his brother, Kurt, the Busch brother who actually does have a Sprint Cup championship to his credit, accomplished the feat holding off the competition in a dominant fashion seldom seen in the modern era.
The two big issues that provided the backdrop of concern for this year’s early Atlanta race did not become as big of a factor as the field might have feared. Bobby Labonte, who had gotten off to a good start and Travis Kvapil blew up creating some concern in the Yates garage as the top 35 field will be set after Bristol and Kvapil stands in 40th position needing to make up about 100 points and five positions to lock down a secured spot. Marcos Ambrose was the other driver with an engine failure, a Toyota. While some tires blew, it was nothing like the race long screaming driving Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to harshly criticize Goodyear after last year’s race.
Jeff Gordon is showing a determined effort finishing in second remaining atop the point standings determined to prove last year’s misery a fluke. Carl Edwards is getting positioned firmly in the hunt which teammate Matt Kenseth bounced back from an embarrassing last place finish at Vegas with a 12th place finish.
For the first time this year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was knocking on the door of respectability finishing in 11th. Another bad finish would certainly begin to ignite all kinds of debate about his failure after a dismal last quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart’s move as a team owner hasn’t affected his competitive standing with an 8th place finish, 6th in the points while teammate Ryan Newman managed a 22nd finish keeping him buried deep in the field at 32nd.
The top 12 in points is looking more familiar:
1-Jeff Gordon
2-Clint Bowyer
3-Kurt Busch
4-Carl Edwards
5-Matt Kenseth
6-Tony Stewart
7-Kyle Busch
8-Kevin Harvick
9-Kasey Kahne
10-Greg Biffle
11-Brian Vickers
12-David Reutimann
Conspicuously missing are Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Burton, but guess who the next three drivers are in the standings? Dodge is back in a big way with Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne in the top 12. Brian Vickers shows his continued growth with the Red Bull Toyota team. Another promising surprise is the march forward of Michael Waltrip racing with David Reutimann in 12th and Michael Waltrip in 16th.
The biggest disappointment this year has to be what Mark Martin has endured so far. Buried deep in 34th place barely hanging on to his spot in the top 35th, the popular senior driver has faced one hardship after another none of which correlate to his driving skill. The bitter irony of this is finding him close to being outside looking in while he was never outside of the top 35 the last two years while running a part time schedule.
The Yates operation has to be nervous. While sponsorship shouldn’t be a problem with Paul Menard, he is stuck outside the top 35 in 38th. Teammate, Travis Kvapil stands in 40th desperately in search of sponsorship.
The small independent teams could be in “do-or-die” territory at Bristol. David Gilliland missed Daytona but has raced successfully since in 36th spot. Jeremy Mayfield, Dave Blaney, Regan Smith and scot Riggs have only made two of the first four races. Meanwhile, Joe Nemechek in his family operation has missed one race is stuck in 43rd. Major operations including Earnhardt/Ganassi, Penske, and Gibbs are all in the fight for the secured field too with rookies, Joey Legano for Gibbs in 33rd and Red Bull’s open wheel import, Scott Speed in 37th.
From the time the checkered flag dropped at Homestead last November until the field assembled and engines started at Daytona, conversation was almost exclusively devoted to the impact of a bad economy and struggling automotive industry on the sport. Teams merged and changed alliances: Petty and Gillette-Evernham joining forces, a Chevy operation DEI and Dodge operation Ganassi merged as a Chevy operation, while Hall of Fame racing had been allied with Joe Gibbs but moved on to inherit all kinds of goodies including owner’s points and a champion crew chief with Yates. To save teams money, testing was suspended.
Four races into the season, the economic doom and gloom has been a minor story. The one team move that’s attracting the most interest is a positive move not necessitated by economic weakness, the emergence of Tony Stewart’s team where Stewart is right in the thick of competition while teammate Ryan Newman competes with Mark Martin for the most snake-bitten operation.
