Trouble in Turn2

The last seven seasons have seen the advent of a youth movement in NASCAR at the Cup level. Young Guns have taken over in large numbers and many have quickly found success. Since 2000 a rookie has won a race in every season except 2004. Going back to 2002 the recent rookie classes have been pretty impressive. 12 of 19 drivers have won races, nine have made a Chase appearance and one has won two championships. Not bad for a wave of drivers that some fans complained were ruining the sport (Toyota and open wheel drivers have since acquired that “honor”). So which rookie class featured the best rookies? It’s a tough decision. I decided to look at the various classes from 2002-2006. I didn’t rate the 2007 class because drivers deserve at least three seasons for a fair assessment. The only reason I included the 2006 class was because it included so many drivers with immediate success it was an exceptional case. This week focuses on the 2003 class. Check out previous reviews: 2002, 2003, 2004.

The 2005 rookie class only features two members, Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil. Busch has been a hot prospect since he was a teenager and is now a bona fide superstar thanks to his big year in 2008. Meanwhile Kvapil has taken a more indirect path to the Cup series but looks to have finally established himself as a skilled Cup driver.

Kyle Busch made his NASCAR debut at 16 in the Truck Series in 2001. NASCAR created an age limit for their top three series and Busch was forced to wait until he turned 18 before he could compete again. If not for the rule he may have made his Cup debut prior to his 18th birthday. Upon his return it didn’t take long to stand out. He won 5 races in the Busch Series in 2004 and finished 2nd in the points.

In 2005 he moved to the #5 car at Hendrick Motorsports, replacing the retiring legend Terry Labonte. He won two races and became the youngest driver to win a Cup race at age 19. Despite typical rookie struggles, Busch scored 9 top 5’s, 13 top 10’s and finished 20th in the overall standings. He won Rookie of the Year in a class of two.

In 2006 and 2007 Busch didn’t ascend to stardom but did win two races and made the Chase playoff field in both seasons. He also had his share of controversy with other drivers due to his attitude and occasional bouts of immaturity. He left Hendrick Motorsports after 2007 to make way for Dale Earnhardt Jr and he landed a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing. Whether it was the move or simply Busch’s experience catching up with his talent, 2008 has been a banner year. Through July Busch has
seven wins and leads the point standings.

Travis Kvapil won the 2003 Truck Series title but didn’t land a Cup ride until 2005. Roger Penske hired him to drive their third car, the #77. In hindsight it was an exercise in futility. Kvapil did not have the same equipment as his teammates, Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace, and he struggled all season. He managed only 2 top tens and teetered on the edge of the top 35 in points.

After the 2005 season the #77 team was contracted and Kvapil was left to scramble for another ride. The best he could manage was with Cal Wells’ fledging PPI Racing team. The team hadn’t been competitive since 2003 and Kvapil again had little chance of success. Kvapil didn’t finish better than 19th and struggled to simply make races. The team folded after the 2006 seson relegating Kvapil to the Truck Series again.

After a successful truck season Kvapil was hired by Yates Racing to drive the #28 car. Teamed with crew chief Todd Parrott, the duo has found speed in the car. Kvapil has three top tens through 20 races, proving he is a capable driver given quality equipment.

Verdict: Kyle Busch is one of the top stars in NASCAR and has an excellent chance at his first Cup title this year. Kvapil took a while to find a decent team but has displayed his skill. It’s difficult to rate the class very high in comparison to other deeper classes. In ten years Busch may wind up as one of the two or three best drivers to emerge since Tony Stewart was a rookie in 1999. that would probably reflect well on the class too.

Let’s face it, NASCAR has had a rough 2008. They introduced a new car that no one really likes, are facing a lawsuit that apparently has legs, are facing shrinking attendance and now they see their second biggest race of the season become a debacle. They could use a positive turn. The easiest way to win fans back is to make the sport even more appealing to fans. With my unsolicited help, here are a few places where NASCAR could make up for some of the low points of 2008. [I realize not all of these ideas will be instant hits. In fact some of these ideas lack details, vision and may even seem half-baked and ridiculous. But this is NASCAR we’re talking about. Their pet project, the CoT, was rather poorly executed, but it’s on the track every week.]

