Bristol marked the beginning of the second phase of the 2009 NASCAR season which concludes in Richmond when the field for the 2009 Chase for the Championship will be set. From the next race forward, the field will be determined based on this year’s owners’ points, Thirty five competitors are in while up to eight cars must qualify to make the field provided a past champion does not use an automatic qualifier to make the field as when Bill Elliot races for the select races the Wood Brothers will attend.
This puts some teams on the hot seat. Joe Gibbs rookie, Joey Legano, the driver of the #20 Home Depot Toyota resides just inside the top 35. Yates racing already plagued with sponsorship issues for the #28 team, has both that ride with driver, Travis Kvapil and the #98 car piloted by Paul Menard outside looking in. This could spell doom for the #28 operation. Unless sponsorship arrives quickly, this operation will shut down. They have not entered to compete at Martinsville this coming weekend.
Other operations that failed to make the field of 35 include the Red Bull entry for rookie Scott Speed, car #82; the Earnhardt/Ganassi #8 entry with driver Aric Almirola; Phil Parson’s group for the #66 ride for driver, Dave Blaney; Tommy Baldwin racing’s #36 car driven by Scott Riggs; Joe Nemechek’s family operation in the #87 Toyota; James Finch’s entry #09 raced by Jeremy Mayfield; and the #64 operation of Larry Gunselman with driver Todd Bodine. No other teams have attempted to race the full schedule.
On the hot seat, in the field, but sweating bullets includes David Gilliland’s #71 ride for owner Kevin Buckler; Earnhardt/Ganassi’s team with driver, John Andretti, car #34; Roger Penske’s #77 ride for Scott Speed; Robby Gordon’s #7 independent operation holds down 30th position, but perhaps the biggest shocker of all of teams in danger is the Hendricks #5 Kellogg’s/Carquest Chevrolet for which there were such high hopes with Mark Martin racing full time. His performance yesterday at Bristol made things look much brighter for that operation.
The happy folks from Thunder Valley have to be the two veteran Gibbs teams with Kyle Busch dominating the race with Denny Hamlin finishing second. Jimmy Johnson put in perhaps his best performance of the year pulling him into the top 12 standings. Jeff Gordon finishing in 4th continued his lock on the top points position. Kasey Kahne shows the new Dodge muscle for Richard Petty racing (the old Gillette/Evernham operation), and of course, Mark Martin’s 6th place finish got the monkey off his back. Ryan Newman was a driver snake-bitten so far this season who finally broke into the top ten with his seventh place finish. Marcos Ambrose finishing in 10th energized the JTG Daugherty Racing with Michael Waltrip Racing equipment. Atlanta winner, the other Busch, Kurt, overcame early race difficulties to finish 11th keeping his point standings in place. David Reutimann demonstrates with his competitive 12th place finish that Waltrip racing is now becoming a force to be reckoned with every week. While 14th isn’t the kind of finish a driver looking to make the chase would relish on a regular basis, it’s the best finish of the year for Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was dogged with questions on the status of his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr.
Aside from the teams which have to contend with falling outside the top 35 in owner’s points, the bad news has to be for the blue oval boys. The Roush operation had a terrible day with its best finish, and the best for Ford, being Carl Edwards in 15th. How bitter sweet could things be for Travis Kvapil. His 18th finish was the second best Ford finish, but only a miracle could keep that team alive as this was far from enough to boost this team into the top 35 having failed to qualify for all five races missing one start so far. Bobby Labonte is Ford’s best hope outside the Roush stable for Hall-of-Fame’s partnership with Yates racing only managing a 22nd finish. Paul Menard, Yates other team outside the top 35 finished in 25th. It only gets worse for the balance of the Roush field: David Regan in 27th, Matt Kenseth, winner of the first two races now in apparent free fall finishing in 33rd, Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle found no love in Bristol buried in 37th and 39th.
To add further to the misery of teams outside the top 35 looking to improve their fortunes, the bottom four spots put four of these teams four of these teams in deeper misery: Sterling Marlin, 40th; Joe Nemechek, 41st; Todd Bodine, 42nd; and Dave Blaney, dead last, 43rd.
