Trouble in Turn2

One of the most exciting parts of sports for me is the transactions and seeing how teams are built. I love drafts, hot stove leagues and trade deadlines. Obviously NASCAR is different since there is no salary cap, anyone can start a team, the draft is only relevant if you have a restrictor plate, and the only high profile commodities are the drivers and crew chiefs. What if there was a trade deadline prior to say the Brickyard 400? Imagine if drivers had no ties to ownership and their contracts were something that actually locked them into a team (let’s face it, it’s easier for a driver to get out of their contract than to escape their Nationwide cars in a bad crash)? It’s impossible for it to truly work, but indulge me for a minute. Pretend that a team could trade drivers and crew chiefs to fill other needs on their teams. For example: Instead of Mark Martin leaving DEI for nothing, Hendrick would have to pay compensation. DEI needs another driver, so maybe Hendrick exchanges Casey Mears and a chassis to be named later for the rights to Martin.

While other sports worry about salary caps or draft picks, NASCAR teams might use sponsorship logos as currency. Occasionally there is talk about franchising the teams in NASCAR, but I’m not waiting for that to happen. I’ve decided to assume they already are. Now that that’s done, here’s a few deals that I could see happening before this year’s trade deadline.

• In a blockbuster, Joe Gibbs Racing trades Tony Stewart to Haas-CNC in exchange for the monster of all wind tunnels. A $40 million rolling wind tunnel, the only one of its kind.

• An unhappy star driver with little chance of making the Chase is a perfect candidate to be dealt. Instead of keeping him there, trade him away for some young prospects. (Maybe that driver’s name rhymes Pawn Jablo Zontoya). Richard Childress Racing needs a skilled veteran driver to pilot their new fourth team for 2009. They might be willing to trade away Scott Wimmer, and crew chief Todd Berrier in exchange for Zontoya’s rights.

• In a mid-summer push to make the Chase and get Brian Vickers to Victory Lane, Red Bull Racing trades development driver Scott Speed and some Red Bull sponsor logos to Yates Racing in exchange for crew chief Todd Parrott.

• BAM Racing deals Ken Schrader to Furniture Row Racing for Joe Nemechek. The deal also apparently involved a swap of antique deck chairs believed to be on the Titanic.

• Jack Roush trades Jamie McMurray to Michael Waltrip Racing in exchange for an undisclosed chassis part. On the surface the trade looks very lopsided and despite no comment from Roush, he was seen in the garage with a large smile.

• With the #96 team outside the top 35, they acquire Ryan Newman and his qualifying prowess. Newman was set to leave Penske Racing for free agency after the season so the team cashed in at the trade deadline. JJ Yeley is sent the other way with Penske planning to field him in an IRL car.

• Owner Robby Gordon trades driver Robby Gordon and his offroad truck to Petty Enterprises in exchange for Bobby Labonte. Gordon the owner thought that the clam Labonte would take better care of his equipment and take Robby Gordon Motorsports to the next level. The move allows the Pettys to double the number of races where they’re competitive to two. Plus the offroad truck will be a big hit at the Victory Junction Gang camp.

What other trades could you see happening or want to see happen? Who should be traded? [note:posts don’t get published when you forget to hit “publish”.]

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.

• Cue the Duck Aflac announced they will sponsor Carl Edwards in 2009. Supplemental insurance is extremely important when you break your neck doing a backflip and can’t work. Is something like that covered? I am already predicting a commercial with Edwards and the duck doing flips after a win. Either that or Edwards can take a fake swing at the duck. As part of the contract, the answer to all Aflac trivia questions is now “Carl Edwards”. The deal is also apparently the second richest sponsorship deal behind Amp and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Of course Earnhardt Jr’s deal with Amp is essentially for co-sponsorship, as the #88 hauls in additional cash from the National Guard.

• Bruton Smith bought another track, this time Kentucky Speedway. It’s a good pickup, but with Tony George owning Indiana Avenue and ISC/France Family owning Illinois Avenue, it will be very hard to get the Red Monopoly and build hotels. Since he already owns North Carolina Ave, I would have made a play for Pennsylvania Ave now and Pacific (Northwest) Ave later.