• NASCAR grants Robby Gordon one free helmet toss per season without fear of penalty. Tell me you wouldn’t tune in on any Sunday and say, “Is this the week Robby loses it?”

• Hold a Throwback Race. Retro paint schemes, 1949 prices, and all of the drivers will assume cool nicknames like Fireball, Smokey, Ralph, Red and Crawfish.

• Kasey Kahne Kissing Booth. No explanation needed. Kasey’s sacrifice for the greater good would be repaid with the annual Kasey Kahne Blistex500400 at Pocono.

• Begin a dialog with other tire manufacturers. This is not to say that ditching Goodyear would solve the problems but listening to what other ideas and solutions are out there can’t hurt. Plus nothing counters complacency like competition or the threat of competition.

• With NASCAR’s financial backing, tracks can offer partial refunds or discounts on future races in the event of fiascoes like the Brickyard. It would be costly for NASCAR, but not as costly as having hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied fans.

• Build a football field in the Talladega infield. During the fall race NASCAR could partner with the SEC for a Racing and Running Weekend. Bruton Smith had the idea for Bristol a few years ago, but the Talladega race falls in the heart of college football season. The NHL has pulled off outdoor games with great success, this is NASCAR’s chance to capitalize on the perfect cross-promotion. What NASCAR fan isn’t a college football fan? Which leads to the next point…

• Have an IRL/NASCAR companion weekend. Now that open wheel racing is again consolidated in the US, NASCAR can no longer dismiss its status and second rate. The Truck Series already shares select dates with IRL, but it’s time for NASCAR and IRL to realize the benefit of their combined efforts. That kind of publicity would be good for motorsports as a whole (of course NASAR faces the risk of IRL putting on a better show).

• Continue to revamp the Nationwide Series. NASCAR’s second tier series needs a new identity. Nationwide entering as the new title sponsor has helped, but the governing body needs to continue to find more ways to create a distinct series that isn’t just a place for the Cup stars to run rampant. This is especially important during a recession when many families can’t afford to go to two races in a weekend.

• Impound one engineer from each multi-car team, sequester them at NASCAR’s research center in Charlotte and lock the door until they find a way to make the CoT drive like a real racecar.

I won’t go so far as saying that the Indianapolis disaster should serve as a wakeup call for NASCAR. Overall things are going well, but lots of fans are growing tired of the way things are headed. High prices amid a recession only increase that sentiment. The biggest key is to appeal directly to the fans and find fresh ways to do that.

• After taking a day to reflect on the weekend, it’s time to break down Kyle Busch’s triple. As I noted Friday, I don’t think it was very significant to attempt all three races. Other drivers of lesser skill have accomplished the feat on a companion weekend. Robby Gordon has driven in other countries on the weekend of a Cup race. All three of Busch’s rides were guaranteed to make the race. So the difference was obviously the travel. Trips from Pocono to Texas and Nashville are definitely draining, but if anyone is used to a taxing flight schedule it’s a Cup driver.

  What’s most interesting how some have questioned Busch for racing in all three series based on his results. I suspect some of these people would have hailed Busch’s passion or how he’s a “pure racer” had he won one of the races. I think Busch’s wreck in the Pocono race had more to do with a mistake on the part of Busch and his spotter than the effects of a long weekend.

• Speaking of Busch, Bob Margolis (with a hat tip to Doug Demmons) made an interesting note about Busch’s wreck in Cup practice:
  

  After he wrecked his primary car in practice Saturday morning, NASCAR officials and members of Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing team kept both cameras and fellow competitors away from the front end of Busch’s wrecked Camry. Supposedly the JGR guys have a special front-suspension setup that is a big part of why Busch is so fast these days and they didn’t want anyone to spend too much time checking it out.

  Watching the Dover race, it struck me that Tony Stewart was the only car involved in the big wreck that opted for a brand new nose instead of cutting the front off. I remember a race at Richmond in 2005, Jeff Gordon innocuously hit the wall and the shock completely broke. It was apparently an experimental shock, which also came into play later in the year when Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch had their shocks confiscated at Dover. Now read what Busch’s crew chief Steve Addington said about Sunday’s crash at Pocono:
  

  We had to replace all the front lower chassis points and the whole front end. We cut the whole front end off that had the radiator mount and all that in it. Juts replaced the whole front end. The right front lower control arm pivot points had to weld back into the chassis and all.