The Sprint Cup field moves on to the other half mile short track and while like Bristol, the close contact breeds broken rides out of competition given its flat straight-aways and sharp turns also takes a heavy mechanical toll on equipment particularly brakes. Fortunes can fade fast in the Virginia Mountains a few hills to the west of Bristol. While Bristol and Martinsville are the circuits’ two shortest ovals, the driving style required to win is much different. Recently, Jimmie Johnson has owned Martinsville while never winning at Bristol. Denny Hamlin was last years’ spring winner at the track famous for its grandfather clocks and bright red jumbo hot dogs. Points leader, Jeff Gordon, hot for his first victory since the fall of 07 has a strong history at Martinsville as well. It is one track that Kyle Busch has not come close to mastering yet.
While the first five races have eased talk about the impact of a bad economy on NASCAR’s top circuit, with teams no longer able to contend, it will be interesting to see how many rides are entered in the field to attempt to make the race.
One final note, surely many NASCAR fans have looked elsewhere to find a worthwhile site on the Internet for timely information on their beloved sport as NASCAR.COM is a confusing poorly constructed effort by Turner (Time/Warner) where vital stats and information are difficult to find at a quick point and click. One of the most intriguing NASCAR sites, hosted by ESPN, is http://www.jayski.com/. While it might not be the fastest place to find information, Fox Sports, ESPN, and the Charlotte Observer’s “That’s Racin’” might be a little more efficient, if there’s information on a race to be found, Jayski’s got it.
In the ultimate in NASCAR trivia, Jayski reports that there were 127 commercials representing 67 companies with 82 brief promos for products and services. While the telecast spanned 190 minutes from 2:00 PM to 5:10 PM for a total of 190 minutes, fans enjoyed 137 minutes of racing but 53 minutes of commercials. That’s about 28% of the viewer’s time (our calculation) hawking products and the latest garbage on Fox primetime lineup giving fans a chance to flick to CBS to catch the latest on second round NCAA basketball action – if not also in commercial. Jayski goes to report that there were seven animated Digger sightings during the race and 28 Digger still shots.
This leads us to conclude there are sports fans and stats nerds, and we wonder if they are really one in the same!!!
Bring on the chase for the Grandfather clock in Martinsville!!!
This puts some teams on the hot seat. Joe Gibbs rookie, Joey Legano, the driver of the #20 Home Depot Toyota resides just inside the top 35. Yates racing already plagued with sponsorship issues for the #28 team, has both that ride with driver, Travis Kvapil and the #98 car piloted by Paul Menard outside looking in. This could spell doom for the #28 operation. Unless sponsorship arrives quickly, this operation will shut down. They have not entered to compete at Martinsville this coming weekend.
Other operations that failed to make the field of 35 include the Red Bull entry for rookie Scott Speed, car #82; the Earnhardt/Ganassi #8 entry with driver Aric Almirola; Phil Parson’s group for the #66 ride for driver, Dave Blaney; Tommy Baldwin racing’s #36 car driven by Scott Riggs; Joe Nemechek’s family operation in the #87 Toyota; James Finch’s entry #09 raced by Jeremy Mayfield; and the #64 operation of Larry Gunselman with driver Todd Bodine. No other teams have attempted to race the full schedule.
On the hot seat, in the field, but sweating bullets includes David Gilliland’s #71 ride for owner Kevin Buckler; Earnhardt/Ganassi’s team with driver, John Andretti, car #34; Roger Penske’s #77 ride for Scott Speed; Robby Gordon’s #7 independent operation holds down 30th position, but perhaps the biggest shocker of all of teams in danger is the Hendricks #5 Kellogg’s/Carquest Chevrolet for which there were such high hopes with Mark Martin racing full time. His performance yesterday at Bristol made things look much brighter for that operation.