Fans, drivers, car-owners, and sponsors all can celebrate that so far, 2009 has had one dominant story, good racing with few controversies. It’s all about what the drivers and crew chiefs can accomplish with all four manufacturers looking strong.
The Sprint Cup travelling show enjoys a week off to fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets while engineers and shop hands pour through the data to optimize each team’s hopes of its version of Selection Sunday at Richmond in September.
The next stop is Bristol. What a cruel fate for teams trying to build some kind of consistency to get the 2009 season off to a strong start. The high banked half mile track finds 43 cars racing fender to fender at ridiculously high speeds creating many pileups and screw ups. Tempers flare and crews scramble with the most at stake of any early season race. Some teams might not be able to make it on to the next stop, another short track, Martinsville, as the next stop where once again, short tracking banging and pounding takes contenders out of races with good equipment and high hopes being dashed in an instant. Martinsville also has mechanical issues that create another element of trouble with brake failure.
Stay tuned, more on Bristol as that race date approaches. Meanwhile, Sprint Cup fans have to be pleased that it’s been more about the competition than anything else so far.
If Sprint Cup fans were to pick one driver who could completely dominate a race, setting the record for the most laps led at a track with a long history who would be the guy? Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Jimmy Johnson, or how about a fellow named Busch? Kyle put on quite a show at Las Vegas, but wait a minute, it wasn’t Kyle Busch, it was his brother, Kurt, the Busch brother who actually does have a Sprint Cup championship to his credit, accomplished the feat holding off the competition in a dominant fashion seldom seen in the modern era.
The two big issues that provided the backdrop of concern for this year’s early Atlanta race did not become as big of a factor as the field might have feared. Bobby Labonte, who had gotten off to a good start and Travis Kvapil blew up creating some concern in the Yates garage as the top 35 field will be set after Bristol and Kvapil stands in 40th position needing to make up about 100 points and five positions to lock down a secured spot. Marcos Ambrose was the other driver with an engine failure, a Toyota. While some tires blew, it was nothing like the race long screaming driving Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to harshly criticize Goodyear after last year’s race.
Jeff Gordon is showing a determined effort finishing in second remaining atop the point standings determined to prove last year’s misery a fluke. Carl Edwards is getting positioned firmly in the hunt which teammate Matt Kenseth bounced back from an embarrassing last place finish at Vegas with a 12th place finish.
For the first time this year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was knocking on the door of respectability finishing in 11th. Another bad finish would certainly begin to ignite all kinds of debate about his failure after a dismal last quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart’s move as a team owner hasn’t affected his competitive standing with an 8th place finish, 6th in the points while teammate Ryan Newman managed a 22nd finish keeping him buried deep in the field at 32nd.
The top 12 in points is looking more familiar:
1-Jeff Gordon
2-Clint Bowyer
3-Kurt Busch
4-Carl Edwards
5-Matt Kenseth
6-Tony Stewart
7-Kyle Busch
8-Kevin Harvick
9-Kasey Kahne
10-Greg Biffle
11-Brian Vickers
12-David Reutimann
Conspicuously missing are Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Burton, but guess who the next three drivers are in the standings? Dodge is back in a big way with Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne in the top 12. Brian Vickers shows his continued growth with the Red Bull Toyota team. Another promising surprise is the march forward of Michael Waltrip racing with David Reutimann in 12th and Michael Waltrip in 16th.
The biggest disappointment this year has to be what Mark Martin has endured so far. Buried deep in 34th place barely hanging on to his spot in the top 35th, the popular senior driver has faced one hardship after another none of which correlate to his driving skill. The bitter irony of this is finding him close to being outside looking in while he was never outside of the top 35 the last two years while running a part time schedule.
The Yates operation has to be nervous. While sponsorship shouldn’t be a problem with Paul Menard, he is stuck outside the top 35 in 38th. Teammate, Travis Kvapil stands in 40th desperately in search of sponsorship.