  I have no idea whether the suspension is the reason for Gibbs’ and Busch’s 2008 success, but it does share some of the traits of the Hendrick package from 2005. I should also stress that I’m not implying it’s an illegal part either. Like coil binding evolved with the old car, Gibbs might have discovered something that simply works better.

• The #88 finally broke through to win a race in 2008. Well it was Brad Keselowski, not Junior, but it was also deserved after several misses.
  

  You know, I knew we could do this but you never really know other than in your heart until you can prove it on the racetrack, and we’ve been so close and it’s seemed like we’ve caught bad breaks and today we caught the right breaks and that’s what we needed. We needed a little bit of luck with a fast racecar, and we had a fast racecar today and, call it a bit of luck.

  [for the entire audio go to Nationwide’s website]

  It’s the breakthrough for Keselowski that could lead to bigger things. Of the eleven drivers that have won their first Busch/Nationwide races in the last four years, only Stephen Leicht and Justin Labonte have not graduated to a fulltime Cup ride.

I just finished watching Days of Thunder, and despite knowing almost everything that would happen, I still found it more enteraining than Sunday’s Best Buy 400 at Dover. Officially the race had 17 green flag lead changes. In reality it was a three car race with most lead changes (9) only occurring during green flag pit stops. Essentially Kyle Busch’s pit crew beat Carl Edwards’ and Greg Biffle’s. By lap 160 Jeff Gordon made his way into fifth place and the top five never changed again. One point to make was that the lack of excitement didn’t have very much to do with the lack of lead lap cars, it was simply a race with long green flag runs and not much passing. There were times when cars would ride nose to tail for 20 or 30 laps with neither able to pull away. Busch summed up the lack of excitement this way,

“It wasn’t I guess all that exciting. You know, that’s a product of what we’ve got going on here. We’re working on trying to make our cars go as fast as they can. The faster we make them go, the more aero-dependent they’re going to be. The more you put out on the racetrack, the more the air is going to get screwed up. You know, we’re all fighting for space. We’re all fighting for air. We’re all fighting for everything. Sorry it wasn’t exciting.”

It’s not Busch’s fault the race was boring, nor is it the teams’ fault. With the CoT still in its infancy, there will continue to be snoozers like we saw at Dover. It’s not pretty to watch, but expect more of the same as teams, Goodyear and NASCAR all get a grasp on the car.

The one nugget of excitement came on lap 19 when several top cars collected after Elliott Sadler and David Gilliland made contact. First Tony Stewart, then Denny Hamlin and finally Bill Elliott and Scott Riggs all took turns diving on the hog pile in turn 2. As you might expect, the reactions were varied. First Stewart:

“I take 100% responsibility — it’s my fault for being even anywhere close to Elliott (Sadler). If I’m within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen. It’s my fault — I’m the one that hit him. When I hit him it caused all the guys behind us to wreck. So it’s my fault.”

Obviously there is still some residual ill-will from Stewart for the wreck at Darlington. Stewart has had wrecks in three of the last five races, and last week had a win snuffed out by a flat tire. Common sense says Stewart will rebound during the summer months, but he had similar problems in 2006 and failed to make the Chase. It’s definitely something to watch.

Meanwhile teammate Denny Hamlin received a lot of heat for plowing into the wreck late. It did appear that other drivers managed to slow down in less time than Hamlin, but Elliott and Riggs were even further behind Hamlin and still couldn’t stop in time.

“It’s so tight off of turn two right there. I feel bad for Elliott (Sadler). I came piling in there way late. I had the 43 (Bobby Labonte) right on my bumper trying not to get hit from him. When I heard wreck off turn two I immediately was on the brakes. It’s just these cars don’t stop as well as they had in the past. Luckily, I wasn’t the last one. It looked like guys even behind me piled in there. It’s just part of the race track.”