• Tom Bowles of SI.com has an interesting take on Michael Waltrip Racing.
  

  It’s no secret the driver mortgaged his financial future to move ahead with this program and that he took on an investor (Robert Kauffman) in October to salvage the team’s long-term future. But if all three sponsors bail — this is the final year of NAPA’s agreement with the No. 55 — all the investment money in the world won’t keep this program on track. And with a tough economy making sponsorship difficult, this could be the biggest-level program that winds up biting the dust.

  I guess Napa can only make so many self-deprecating commercials about how bad Waltrip runs. I don’t have the inside scoop that Bowles does, but I was surprised by this. Given SI’s credibility, I have to believe there’s some truth, but my guess is that if MWR can keep all three cars inside the top 35 Waltrip can make it work to stay in business.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr had a few interesting comments on the future of JR Motorsports. He’s considering moving his Nationwide team to Cup in 2009. If NASCAR’s second-tier series is just as costly to operate that’s a serious problem for all parties.

  He also had this to say about Martin Truex Jr:
  

  “Why would he want to come drive for me?” Earnhardt Jr. asked. “He’s in good stuff now and he’s going to have great opportunities from other people. And I would never do that to him.”

  To me, that’s a subtle way of saying DEI should be looking for a driver for 2009. Junior was clear that he wouldn’t hire Truex, but if you look at the link to the story it’s titled “Friends don’t let friends drive junk”. That could be interpreted as not hiring Truex for a startup Cup team, or implying that something is already brewing with another top Cup team.

• Just four races after a crew chief shuffle at Ganassi Racing, there is another one this week. Prior to Talladega Jimmy Elledge moved from the #41 car to Juan Pablo Montoya’s #42 team. Now Elledge has left Ganassi and Montoya is not happy. Elledge is pretty well regarded in Cup and will turn up somewhere if he hasn’t already struck a deal. One place that makes sense is JR Motorsports, since Elledge is Earnhardt Jr’s brother-in-law, although that might be too much family even for JRM.

  Meanwhile Brian Pattie moves from the Ganassi Nationwide team to head up the #42 crew. Montoya has one top ten (2nd at Talladega) while Ganassi as an organization only has two all season. Obviously things are not going well at Acronym Racing (That’s CGRwFS for the uninitiated) and Ganassi has already ripped his organization once this year. Instead of shuffling around internal crew chiefs among the teams, it might be time to look outside the organization for a different perspective.

Off the Beaten Path

A chance for me to discuss whatever else is on my mind this week. Hey, if Peter King can write about his lattes every week…

• I don’t get very political, especially in this space, but it’s inescapable right now. I saw a report that the presidential candidates have raised over $900 million dollars. It’s mind boggling and we’re not even to the official presidential race. Worse, the entire point of donating money to a candidate is for them to burn through it. With so many problems in this country and abroad, imagine how many causes a billion dollars could go to.

• I saw Zodiac last weekend. A pretty good thriller/mystery with a lot of good actors too. It’s based on the true story of the Zodiac serial killer in California and focuses on the investigation. Jake Gyllenhal and Mark Ruffalo are both really good. My one complaint was that the movie ended with a postscript. I have a TV that’s at least ten years old and I couldn’t read what it said. Even if I wanted to throw in a spoiler here, I couldn’t.

• Have a great and safe weekend and be sure to get plenty of rest on Saturday night. We’ll all need it on Sunday afternoon.

Junior fans, be honest. If it was anyone other than Kyle Busch, would you be so upset right now? Would Busch’s wreck with Junior in the closing laps have been such a big deal? Well, probably since it involved the biggest star in NASCAR, but it’s hardly fair to Busch. It was a racing incident plain and simple. It wasn’t any different than Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick at Bristol earlier this year or hundreds of similar wrecks resulting from hard racing over the years.