The happy folks from Thunder Valley have to be the two veteran Gibbs teams with Kyle Busch dominating the race with Denny Hamlin finishing second. Jimmy Johnson put in perhaps his best performance of the year pulling him into the top 12 standings. Jeff Gordon finishing in 4th continued his lock on the top points position. Kasey Kahne shows the new Dodge muscle for Richard Petty racing (the old Gillette/Evernham operation), and of course, Mark Martin’s 6th place finish got the monkey off his back. Ryan Newman was a driver snake-bitten so far this season who finally broke into the top ten with his seventh place finish. Marcos Ambrose finishing in 10th energized the JTG Daugherty Racing with Michael Waltrip Racing equipment. Atlanta winner, the other Busch, Kurt, overcame early race difficulties to finish 11th keeping his point standings in place. David Reutimann demonstrates with his competitive 12th place finish that Waltrip racing is now becoming a force to be reckoned with every week. While 14th isn’t the kind of finish a driver looking to make the chase would relish on a regular basis, it’s the best finish of the year for Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was dogged with questions on the status of his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr.
Aside from the teams which have to contend with falling outside the top 35 in owner’s points, the bad news has to be for the blue oval boys. The Roush operation had a terrible day with its best finish, and the best for Ford, being Carl Edwards in 15th. How bitter sweet could things be for Travis Kvapil. His 18th finish was the second best Ford finish, but only a miracle could keep that team alive as this was far from enough to boost this team into the top 35 having failed to qualify for all five races missing one start so far. Bobby Labonte is Ford’s best hope outside the Roush stable for Hall-of-Fame’s partnership with Yates racing only managing a 22nd finish. Paul Menard, Yates other team outside the top 35 finished in 25th. It only gets worse for the balance of the Roush field: David Regan in 27th, Matt Kenseth, winner of the first two races now in apparent free fall finishing in 33rd, Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle found no love in Bristol buried in 37th and 39th.
To add further to the misery of teams outside the top 35 looking to improve their fortunes, the bottom four spots put four of these teams four of these teams in deeper misery: Sterling Marlin, 40th; Joe Nemechek, 41st; Todd Bodine, 42nd; and Dave Blaney, dead last, 43rd.
The Sprint Cup field moves on to the other half mile short track and while like Bristol, the close contact breeds broken rides out of competition given its flat straight-aways and sharp turns also takes a heavy mechanical toll on equipment particularly brakes. Fortunes can fade fast in the Virginia Mountains a few hills to the west of Bristol. While Bristol and Martinsville are the circuits’ two shortest ovals, the driving style required to win is much different. Recently, Jimmie Johnson has owned Martinsville while never winning at Bristol. Denny Hamlin was last years’ spring winner at the track famous for its grandfather clocks and bright red jumbo hot dogs. Points leader, Jeff Gordon, hot for his first victory since the fall of 07 has a strong history at Martinsville as well. It is one track that Kyle Busch has not come close to mastering yet.
While the first five races have eased talk about the impact of a bad economy on NASCAR’s top circuit, with teams no longer able to contend, it will be interesting to see how many rides are entered in the field to attempt to make the race.
One final note, surely many NASCAR fans have looked elsewhere to find a worthwhile site on the Internet for timely information on their beloved sport as NASCAR.COM is a confusing poorly constructed effort by Turner (Time/Warner) where vital stats and information are difficult to find at a quick point and click. One of the most intriguing NASCAR sites, hosted by ESPN, is http://www.jayski.com/. While it might not be the fastest place to find information, Fox Sports, ESPN, and the Charlotte Observer’s “That’s Racin’” might be a little more efficient, if there’s information on a race to be found, Jayski’s got it.
In the ultimate in NASCAR trivia, Jayski reports that there were 127 commercials representing 67 companies with 82 brief promos for products and services. While the telecast spanned 190 minutes from 2:00 PM to 5:10 PM for a total of 190 minutes, fans enjoyed 137 minutes of racing but 53 minutes of commercials. That’s about 28% of the viewer’s time (our calculation) hawking products and the latest garbage on Fox primetime lineup giving fans a chance to flick to CBS to catch the latest on second round NCAA basketball action – if not also in commercial. Jayski goes to report that there were seven animated Digger sightings during the race and 28 Digger still shots.
This leads us to conclude there are sports fans and stats nerds, and we wonder if they are really one in the same!!!
Bring on the chase for the Grandfather clock in Martinsville!!!
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