While I find it a little easy to blame the track and the heavier car, something obviously caused problems for numerous cars in the accident. After his incident last weekend in the Nationwide race, Hamlin is probably not a popular driver with many fans, but it’s not really fair either.

Other Notes

Nice runs by Dave Blaney, Travis Kvapil and Juan Pablo Montoya. All scored top 12’s. Meanwhile Sam Hornish Jr finished 19th to return to the top 35. The finish was his second top 20 and moved him all the way to 33rd in the owners standings. Meanwhile thanks to a steep 150 point penalty earlier this week and a bad wreck on Sunday, Scott Riggs and the #66 car fell outside the top 35. With the other Haas car missing another race, things are getting tough in a hurry for Haas-CNC.

Fox did a good job this year with their NASCAR coverage (although I could have passed on the letter grades feature today). Now it’s on to TNT. At least Kyle Petty will keep things fresh.

A few notes and happenings for the early week.

• The Cup teams “traveled” to Lowe’s for a test session. Nothing too exciting on the speed charts, but one little note did catch my eye. Nationwide prospect and Dale Earnhardt Jr protege Brad Keselowski test-drove the #70 Haas-CNC car. The connections are obvious, with Hendrick Motorsports supporting both JR Motorsports and Haas-CNC. With Haas-CNC using a “Raise Your Hand If You can Drive this Week” rotation, could we see Keselowski make a handful of Cup starts this year? He’s not ready for a full time Cup ride, especially a high profile one at HMS, but Haas-CNC seems like a perfect option. No pressure for Keselowski to live up to the lofty standards of Jeremy Mayfield, and Haas gets to audition a young prospect. One to keep an eye at least.

• Somewhat lost in the Dale Jr-Kyle Busch-HOw to Incite an Angry Fanbase Dustop, was the mysterious behavior of Denny Hamlin. After seeing his dominant car get a flat tire, he remained on the track for several laps, despite more than ten laps left in the race. Ultimately he just stopped on the track to bring out the caution flag. He tried to explain to Dustin Long during Monday’s test at Lowe’s Motorspeedway.

  “I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that’s when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn’t want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn’t even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.

  For me, that doesn’t fly. Hamlin first lost speed while leading the race and it didn’t completely blow until at least ten lead lap cars had passed him. He had plenty of time to make it to pit road before his tire was fatal. Hamlin said he didn’t want to jeopardize tearing up his car. Staying out on the track and not running full speed posed a pretty big risk too, with cars tightly packed trying to avoid the limping #11 car.

  I was already (upset) anyway because I felt like we should have won the race. Regardless if I was running fifth, I would have done the same thing because I pride myself on not getting DNFs and if I would have ran that one lap on that flat tire … we would have been done. I had to do what I had to do regardless of whether it kind of affected someone else or not.

  This comes across as extremely selfish. There are 43 cars on the track and each driver has a responsibility to at least respect the other 42. Staying out on the track when you have a tire going flat, not running at full speed only creates danger for the others. It has nothing to do with pride in no DNF’s, staying on the lead lap or using the racetrack for wallowing. Imagine if in the future Hamlin is running in the top five, having a nice run and a car with a problem refuses to leave the track and collects Hamlin in a wreck. I’m pretty sure Hamlin would be livid, but that’s exactly the atmosphere he created on Saturday night.

  Literally adding injury to insult was Hamlin’s hip injury suffered on Sunday playing pickup basketball. I guess it’s a more macho injury than his cut hand suffered from running a foot race around his hauler last year.

• Speaking of Kyle Busch(since everyone else is), some interesting quotes from Nationwide (click here for audio and more quotes) regarding his manhood initiation with Seven Wallace.
  

  He’s a boy trying to play in a man’s sport and I don’t take those games so we are going to fight if it comes down to it. If he wants to play that kind of game, then that’s what we are going to play.

  Take notes boys, learn how to be a man. Real Men throw HANS devices at other drivers, abandon their teams while they repair your wrecked race car, and hide behind the blanket answer of “I’m a racer” to dismiss any and all racing incidents. Manly, indeed.

Yeehaw! Almost two full weeks without a Sprint Cup race it’s time for an overdue roundup of some news items. Get along all you dogies. By the way, you know you were about to ask, a dogie is a motherless calf in a range herd of cattle. So there’s that. Let’s move on to the news of the past few weeks.

