Trouble in Turn2

For the first 270 laps, Sunday’s race at New Hampshire was pretty tame. The leaders maintained comfortable leads with ease, the top ten positions didn’t change much and barring problems, cars were pretty much locked into a comfortable position and no one was passing. Then a caution came out when Jamie McMurray plowed through Dale Earnhardt Jr and suddenly all hell broke loose. The top drivers pitted while eight other cars stayed out, led by Kurt Busch. Tony Stewart, the dominant car for the day, pitted for two tires and was relegated to 14th on the restart. With one caution plus a pending storm it was pretty obvious that the final results had been turned upside down.

That set up a wild finish, but it wasn’t done yet. Kurt Busch jumped out on the restart, but had to battle lapped car Robby Gordon and nearly hit the outside wall. A few laps later Sam Hornish spilt Clint Bowyer to bring out the caution. Juan Pablo Montoya took the chance to controversy.

“[Busch] hit me under caution, he hit me under green and I retaliated. Did I go a little bit too far retaliating? Yeah. I told them[NASCAR officials] the only reason I did that was I was defending myself.

Somehow Busch tried to play coy and absolve himself from blame.

I got a run on him earlier and I got on the outside and he kind of kept coming up a little bit. I didn’t turn down into him and just barely touched his quarter panel. Then I got by him in three and four and he run me up the race track in the left rear. Then we came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the caution flag and I was just trying to get around the 40 (Dario Franchitti) car, who was in front of us there and touched him on the door and he just turned left and spun me down the front straight away. I don’t know what his beef is, but obviously NASCAR should probably fix it.

Montoya was penalized 2 laps for rough driving, dropping his final position to 32nd. His admission that the hit was intentional (which was pretty obvious on the replay) will probably cost Montoya some money, more points and probation for the remainder of the season. Montoya wasn’t going to make the Chase and is not broke so in my mind that biggest penalty is actually the probation. Why? It means Montoya won’t be able to partake in Facewashing with Harvick 2 at Watkins Glen this year. Comparing the Loudon incident with the quasi-fisticuffs from last made me realize something else. Montoya’s favorite expression, “I don’t appreciate that.” That’s getting worked into my everyday phrases. That or “My name is Juan Pablo Montoya, you killed my top 15, prepare to die.”

Some Random thoughts while avoiding the 90+ degree heat

• Bill Weber used “Strategery” when discussing pit stops. Even if it was for comedic value, it fizzled. Later he mentioned that Stewart could become the first driver to sweep the weekend and ended with a grumpy, “there’s a stat for ya’”. What’s wrong with stats? They never did anything to you. Maybe he was just sour today.

• Where was Roush? The fact that the TNT announcers called it a rebound when none of the five drivers were in the top ten is an indictment of how bad they were today.

• Casey Mears had a nice run before slipping at the end. In one sense I’m glad he didn’t score a surprising win because it spared us all headlines and nonsense about how he was more motivated this week. He still managed a top ten in back to back races for the first time this year. Watch out for Mears next weekend at Daytona. He’s good on restrictor plates and nearly won the race last year.

• By the way, Kurt Busch won the race.

• Michael Waltrip scored his first top five finish since 2005 (5th place at Pocono). It’s a huge boost not only for his effort to stay inside the top 35, but also for his sponsorship status with Napa.
  

  I’m not emotional about this, other than the fact to say it’s amazing that NAPA Auto Parts is still on my car after what we went through the last couple years. Just to do anything good for them, outside front row at Daytona, to have a finish like we did today, I just want to say thank you to them by doing well. That’s my goal, is to do good for them.

  Waltrip is often portrayed as a shill, but he really does get it. For all of his struggles in team ownership, he somehow still has large sponsors at least through this year, and he obviously realizes how fortunate he is. As an aside, Waltrip pitted two laps later than Kurt Busch and it would have been interesting to see how things would have ended without the rain stoppage.

• Question: Can you use “McMurray tried to drive through me” as a valid excuse for hitting the commitment cone on pit road?

For more racing news and opinion peep Racing Nation.

Dale Jarrett’s Final Race

One of the classiest and most successful Cup drivers of the last 20 years will hang up the firesuit on Sunday (that is, until one of the three MWR cars falls hopelessly outside the top 35). Michael Waltrip Racing owes a great deal to Jarrett for where the company is today. It would be nice to believe Jarrett could have a storybook ending and challenge for the large cardboard check, but NASCAR racing rarely bows to Disney endings.

An Emerging Driver Will win the Open

The last three years the undercard race has been won by a driver on the verge of a breakout. IN 2005 Brian Vickers Mike Bliss on his way to his first win in a Cup car. He finally won a points race in 2006 (in eerily similar fashion). In 2006 Scott Riggs won the Open, which he followed up by winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 and also enjoyed his strongest Cup season. Last year Martin Truex Jr set up a hot summer streak by storming to an Open win. He went on to win at Dover, score top 3’s in four of six races and make the Chase.

