Trouble in Turn2

So, another race, and more of the same. A Hendrick driver won (the 15th time this season), caution flags rained down again, and Dale Earnhardt Jr lost an engine. Just another NASCAR Sunday in 2007. Jimmie Johnson wins his third straight Martinsville race, but only gains 15 points on 3rd place Jeff Gordon. As I wrote on Friday, if Johnson or Clint Bowyer hope to catch Gordon, then it will have to come in small 10, 15 or 20 point chunks. It’s still possible, although Bowyer lost almost 50 points to Gordon at Martinsville. Barring a wreck or engine failure, the Chase is very quickly becoming a two car, one company race.

• Juan Pablo Montoya led 9 laps and finished 8th. It was his first laps led since his win at Sonoma back in June.It was his sixth top ten of the season and now he heads to Atlanta and Texas, both tracks where he scored top tens in the spring. No one is surprised with Montoya’s success on a road course or even a wide open track like Atlanta, but his recent successes at Dover and Martinsville require major driving skills. It’s pretty obvious by now that Montoya has this stock car thing figured out.

• Kurt Busch was the only Chaser not finishing on the lead lap. 9 Chasers made up the top 12. While the beginning of the Chase saw the Chasers finish all over the leaderboard, I expect the top ten to be littered with Chasers over the next few weeks.

• Tony Stewart finished 13th and is now 249 points off the pace. Stewart’s middling performance might be the biggest surprise of the Chase. His season driver rating is 102.6, but during the Chase he only has two races of 100 or better. He is the defending champ of both the Atlanta and Texas races, but things do not look like last year. The team is making more mistakes in the pits and too often simply not running as well as they are used to.

• Greg Biffle scored his first career top ten at Martinsville. He has now scored at least one top ten at every current Cup track except Indianapolis and Talladega. The finish was also the third top ten during the Chase, improving his season line to 1, 4, 10.

• As the engines continue to sputter and die, Dale Earnhardt Jr is becoming more upset. From his in-car audio:
  

  The motor’s gotten way way worse. That’s why we’re losing spots! I wish it would just blow up. I’m sick of being out here losing power like this… I’m tellin’ ya, man, I’m sick of this engine (stuff). Have ya got something real old back at the shop that we can run the rest of the year? Something that will at least run. Do you guys give a (expletive), because I sure do!

  Junior deserves to win a race this year not for sentimental reasons, but because he has been at the front of the pack consistently. Atlanta, Texas or Phoenix are all great tracks for the #8 car, but it needs to make it to the last lap under full power.

• Speaking of DEI, it doesn’t sound like the best work environment right now. Three employees were fired this week for, well, actions detrimental to DEI. Apparently the employees hired a plane to fly a banner at Lowe’s Motorspeedway that criticized former car owner Bobby Ginn. I have no idea what is going on or who is right, but it’s pretty obvious that there is some dissent at the Garage Mahal. Long time Technical Director Steve Hmiel also left the company last week, although the reasons were not disclosed.

• After one week in the CoT, the circuit returns to the old, sleek, aero-dependent, no-winged car returns for two races. I can’t imagine how relieved the crews will be after this year is over. Working on two completely different cars and switching models on a near weekly basis must be overwhelming.