• Nationwide might have the official naming rights to NASCAR’s second series, but Shrub is doing his best to maintain the Busch Series label. Thanks to the nice people on the Nationwide PR side, here is a post-race interview after Kyle Busch’s win at Mexico City:
  

  It was a good run for us. We had a great race out there. You know, some pit strategy played into it somewhat there towards the middle and towards the end of the race in what was going to happen.

  Obviously, being able to win my first race on a road course is pretty special anytime. It’s fun to be able to win to be able to win on a road course, because there’s only certain guys that tend to be able to do it. Finally, to be able to get a win on a road course means a lot. It shows I’m capable of winning anywhere, I guess, so that’s pretty cool.

  From an upstart blogger’s perspective, Nationwide is doing a lot of cool grassroots things to promote the Nationwide Series. And the first thing you say is, “Sure, that’s easy for you to say when they send you stuff to put on your blog.” And I say, exactly. If they are reaching out to bloggers and recognizing that we have a place of some importance, then that is a good thing. It has very little to do with me personally.

• After a six race “break”, AJ Allemndinger is back in the #84 Red Bull car this week. Substitute driver Mike Skinner made the last six races and edged the car within 108 points of the top 35. Now it’s up to Allmendinger to build on that baseline. He will do so in a new silver paintscheme. From the Red Bull blog:
  

  “Some would call it a mirrored aluminum silver. Some would call it a titanium finish,” said Marty Briggs, the paint shop manager. “We would just have to call it bad ass.”

• The biggest news this week is the speculation about Tony Stewart’s future. Will he stay with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota? Will he return to one of he Chevrolet teams? Will he retire and open a Subway shop in Richmond, Indiana and hang out with Jared Fogel? Perhaps he’s in talks with Daniel Snyder about coaching the Redskins?

  No one knows the exact answer right now, but in the end the winner is definitely Stewart. Just like Dale Earnhardt Jr couldn’t go wrong last year, Stewart can take whatever path he wants. Ownership is apparently the hot item in Stewart’s search, but I’m not sure that makes complete sense. The cost of ownership in Cup continues to rise while sponsorship, and other revenue streams are stagnating and in some cases drying up. Stewart already owns a racetrack, Eldora, that he says he doesn’t make a profit on. Would he really want to take on another pet project? Especially a seven to eight figure one that is not a certain money-maker? If ownership exits the equation, then RCR makes more sense as a destination. As usual I have no inside information, just a guess. It will be interesting to see if Stewart remains winless for a while whether the media pressure intensifies(groan). Stay tuned.

• Earth Day was earlier this week and SI.com’s Brant James had an excellent piece on motorsports and various series’ efforts to go green. It’s a really good read with several good points. Some of the major points didn’t apply strictly to environmental issues either. For example NASCAR’s lack of modern technology in engines isn’t only inefficient fuel-wise, it’s expensive too:
  

  In spending hundreds of millions to improve 1955 engine technology, NASCAR is basically using a jet propulsion laboratory to make a better arrowhead.

  That quote could apply not only to engine research but all of the efforts in the hope of a miniscule gain on the track with today’s cars.

  James goes on to point out that while NASCAR isn’t as progressive as other racing series, advances could happen down the road:
  

  “Years ago we tried to get to 500 horsepower and we thought that would be it,” he[Gary Nelson, former head of NASCAR’s research and development center] said, “Now that engine gets 800. You can never look down the road and say, ‘That’s as good as you’re going to get.’ … If people are working on it, it will get better, and people are working on it.”

  Again, that quote could be applied to the other aspects of the current car. Right now people are saying the Car of Tomorrow is a failure, but when smart people set out and try to improve it, things will improve.

• Finally, if you haven’t already entered the Daytona DVD contest, sign up. Why wouldn’t you want a 50 years of the Daytona 500 DVD?