Whether it’s a sibling rivalry or revisiting an old skirmish, the All-Star race is the perfect platform for getting something off your chest. In 2004 after Kurt Busch took out teammate Greg Biffle, plus about eight other cars when he gave bumpdrafting a try on a 1.5 mile track. In 2005 Tony Stewart was at the heart of a multi-car wreck, but Joe Nemechek used the opportunity to get into Kevin Harvick’s face while Stewart evaded criticism. Nemechek was apparently still upset at Harvick for inciting a large melee during the Gatorade Duels at Daytona that February (Note to competitors: Front Row Joe has a long memory, don’t cross him). 2006 Stewart was again involved in a wreck, this time with Matt Kenseth that had some residual tones from their tangle in the Daytona 500 from earlier in 2006. Last year Kurt and Kyle Busch collided, sparking a mild spat amongst the brothers. Said the elder Kurt Busch, “I’m not gonna be eating any Kellogg’s for a while.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr is far classier than most of his fans (at least the obnoxiously vocal ones), but if he wanted to settle any scores (hypothetical, of course), he could pick a worse race than an exhibition event. Like you weren’t thinking the same thing.

For what it’s worth, I have Greg Biffle as the winner and Ryan Newman and/or Juan Pablo Montoya involved in quasi-fisticuffs (I love it when I can use the quasi-fisticuffs tag).

Juan Pablo Montoya entered NASCAR in 2007 with an accomplished racing resume, but only one Cup start and a handful of other scattered stock car races. It was considered a great experiment by Chip Ganassi. Could an open wheel driver succeed in the less precise, more grueling world of stock car racing? Montoya answered that question with an emphatic yes. The bigger question now is, “Can he win on an oval?”

He won his first race at the Mexico City Busch race in the first two months of the season. He scored his first Cup top 5 at Atlanta in race 4 and won his first Cup race at Sonoma in June. He also finished 2nd at the Brickyard 400 at a track where he won in Indy cars 7 years earlier. In the most telling sign that he had arrived as a stock car driver, Montoya got into a yelling and shoving match with Kevin Harvick the next week at Watkins Glen.

Overall Montoya’s season was a pretty typical rookie effort. He had some nice runs mixed in with several disappointing ones. He only had 4 DNF’s, all due to crashes, but did have 10 sub-30 finishes. He won a race, but everyone including Montoya conceded that real progress will be measured on the ovals.

The road courses were an obvious strength so it was no surprise when he won both the Mexico City and Sonoma races. Beyond those two races he also had nice runs at Atlanta, Texas, Indianapolis and Dover. Maybe the most impressive finish was his 8th place run at Martinsville. Few tracks pose a more physical challenge than the tiny paperclip-shaped track. The fact that Montoya survived the beating and banging and avoided the carnage to post a good finish is more impressive than winning a road course or running well on a wide open track like Atlanta or Texas.

Montoya quickly proved himself as a good qualifier. He had 8 top ten starts including a season best 2nd achieved at Indianapolis, Bristol and Dover. Whether by design or plain rookie inexperience, Montoya almost always dropped out of the top 10 in these races.

Aside from his obvious ability on road courses, Montoya also found success at 1.5 mile tracks, most notably Atlanta. He scored top tens in both the Busch and Cup series’. Texas and Indianapolis comprised his other speedway top tens.

Ganassi said he expects Montoya to make the Chase. Maybe that’s a source of motivation or inspiration for Montoya and his crew, but don’t count on it. Montoya’s driver rating was 67.7 for the 2007 season. He also only had 6 top 10 finishes. He needs to seriously improve both of those numbers (85.0 rating and 12-15 top 10’s) before the Chase is a real option.

Considering the equipment Ganassi has had in recent years, the Chase will not happen. Ganassi and the Dodges as a whole need serious improvement. While the speedway program improved, their short track CoT game was off. Now the CoT runs full time in 2008 and it’s hard to imagine the company catching any of the top teams car-wise.

Montoya is sure to improve in year two of stock car racing. His knowledge and comfort of the cars and what adjustments to ask for will allow for more consistent runs. The biggest concern for Montoya might be his aggressive, sometimes stubborn approach. The closer to the front he runs, the more respect and patience he will have to display. If he doesn’t heed to the other top drivers, he won’t last long up front before someone. Ganassi obviously disagrees, but Montoya is not ready to challenge the top drivers on a weekly basis and Ganassi doesn’t have the tools in place yet either. Improving his final point standing to the upper teens is possible. For the answer to the biggest question regarding an oval win, it’s a “not this year”.

Not having the Speed Channel I missed this action:

So tell me what you thought? Is it something that will blow over or is it deeper because it involved teammates? Has Carl Edwards lost his squeaky clean, aw-shucks attitude? Is that a bad thing? Share your thoughts.