In light of a tense situation, Busch did have one of the best quotes of the night after the race,

I don’t know why they[ the fans] were telling me I was number one, I was in second place. Clint Bowyer got the lead from me — they were all confused I guess, too many old (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. Budweisers.

• Denny Hamlin had the NASCAR equivalent of pitching a no hitter, only to cough it up on a home run in the bottom of the ninth. Actually, getting a flat tire after leading 381 of 382 laps was like watching your center fielder turn a single into an inside-the-park home run.
  

  It’s tough to say. I mean, you can’t whine about it. It wasn’t meant to be. God didn’t want me to win today, and there’s a better time for us to win, evidently. Today is just not our day.

  Hamlin had 1 green flag pass all night, which is usually a bad thing, except when there is no one else but lapped cars to pass.

• The top ten cars stayed essentially the same all night long. Part of the reason was because a lot of decent cars got caught up in an eleven car pileup. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and others all got collected after Patrick Carpentier was sent spinning. Jamie McMurray suffered minor damage in that crash, so he went back for seconds later in the race. Somehow Jeff Burton snaked through with minor damage and went on to finish 11th. The way the track clogged so quickly reminded me of another short track Big One from the 2005 Bristol race.

• Speaking of Kenseth, he now sits in 22nd place in the standings, 204 points outside of 12th place. In 2005 he was 21st after the Richmond race, but thanks to a furious summer rally he made the Chase. The good news is Kenseth typically runs well at the next three tracks, Darlington, Charlotte and Dover. There is a lot of time left.

• What was Michael Waltrip thinking when he continued bumping Casey Mears under caution? Mears was running one lap down in 16th. There was no way Mears meant to wreck Waltrip. For the lovable image Waltrip likes to project, it’s interesting how many times a year he gets called to the NASCAR hauler.

• The top 35 fight rages on. Dave Blaney’s 18th place finish (and best run of 2008) put some pressure on 35th place Sam Hornish Jr. 32nd place David Reutimann is only 10 points ahead of Hornish, with Waltrip and Regan Smith sandwiched in between. With the unfriendly confines of Darlington up next, the positions at the back of the field could change quickly.

For more NASCAR insight, stats and opinions go to Racing Nation.

Good teams run well, not the manufacturer.
It is not a coincidence that nearly all of Toyota’s success happened after Joe Gibbs Racing aligned with the manufacturer last fall. The knowledge and resources they provided to Toyota is what got all of the Toyota headed in the right direction, not the other way around.

Granted Toyota has a lot of money, which is a big reason why Gibbs decided to leave Chevrolet. But Gibbs is a top organization because they are organized, have lots of engineers and technology and know how to use their resources. The only major difference for Gibbs in 2008 is that they have three cars competing for wins instead of two. Gibbs was a top team with Pontiac, then Chevy and now Toyota. It would be the same thing if Roush-Fenway Racing switched to Toyota. After Jack Roush was done seething, stomping up and down and the steam stopped shooting from his ears, his teams would still run up front and compete for wins.

It’s easy to point to Gibbs’ early success this season and tie it to the manufacturer switch, but all you have to do is look at the other Toyota teams to see the truth. It takes a lot more than a rich manufacturer to succeed at NASCAR’s highest level.

Michael Waltrip Racing is not going to last long in the top 35 without a tighter operation.
Last year was unmitigated disaster for the three car team. The cars couldn’t consistently qualify, were slow once in the races and none of the three cars were close to the top 35. This year all three cars made the first five races and did enough to land on the good side of the top 35. Well, that lasted one week. David Reutimann lost his spot thanks to a bad transmission and Waltrip tried his best to wreck out of the top 35. No MWR driver has a better rating than 56.0 and the team has zero top tens. Bad luck will happen to every team, but it hurts more when the cars aren’t compensating with strong finishes.