The small independent teams could be in “do-or-die” territory at Bristol. David Gilliland missed Daytona but has raced successfully since in 36th spot. Jeremy Mayfield, Dave Blaney, Regan Smith and scot Riggs have only made two of the first four races. Meanwhile, Joe Nemechek in his family operation has missed one race is stuck in 43rd. Major operations including Earnhardt/Ganassi, Penske, and Gibbs are all in the fight for the secured field too with rookies, Joey Legano for Gibbs in 33rd and Red Bull’s open wheel import, Scott Speed in 37th.
From the time the checkered flag dropped at Homestead last November until the field assembled and engines started at Daytona, conversation was almost exclusively devoted to the impact of a bad economy and struggling automotive industry on the sport. Teams merged and changed alliances: Petty and Gillette-Evernham joining forces, a Chevy operation DEI and Dodge operation Ganassi merged as a Chevy operation, while Hall of Fame racing had been allied with Joe Gibbs but moved on to inherit all kinds of goodies including owner’s points and a champion crew chief with Yates. To save teams money, testing was suspended.
Four races into the season, the economic doom and gloom has been a minor story. The one team move that’s attracting the most interest is a positive move not necessitated by economic weakness, the emergence of Tony Stewart’s team where Stewart is right in the thick of competition while teammate Ryan Newman competes with Mark Martin for the most snake-bitten operation.
Fans, drivers, car-owners, and sponsors all can celebrate that so far, 2009 has had one dominant story, good racing with few controversies. It’s all about what the drivers and crew chiefs can accomplish with all four manufacturers looking strong.
The Sprint Cup travelling show enjoys a week off to fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets while engineers and shop hands pour through the data to optimize each team’s hopes of its version of Selection Sunday at Richmond in September.
The next stop is Bristol. What a cruel fate for teams trying to build some kind of consistency to get the 2009 season off to a strong start. The high banked half mile track finds 43 cars racing fender to fender at ridiculously high speeds creating many pileups and screw ups. Tempers flare and crews scramble with the most at stake of any early season race. Some teams might not be able to make it on to the next stop, another short track, Martinsville, as the next stop where once again, short tracking banging and pounding takes contenders out of races with good equipment and high hopes being dashed in an instant. Martinsville also has mechanical issues that create another element of trouble with brake failure.
Stay tuned, more on Bristol as that race date approaches. Meanwhile, Sprint Cup fans have to be pleased that it’s been more about the competition than anything else so far.
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Atlanta Race turned upside down due to run-a-way tire
The race at Atlanta was thrown for a loop when on lap 67 Jimmy Watts, the gas man for Marcus Ambrose, went after a run-a-way tire and end up out in the middle of the grass of the tri-oval. Have a pit crew member in such a dangerous position, NASCAR did the right thing by displaying a yellow flag. Unfortunately, the field was about 2/3 of the way through green flag pit stops and left 32 of the 43 cars one lap down or more.
The two biggest benefactors from this occurrence were Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kurt had a good car and was able to dominate the field the rest of the race. Dale, on the other hand, had a poor handling car. Combined with a loose wheel that plagued him at one stage of race, he would have never been able to finish on the lead lap in the top 14 had the not been turned upside down by the caution. As it was, he had to use a "Lucky Dog" to get back on the lead lap during one segment of the race.
Tony Stewart was possibly the driver who was impacted most negatively. He got stuck two laps down due to the caution. His car was handling well. He was able to get one of his laps back due to a "Lucky Dog" and then motored passed Kurt Busch to get his second lap back. One could only imagine what he would have been able to do had he not gotten stuck two laps down.
The upcoming race at Bristol will mix things up at the tail end of the top 35 in the standings. The race at Bristol, known for old fashioned, beating and banging short track racing, will definitely have an impact on the standings. Tempers will flare. Not a car will return to the shop without a scrape or a dent. While certain drives do seems to perform better at Bristol, it will take a measure of luck and skill to drive to the checkers and have a good points day. Drives near the end or outside of the top 35 desperately need a good finish.
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