Everyone in sports is always looking for the next big thing. The next Michael Jordan is an ongoing NBA quest (remember when Harold Miner was heir to the throne?). Ever since a 23 year old Jeff Gordon took NASCAR by storm, people want to discover the next Wonderboy (remember when Casey Atwood was heir to the throne?). It’s easy to point to Kyle Busch and think that every young driver will be ready to challenge for wins before their 21st birthday, but he is the exception. It took Brian Vickers nearly three full seasons to get his first win and he is still developing consistency as a 24 year old. It’s a myth that all of the young drivers got their Cup starts very early. Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards all excelled immediately at the Cup level, but they were 24, 25 and 24 respectively during their first seasons. The same is true for almost every top driver since 1999. Every driver, except for Kurt and Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya and Brian Vickers, that has won a race and entered Cup since 1999 has been between 24 and 27 years old. That includes Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart Hamlin, Edwards, Kahne and Casey Mears.

Unfortunately many young drivers are getting fewer starts in smaller windows. An influx of veteran drivers from other international racing series also has not helped young drivers find quality rides with adequate seat time. This weekend’s Nationwide race at Nashville represents a rare chance for the youngsters to shine. Last year Stephen Leicht was the youngster to win a race at Kentucky. Can someone follow suit and win a guitar at Nashville? Here’s four youngsters to keep an eye on.

• Brad Coleman With no room in the Joe Gibbs Inn, Coleman jumped at the chance for a full time ride in the #27 car. Coleman is a legitimate talent and Hall of Fame Racing is working on a part time Cup ride later this year.

• Brad Keselowski Of all the young driving prospects, Keselowski is the one in the best position for a breakout win. He has taken advantage of his top notch Jr Motorsports/Hendrick equipment. He nearly won at Las Vegas and has two top tens through five races this year. Keselowski has an 88.8 driver rating and leads the Nationwide series in quality passes. He might not win this weekend, but it’s only a matter of time.

• Colin Braun Bruan is only 19, but has already won races and competed for a title in the Grand Am series. In three truck starts this season, Braun has started no worse than 9th and scored a top ten at Fontana. He needs more time in a stock car, but he is definitely a top long term prospect.

• Steven Wallace: As the son of a NASCAR legend and champion, not to mention already being in his second Busch season, it’s easy to raise expectations. He’s only 20 and has been thrown in the deep end the last two years. He gets a bum rap because of his appetite for destruction (4 DNF’s due to wrecks in ‘07), but lots of young drivers crash a lot. The fact is he has already won an ARCA race and one of the country’s bigger short track races, the Snowball Derby. The other thing to consider is that RWI has not won a Busch race since 2004. Not every driver will breeze through the ranks like Kyle Busch. It is time for at least one top ten finish, though.

So tell me who you’re keeping an eye on? What traits do you look for in a young driver to indicate success?

A few random thoughts and notes circling around my head like those cool motorcyclists that drive in cages at the circus.

• No surprise, but Lee Spencer writes that the cost of NASCAR is still climbing.

  For the midsize teams, $10 million was nothing. For an uber power like Hendrick Motorsports, the estimates were closer to $20 million.

  Because they want to win, the most solid teams will spend that extra dollar — or thousands of dollars — to pick up one-tenth of a second of speed. And that won’t change as the teams continue to acclimate to the new car.

  At some point teams and sponsors will reach the threshold of profitability. Sure it’s fun to go fast and win some trophies, but people like Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick didn’t become millionaires through whimsy. If sponsors decide the return on investment is no longer there, where does all the money for R&D and building cars come from? The problem is only compounded when sponsors can choose between sponsoring one car of being the official fill-in-the-blank of the sport.

• In the same article Spencer also notes that Kyle Busch’s success in the CoT could be attributed to his experience in the truck series.
  

  Many Sprint Cup drivers have concluded, perhaps prematurely, that there is nothing to be gained by driving the Craftsman Truck or Nationwide Series, given the dramatic difference between the vehicles. But with the splitters on the trucks, it’s possible that there is more to discover than originally thought.

  I am surprised more drivers, especially young or inexperienced drivers haven’t found their way over to the truck series for information and seat time. Besides the splitter, the trucks also have a higher profile than the old Cup or current Nationwide cars do. Maybe more drivers will take a flyer next weekend at Martinsville when there is no Nationwide race.