Two years ago Bill Davis Racing raced Dodges with no manufacturer support. Blaney not only managed to keep the car inside the top 35, but he also posted a top 5 at Richmond and had several other strong runs for the one car underdog team (Yes, Michael Waltrip was technically a teammate, but he did his own deal). Last year with Toyota backing the year began with a flop, but Blaney again recovered to score some nice results. It looked like Blaney was outperforming the equipment and once the cars caught up, he could really show his skill. That might still be true, but the cars aren’t there yet and Blaney hasn’t exactly sparkled himself. Not only that, but the second BDR team folded after only one start this year.

Brian Vickers and Red Bull Racing are the only other Toyota team with a top ten this season. Not only has Vickers maneuvered his way into a solid top 20 position in the points, he is running consistently well. He has three top fifteens and would have had a fourth last weekend, but he ran out of fuel with less than ten laps left. The second Red Bull car is still struggling, but at least Mike Skinner is three for three in qualifying for races.

In conclusion, Gibbs Racing is good, the other Toyota teams are varying degrees of lousy. For as much paranoia that Toyota endures about ruining the Sprint Cup series, it’s pretty unfounded. Until they are to the point where Toyota can plug any team into their program and compete for wins, it’s time to realize that Toyota isn’t some monster that many fans believe.

Random Thoughts

• How Can Travis Kvapil and Yates Racing not get a sponsor?
  Kvapil is relatively young, has already won a Craftsman Truck Series title and is solidly inside the top 35. He scored a top 10 at Las Vegas and had solid top ten runs at California and Martinsville spoiled by mechanical problems (California) and a pit road crash (Martinsville). There are several cars without the luxury of a guaranteed starting spot that do have full sponsorship. How long will it take companies to realize that a sponsorship has more value if the rolling billboard is actually in the race.

• Where are the “Kyle Busch is so mature” campaigns now?
  In Saturday’s truck race, Kyle Busch sent 2nd place Johnny Benson spinning on the final turn of the final lap. Busch also spun, but his quote was very telling.
  

  I’m not happy with third. I want to go up there to the top. That’s what I’m here to do. To try to get the best possible finish I can for my guys and my team.

  It’s one thing to wreck another driver in the Cup series when you are going for points, but to do it in a series that you don’t run full time is another. It’s like being a guest in someone’s house. Saying you are a racer also does not grant carte blanch for aggressive driving at every turn. After his win at Atlanta, I wondered what would happen when something bad happened. I guess we’ll see this weekend.

• I’m thinking of starting a new game. It’s called Where in the World is Slugger Labbe? Since 2004 crew chief Slugger Labbe has worked for 5 different teams. He’s been a part of two team contractions. It’s easy to lose track. Two weeks ago he was released by Bill Davis Racing when they shut down the struggling #27(formerly known as the struggling #36) car. He’s NASCAR’s answer to Chris Gatling, or Mike Morgan, the ultimate journeyman.

• In other crew chief news, Michael Waltrip is switching Paul Andrews for Bobby Kennedy. You might be thinking, where have I heard Bobby Kennedy’s name before? Hint: The answer rhymes with pet gruel.

• Denny Hamlin spoke to Dustin Long about his fuel pickup issues. By his count he’s lost three races in the last year due to a faulty pickup system. I also remember a 2004 race at Homestead where the same thing happened to Tony Stewart. I have no idea if it’s a similar situation, but it’s interesting. In any event, fuel pickup shouldn’t be a problem this weekend at the virtually flat Martinsville.

• Former driver Ricky Craven went to Iraq and wrote about his experience. It’s a great read and gives a real picture of what the situation really looks like. NASCAR fans have always been patriotic and the military obviously has close ties to the sport, but it’s always nice to have a reminder of what’s really going on. It makes silly gripes about Toyota, the CoT or Goodyear tires look rather small.

• A few newer blogs to check out: Bump Drafts, Blog of Tomorrow, Monte Dutton’s NASCAR This Week

• From the It’s More Fun if it were True category, Jack Roush and Toyota can’t get along. The story was at least partially fabricated by ESPN (which is another obnoxious issue altogether.) It’s Spy vs Spy. Jack is claiming that Ninjas working on behalf of Toyota stole a proprietary Roush part. Of course after the whole oil lid fiasco, Toyota took shots at Roush too. My guess is they stole either Matt Kenseth’s cup holder or Carl Edwards iPod featuring all of his dawgs from Back 40 records.

