I was going to repsond with a comment to Jay Jardine’s post about the end of the NASCAR Cup season, but figured I’d expand on it some and put it here (and hey, who doesn’t like putting content on their blog?).
Basically, I’m with him, I don’t know if anyone can get past the 1-2 of the senior Hendrick pair. One thing they could do is ban Chad Knaus for life, tho. How many times does he have to be suspended for rules infractions before they realize that he’s a serial cheater? I’m sure that his car is out of spec in every race, and he just doesn’t get caught.
But other than that, you just have to admit that Gordon, and Johnson, are just so good. They both have their head in the game, they both have teams clicking behind them. I really don’t know if anyone’s gonna be able to sustain the performance it will take to overcome them, and really don’t know if either one will have that horrible day or two they’d need to come back to the field.
Jay mentions a couple other drivers. Newman’s just a thug. Either his car is great, and he is competitive, or he just sucks. Hard. And his preferred method of passing is ‘get out of my way’. It takes a special talent to make Kurt Busch look like he’s got finesse, but his teammate manages it. The Biff is going through that ‘Roush is too big to give good resources to all teams’ thing, like Jeff Burton did, like MacMurray is, like Kenseth did last year.
I’m a big Tony Stewart fan, and always spend the money to get him in a fantasy draft, but I just don’t think he can overcome Gordon and his clonebot. I can hope, but it probably won’t happen. Bowyer’s doing well with no pressure, and Hamlin’s getting used to it.
We’ll see how next year goes when everyone is focusing on the COT more. But this year, I think they’re all gonna be watching #24 hoisting the trophy.
October 28, 2007 at 4:59 pm
A Big Orange fan, eh? Well, thankfully your not amoung the Junior devotees - man, they’re worse than Toronto Maple Leaf fans!
I think NASCAR just doesn’t know how to deal with “cheating” anymore. Suspending a crew chief from the track is pretty much a symbolic gesture these days since he can still text instructions to his stand in and carry on with the bulk of his work at the shop.
Maybe they’ll have to go to an F1-style appeals court and let the teams try to police each other through that mechanism.
November 1, 2007 at 1:45 am
Hey, now. Nobody’s as bad as Maple Leaf fans, except Red Sox fans.
The only useful think Jimmie Johnson has done for me is provide someone I dislike more than Ryan Newman, and to an extent, Kurt Busch. Newman is a total blockhead, and Busch can never redeem himself in my eyes because of 4 words he said after wrecking Robby Gordon (then in the 31 car) at the Winston a few years ago - “I needed a caution.” But that’s a post for another day.
Johnson however, never takes the blame for the wrecks he causes and frankly, sandbags most of the time hanging around the top 10 or 15 all day when his car is capable of leading. If the car can lead, do it. I’d rather see a guy spank the field badly for 400 laps than see a guy cruise for 350 of those laps. Plus his perfect sponsor material persona when he’s out of the car is well, infuriating. Stewart, annoying as he is in his own way, is at least honest. You get the plain unpolished Tony, unlike Johnson, who seems to have canned, viewer friendly answer for everything.
I’ve never been a big Jeff Gordon fan to be honest. As a fan of Dale Sr. and now of Dale Jr. as well, I had a grudging respect for Gordon, as he proved to be a damned good driver that never settled if there was a chance to get the car close to winning. I think him rarely wrecking his own car was part of the annoyance. My mother still doesn’t really like him, but she’s a Rusty Wallace fan, so that’s natural.
This season however, I was tired of battling for 3rd or 4th in Fantasy Racing, so I grabbed him for my team. So I’ve been stuck in the position of wanting him to finish well and win races. The rest of my Fantasy Squad includes Dale Jr of course, Denny Hamlin, and my sleeper pick of Clint Bowyer, who took Hamlin’s starting spot when the chase began, and will probably keep it the rest of the way.
So yeah, I’m rooting for the 24, 8, and 07, while drinking tea from my #3 mug on weekends and cursing the DEI/RCR engine shop. We’re living in Bizarro world for sure. It’s working so far, but honestly the only threat I have is from the team with the 48 in it. (Sorry Dan, the 20 will have to wreck the top 3 the next 3 weeks to stand a chance.)
Next season will be interesting to say the least with Dale Jr moving to Hendrick. Hopefully, they’ll be able to gain some semblance of parity between the 24/48 shop and the 5/88 shop so Jr. will really have equal equipment. One good thing is the jinxed 25 car can now go away, hopefully forever.
February 15, 2008 at 12:29 am
Should be a great race on Sunday. I think Junior sweeps the weekend, but keep an eye on those Busch brothers…
February 18, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Newman?!?! FEH. :p
I take what Solace I can in the fact that Jr ran well, the motor didn’t blow up, and neither Johnson nor either Busch Brother won the race.
I will say that Kurt “I needed a caution” Busch did a very good job of sacrificing his chance to win to push his teammate to the victory. Although Reed Sorenson sticking with them on the high side probably helped.
I admit to getting a little choked up when DW spoke about his win 20 years to the day before, Dale Sr’s win 10 years to the day before, and Mikey’s win when we lost Dale 7 years ago. Still hurts like hell, but it was good to see the 3 rolled out front and center during the excessively long pre-race ceremonies. The may as well make the 500 a night race if it’s going to start that late.