• Hall of Fame Motorsports dropped the first ax of the season this week. Crew chief Brandon Thomas was replaced by Steve Boyer. The car currently sits 31st in the points. Thomas presumably will get reassigned to another position within the organization, NASCAR-ese for “we don’t want you to work on our cars, but we also don’t want you to work on other cars.”

• And finally, it’s apparent that neither Roush-Fenway-Papelbon Racing nor Petty Enterprises will exercise their past champion provisionals. [Pardon me while I virtually wad up my Tuesday post] That’s good for the sport and will certainly be popular with fans. NASCAR has to be exhaling over another bullet successfully dodged. On the track, it doesn’t bode well for the #45. Jamie McMurray and the #26 can make up 4 points on the 35th spot, but Petty sits 60 points off the trail and four other drivers also stand in the way.

Normally I spend the day after a race reading as many blogs and websites for information on the race. After a quick spin through the usual blogging suspects, I was too wiped out to read anymore. I made me realize how draining Speedweeks are for fans. The Bud Shootout kicks things off and fans get a rush of adrenaline because NASCAR is back. Then qualifying is the next day, there is always something newsworthy to talk about from Monday through Wednesday and then the Duels on Thursday guarantee action. Then there’s no time to catch your breath before the Truck, Nationwide and Cup races over the weekend. Come Monday, I’m exhausted. Worse, I didn’t get President’s Day off . Now imagine a driver like Kyle Busch who participated in every session except the Shootout. The dude has to be fixin’ for a vacation!

Unfortunately for Shrub, he will have to wait one more week some surfing. The tour heads west this coming weekend for the race in Fontana. Ah, movie stars, empty seats and often a nice nap before the finish. Although after the action at Daytona brings promise that the CoT will make for better racing at the front of the field.

Before we think about this weekend, it’s time to exhale and wring out the rest of the Daytona tidbits. First, check out the different emotions of the finish from a fan of the winner and contrast that with reactions from the driver that just missed. The highs and lows of the biggest race in the sport in a nutshell.

The Weekend in Quotes

I don’t think I have the words for what the last year has been. Exactly a year ago today actually, not to elaborate, but my wife was diagnosed with cancer. You know, I thank Roger Penske for giving me the opportunity to take care of what comes first, which is family. Without Roger, I would not have been able to do that. That just says a lot about the team as a whole again.

-Penske crew chief Roy McCauley. It’s sometimes forgotten that crew members have real lives with real families. I can’t imagine how rewarding it must be that not only did McCauley make the right decision to take time off, see his wife’s health improve, and then return to enjoy the thrill of a Daytona 500 win.

Don’t have the words. It’s awesome. It’s probably one of the most awesome things that’s ever happened to me. To understand all the history of NASCAR, of racing in general, you know, the drivers meeting, to be looking face to face with all the guys, the greats that were on stage up there, and now to be part of one of those guys and part of that team, it’s just awesome.

Ryan Newman on his win.

We’re going to spend it to make the cars go faster, I’m sure that’ll be the first thing we’ll do.

Roger Penske on where the $1 million bonus check from Dodge will go. Did someone say personal test track?

Once I did get to the back bumper, I just held the gas down. I didn’t care how hard I hit him — it was coming to the checkered flag.

Kyle Busch describing the last lap. Although it could easily have been his outlook for any of the 200 laps.

On that last restart we weren’t fast enough to run up front. We were in a bad spot. I knew we were going to get passed for the lead but it’s always fun to lead at Daytona. Finishing 13th isn’t a bad start to the season.

Jeff Burton, who was a sitting duck on the final restart.

Yeah, we just got caught doing something everybody else is doing (laughter).

Dale Earnhardt Jr, when asked to elaborate on the “technical issue” on his Nationwide car. In other words, nothing has changed regarding cheating in NASCAR.

Now it’s time to move on to the rest of 2008. It seems like Daytona, while it is the biggest race of the season, gets a disproportionate amount of coverage compared to the other 35 races. After all, it has very little bearing on long term success for the season, the winner rarely wins the championship and things could be completely different by the time the tour returns in July.

Don’t forget to check out the 2008 Driver Previews of the top 25 drivers. New drivers added daily through the end of the week.