• If you haven’t already discovered my series of interviews with different bloggers, what better way to pass the weekend than to sidle up to the fireplace with the laptop for some good reading. It’s a chance to learn more about some of the best NASCAR bloggers in their own words. The only thing I’ve done is compiled them all in one place, so even if you think I’m a complete waste of bandwidth, you should check them out.

Dale Jarrett didn’t make his Cup debut until age 27, much later than contemporaries like Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte. This is somewhat surprising considering his family’s ties to the sport. With a late start it’s even more impressive what Jarrett accomplished in his NASCAR Cup career. Jarrett won 3 Daytona 500’s, 2 Brickyard 400’s and scored 32 career wins. His 32 wins are tied for 20th all-time. He is also 18th in top 5’s (163) and top 10’s (260).

Jarrett made his debut at Martinsville in 1984 driving the #02 car for NASCAR legend Emanuel Zervakis. In fact Jarrett was the last person to drive a Cup car for Zervakis. Jarrett finished a respectable 14th in his debut race and took home a check for $1,515 for his efforts.

Jarrett spent the mid 1980’s bouncing around at the Cup level, driving for Eric Freedlander, Hoss Ellington, and Cale Yarborough among others. His big breakthrough came in 1990 when he was signed to drive the Wood Brothers famous #21 car. He scored his first win in the Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan in 1991. It was his 129th Cup start. In today’s Cup world a driver that took 129 starts to score his first win would probably not still have a top ride. On the strength of his win and 8 top tens he finished 17th in the final point standings, his best to date.

His breakthrough season didn’t come until he joined an upstart Joe Gibbs Racing team to drive the #18 Interstate Batteries car. 1992 was a transition year for Jarrett and the brand new Gibbs organization., but a 3rd place finish at the Pepsi 400 hinted at Jarrett’s future Daytona success. The following year saw Jarrett win his first Daytona 500 with father Ned calling the race on television. It is still one of the most famous calls in Daytona 500 history. The win was part of a strong season ending in a fourth place points result.

After three seasons with Gibbs, Jarrett joined Robert Yates Racing to replace an injured Ernie Irvan in the famous #28 car. After Irvan returned Yates started a second team to keep Jarrett. This team became the #88 that Jarrett enjoyed some of his best performances. For a six year stretch from 1996 to 2001 he was one of the elite drivers, compiling 24 wins, 107 top 5’s and 138 top 10’s.

The ultimate payoff finally came in 1999 when Jarrett and Yates won their first, and only Cup championship beating Bobby Labonte and the #18 car by 201 points. Jarrett won 4 races, and had an incredible 24 top 5’s in 34 races. His average finish was also a video game-like 6.8. It was the peak of Jarrett’s career and came in the middle of a dominant period where he finished in the top five in points for six straight seasons.

Jarrett didn’t win as much in the twilight of his career, but he still had a huge following.To newer NASCAR fans Jarrett is also known for his strong connection with sponsor UPS. Their long running ad campaign featuring Jarrett considering racing a UPS truck is always one of the most popular. His calm demeanor and good sense of humor made for some memorable ads. Although Jarrett was usually mellow, he was also competitive and would let people know it when needed, especially at Bristol. His final win came at Talladega in October of 2005. A fitting finish for one of the best restrictor plate drivers ever.

His final stop in his career was a challenge of a different kind. He signed with Michael Waltrip Racing to assist in Toyota’s Cup debut in 2007. Although last year was a disaster having little to do with Jarrett, he been more competitive in 2008. Jarrett deserves a good deal of credit for getting MWR established as a company.

Dale Jarrett is expected to make his final Cup start this Sunday at Bristol. After getting a late start on his racing career, he made sure to pack in the excitement. He will still be around thanks to his seamless transition to television, but fans will definitely remember his on track performances.

