| Published: Helium |
| Date: July 2007 |
| Section: Sports/NASCAR/Opinion |
| Comments: |
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By: Ian Essling
The new car may completely ruin superspeedway racing as we know it (or make it better beyond our wildest dreams), but I think that the latter is highly unlikely given how spectacular the finish of Saturday's race was. Jamie McMurray edged out Kyle Busch for the closest finish in Daytona history (and 2nd closest overall in NASCAR behind only Ricky Craven's win at Darlington, where, interestingly, Busch's older brother, Kurt, finished second).
Here's to the current Cup car and the tremendous finishes (both plate and non) that she's given us; here's hoping your successor will at least come close.
First, the Gibbs teammates of Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin took each other out while leading the race, then blamed each other for the wreck. From my point of view, Hamlin got loose and Stewart got into him (an exact repeat of the incident in the Daytona 500, only with Stewart on the giving end instead of the receiving end). Of course, in Stewart's eyes, both times that accident wasn't his fault, which is a somewhat interesting perspective to take.
Either way, it is an owner's worst nightmare when two cars that you own tear each other up (especially when they are leading the race), and the comments made by Stewart afterward lead me to believe that all may not be completely fine and dandy in Gibbsland. It doesn't particularly surprise me, though, because I can see Stewart getting fed up with Hamlin's insecurity and immaturity real quick. We'll have to keep our eyes on this one.
Another bout of teammate unhappiness came from the eventual second place finisher Kyle Busch. He is obviously leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season, and as such, it seems that the other Hendrick drivers are not so keen on helping him win races. Case in point: Jeff Gordon pushed Jamie McMurray to the lead, around Busch, Saturday night, a move that prompted Busch to announce that "the bliss was over" for him at HMS. I imagine that the friction will build between the three drivers who are staying and Busch, especially given his attitude to the whole situation.
When he came to NASCAR, he was billed as this phenomenal natural talent who was going to take the other drivers by storm. Well, he's certainly done that, but the 'storm' is the weekly accident he causes. I know that moving from an open-wheel series with no real racing and huge manufacturer advantages to the most competitive form of motorsports in the world where parity is pretty much unrivaled is going to be a shock to the system, but the guy has now had almost 40 races to "learn the ropes," and he's still making the same stupid mistakes every week.
I'd be giving him more slack if he was an actual rookie like David Ragan, but honestly, he is supposed to be an 'amazing racer,' but what's happening is it's the guy's arrogance that is doing him in. When he announces that he thinks he is the best stock car road racer in NASCAR and then says that he has "more passion for racing" then anyone else in the garage, there's a problem.
He spun himself in the closing laps of the Busch race (which brought out, inexplicably, a caution flag, but more on that later), and then, during the Cup race, he drove so dangerously that by lap 50, several drivers were calling him a "weapon" and spotters were warning their drivers as to where the 42 car was. That's wrong and should never be happening; Montoya just consistently drives over his head. He clearly is having a hard time adjusting to the stock cars, which are a lot more difficult to handle than his Formula 1 car, but he won't admit it. He still acts like he's the crown prince of racing and God's gift to NASCAR, and the other drivers are suffering for it. He runs every lap like it's the last one, and it's all take and no give from him, every corner of every lap.
During the Cup race, drivers paid the price for racing next to Montoya when the latter lost control of his car and, instead of letting of the throttle and giving up the spot, kept his foot in the gas and slammed another car into the wall. Montoya later ran over Bobby Labonte when the 43 checked up for an accident and he (Montoya) thankfully was unable to race with the pack the rest of the evening, leaving the rest of the field immune to being "Montoya'd."
By the way, I coined that verb about 10 seconds after Kevin Harvick got taken out; Sporting News just printed their article before mine.
Even though we did have to endure another one of TNT's 17 hour prerace shows, the Wide Open Coverage during the race was wildly successful in my opinion. The huge lack of commercials (only 4 and a half minutes per hour) was a tremendous improvement over TNT's usual 4 and a half minutes of racing per hour.
I would much rather have someone, even a numbskull like Bill Weber, telling us that the race was sponsored by [insert ten names here] every few minutes than I would have to go to a commercial break. Plus, when they did play several national commercials, they were played in a small window to the right of the screen, and were customized commercials for NASCAR fans. Bravo to TNT for breaking the mold.
Their Wide-Open coverage may have been a spectacular departure from their usual commercial-laden broadcasts, but TNT seems to have taken a page from the ESPN book by treating their fans like they are kind of slow. Their new CG-ed pillars that they are super imposing across the screen at every track are terribly stupid and unnecessary. They were most annoying at Sonoma when they disturbed the screen by putting one at each corner, but the 'restart' pylon at Daytona was hideous as well. Fans either know where the restart line is (or they'll quickly figure it out), or they don't care. When we watch the race, we want to see the race as if we were sitting in the stands. We don't need TNT to 'help' us understand the race better. The pillars are almost as bad as Bill Weber explaining every rule in NASCAR every time they are used. Almost.
This week it goes to Boris Said, who was sitting on the provisional pole when NASCAR ended qualifying, due to rain, with only a dozen and a half cars left to go. Because the field reverted to owner's points, Said went from pole sitter to couch sitter, as he didn't even make the race.
This one goes to NASCAR race control for their insane inconsistency in Saturday's Busch race. With 6 or so laps to go, Montoya spun himself down onto pit road, which brought out a caution, even though he was not in the way of anything.
Then, with only a couple of laps left, a car spun much closer to the racing surface.and no caution. Inconsistent? Absolutely! Surprising? Not in the least.
No changes in or out of the top-12 this race, however, after getting caught up in wrecks, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. all lost a lot of ground numbers-wise. It didn't help Junior that the new 13th place man in the points is Jamie McMurray, who won the race. Kyle Busch, with his runner up finish, picks off Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to take over 8th in points. After wrecking with his teammate, Denny Hamlin loses a bunch of points to leader Jeff Gordon, but then again, those margins really mean nothing at this point. Junior is still on the hot seat, and is currently just 49 points ahead of 13th.
The top-12 is, I think, about set right now. I feel that there could be one transfer spot available, that one car in the top-12 might falter during the stretch and let someone in. Who is it going to be? If I had to pick someone, I would say that either Kyle Busch, Truex Jr. or Dale Jr. may fall out, and Jamie McMurray or Ryan Newman could then get in.
Bill Davis Racing's #22 Toyota takes a spot away from the Wood Brothers #21 Ford to slide into 36th for Owner's Points, but with an 18th place finish, the #70 machine out of Haas CNC Racing still hangs onto 35th by a comfortable 178 point margin. The gap is widening between the haves and have-nots in the standings, and I'd say within the next six or eight weeks, the top-35 will be pretty much locked up for next year. The problem that the go or go home cars are having is that different cars outside the top-35 are making the races every week and different cars are running 'well,' (subjectively speaking). This is causing a rotating 36th place car, all while 35th place continues to race and finish each and every week. I really think that everyone more than 250 or 300 points behind 35th (i.e. the #83, #00, #44, #78, #4, #36, #84 and #55) are done for the year with regard to getting back into the top-35. There's still a chance that the #22, #21, #10 or #15 could sneak back in, but other than that, I think that's it. 
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