Go fast or go home. It’s a phrase no team wants mentioned in conjunction with their cars. With only one race to go before 2008 owner points take effect, the top 35 picture is taking shape. For new teams inside the top 35 it means a guaranteed starting spot. Likewise, the teams that have not cracked the top 35 in 2008 owner points will have to qualify on speed for one of the final eight transfer spots. Once the top 35 gets set after Bristol, the chances of entering or exiting that safe haven decrease each week. That places immense pressure on this week’s race for teams that need to either hang on or move up. Holding the crucial fifth race at the potentially volatile Bristol track makes it even more tense. You can be sure nine or ten teams will be packing extra heartburn medicine this weekend.

Two teams have already locked themselves in for race six at Martinsville. Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers could fail to qualify for Bristol(Busch has a provisional anyway) and still have enough points to stay in the top 35. For other drivers it is less fun. Only 86 points separate 31st through 39th. It sounds like a lot, but making a race guarantees 34 points. If a car currently inside the top 35 like Michael Waltrip misses the race, that opens the door for another outside the top 35.

Right now JJ Yeley sits in the final spot in the top 35 safety zone. He is only 18 points ahead of 36th place Sam Hornish Jr, which is the difference of six places, less with five bonus points for leading a lap. 5 teams that will make the Bristol race due to their 2007 owners points are currently outside the top 35 based on 2008 owners points. The #01, #22, #40, #45, #77 all face the possibility of squandering their early season fortune.

All four rookies currently sit outside the top 35. Sam Hornish Jr, Dario Franchitti, Regan Smith and Patrick Carpentier sit in 36th, 38th, 39th and 46th respectively. Smith is the only driver that has previously raced at Bristol and that could provide an advantage. The tight confines of Bristol pose a much different challenge and smaller margin for error than the wider and bigger speedways the tour raced at the last three weeks.

It’s also interesting that the open wheelers are all struggling mightily. Hornish Jr had a top 15 at Daytona but then wrecked in his next two starts. Franchitti hasn’t wrecked, but simply run at the tail of the field every week. Patrick Carpentier and AJ Allmendinger haven’t qualified for races and sinking their chances before they even had a chance to crash on Sundays. All of this makes Juan Pablo Montoya’s debut even more impressive. At the same point last year Montoya was safely inside the top 35 and scored a top five at Atlanta.

The rookie struggles means, strange as it sounds, that a driver with zero Cup starts could wind up as Rookie of the Year. The #00 has a nice points cushion thanks to David Reutimann making every race so far. After Martinsville, Reutimann will shift to the #44 (also inside the top 35) and rookie Michael McDowell will take the wheel of the #00. He won’t set the world on fire, but he could be the only rookie with a guaranteed starting spot each week.

Rookies, open-wheelers, and open-wheel rookies aren’t the only teams that will need a second coat of Old Spice this weekend. Michael Waltrip Racing currently has all three cars locked inside the top 35, although the #44 and #55 are toeing the edge of the cliff. After a nightmare 2007 debut, Waltrip has rebounded but there is still one more race for each car to make.

Further up in the points are two drivers from marquee teams. Casey Mears in 30th place and Jamie McMurray in 31st are each one bad Bristol crash from plunging into serious danger. Both are top 20 drivers in top 10 equipment, but can’t seem to garner their deserved finishes. It’s one thing to struggle, but another thing entirely to flirt with the top 35.

On the other end of the spectrum is Kyle Petty. He has made every race, but he sits 40th in the points and needs a lot of help or a spectacular run at Bristol to keep his guaranteed starting spot. His teammate Bobby Labonte has been very competitive each week, but Petty has not finished better than 32nd. His 28.5 driver rating exemplifies the team’s struggles. For Petty Enterprises this year it’s one step forward (#43 car) and one backward.

All in all, the bottom 35 is filled with interesting stories. What happens at Bristol will have consequences for the concerned parties for the rest of the year.

Last Week’s Caption Contest Winner

Thanks to everyone that submitted captions. The winner is John. He wins a $20 gift certificate to use at Whatever Sports.