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Richard Petty Motorsports needs a sponsor for A.J. Allmendinger's #44 after the first eight races. Hopefully they are tuned into the truth of their situation - there is almost NO way A.J. is going to be out of the top-35 after Bristol. Las Vegas qualifying pretty much sealed the deal on it.
Why should they know that, after only two races?
We know that the cut-off for making the top-35 after five races is roughly 350 owner points. Last year Jamie McMurray had 352 points after five races and was 36th, just four points behind Sam Hornish. In 2007, 350 points was roughly half-way between 35th (365 points) and 36th (331 points). Going further back, it holds true - if you were going to establish a "target" for a GOGH car, it would be 350 points after five races.
We also know it is EXCEEDINGLY difficult for a GOGH team to miss a start and make the top-35. Last year, no cars missed one of the first five races and were locked in after Bristol. In 2007, Joe Nemechek finished 9th, 14th, and 17th in his three best starts, had a DNF and a DNQ, but was solidly in the field in 26th. (Unfortunately, shortly his Bobby Ginn-owned team would shut down, but that's another story.) Johnny Sauter also made the top-35 with a DNQ - barely - thanks to a 16th and an 18th-place finish. If you can get a couple of top-20 finishes, you can afford to miss a race.
A.J. Allmendinger finished third at Daytona - that's worth 165 points, almost half-way to 350 on the strength of one finish. Right now he is sitting on 241 points, so if he just makes the field the next two races (he is in for Sunday), and finishes last all three races, he will have 343 points. If he finishes 30th in two races and misses the show for the third - he would be at 387 points PLUS whatever points he got for the race he DNQed. (NASCAR gives owners points to the DNQ cars, too.)
Another thing in A.J.'s and RPM's favor is that the GOGH cars are really taking each other out this year. After Las Vegas qualifying, only Tony Stewart's #39 and A.J.'s #44 have made all three races from outside the top-35. Part-time teams from Hendrick Motorsports, Germain Racing, and Furniture Row Racing made the field this week, knocking out Tommy Baldwin's #36, Doug Yates' #28, and Jeremy Mayfield's #41, who had all made the first two races on speed.
So - A.J. - you're IN. Tell that team of yours to put the numbers in some sponsor's face and get 'em to sign up for 2009! (And then don't wreck in qualifying.)
Here is the OWNER points after Las Vegas qualifying - ADJ. PTS. is the post-qualifying total, with 34 given to each qualifier (the reward for finishing 43rd) and the points given to the DNQs. 210 points should be the benchmark for 35th after three races. Cars in RED are GOGHers.
RK # OWNER POINTS STARTS ADJ. PTS. FOR 210
4 14 MARGARET HAAS 14 294 2 328 43rd
13 44 GEORGE GILLETT, JR 44 241 2 275 43rd
26 83 DIETRICH MATESCHITZ 83 180 2 214 43rd
27 5 MARY HENDRICK 5 168 2 202 40th
28 26 GEOFF SMITH 26 167 2 201 40th
29 77 BILL DAVIS 77 161 2 195 38th
30 28 JEFF MOORAD 28 146 2 177 DNQ
31 31 RICHARD CHILDRESS 31 146 2 180 33rd
32 36 TOMMY BALDWIN 36 143 2 159 DNQ
33 39 TONY STEWART 39 134 2 168 29th
34 7 ROBBY GORDON 7 134 2 168 29th
35 88 RICK HENDRICK 88 133 2 167 28th
36 8 CHIP GANASSI 8 131 2 165 28th
37 66 PHIL PARSONS 66 128 2 156 DNQ
38 20 JOE GIBBS 20 119 2 153 24th
39 41 JEREMY MAYFIELD 41 104 2 126 DNQ
40 98 MAX JONES 98 101 2 135 18th
41 78 BARNEY VISSER 78 100 1 134 17th
42 82 DIETRICH MATESCHITZ 82 98 2 132 17th
44 171 KEVIN BUCKLER 171 83 1 117 12th
45 187 ANDREA NEMECHEK 187 65 1 99 7th
46 37 BRAD JENKINS 37 44 0 57 DNQ
47 09 JAMES FINCH 09 44 0 63 DNQ
48 73 BARRY HAEFELE 73 35 0 57 DNQ
49 64 LARRY GUNSELMAN 64 32 0 66 1st
50 51 DAVID BEAN 51 29 0 39 DNQ
*Hendrick Motorsports #25 and Germain Racing's #13 made the Las Vegas race in their first attempts of 2009, so they have no points until Sunday.
Some random stuff
Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 08:26 AM EST
[General]
I don't have time to do a full-blown points post, but suffice to say Matt Kenseth is way out in front of my Sprint Cup Series points. There were a couple of things I found interesting after plugging in the numbers from this weekend's races, though.
KYLE BUSCH NOTES - With his win Saturday in the Truck Series, Kyle became the second driver to win ten Cup races, Busch/Nationwide races, and Truck races. Greg Biffle has 14 Cup wins, 18 Busch/NW wins, and 16 Cup wins, while Kyle now has 12 Cup wins, 22 Busch/NW wins, and 10 Truck wins. - If you count TOTAL all-time wins, there are eight drivers who are on a level above everyone else. Richard Petty 200 David Pearson 106 Darrell Waltrip 97 Dale Earnhardt 97 Mark Martin 90 Bobby Allison 87 Jeff Gordon 86 Cale Yarborough 83 The next guy on the list is Rusty Wallace, with 55 total wins. Kyle Busch - all of 23 years old - ALREADY has *44* wins. He might pass Rusty by June. (Carl Edwards is at 42, btw.) (No, I'm NOT saying Rusty's 55 wins - ALL in a Cup car - would be less or even equal of an accomplishment than if Kyle gets to, say, 60 wins in all three series. You would be an idiot to make the comparison. However, I would personally put Kyle's 44 TOTAL wins as his "Chasing the King's 200" total - which you already know if you've read my blog for any amount of time.) MATT KENSETH NOTE - Remember last year when I went through and reclassified all of the early Cup wins that aren't REALLY Cup wins and adjusted the King's win total? After I did that I had 19 drivers with 20 or more Cup wins. Matt Kenseth's back-to-back wins have him as the only active driver at 19 Cup wins. RANDOM DRIVER COMPARISON - These two guys are peers, having raced each other pretty much every week for eleven years. Driver A: 18 Cup wins, 22 Busch/NW wins, one Daytona 500 win, two Busch championships Driver B: 19 Cup wins, 24 Busch NW wins, one Daytona 500 win, one Winston Cup championship I am fairly incredulous at both the lack of respect Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Driver A, obviously) and Matt Kenseth (Driver B) get AND the lack of respect Junior still gets even relative to Kenseth. Tags:
Liveblogging the Gatorade Duels from Daytona
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 11:19 AM EST
[General]
Yes, I'm doing this for the second year in a row. If you're following this, refresh a lot. Also, I reread my intro to last year's liveblog for the duels and it's pretty well still spot on, so I'll just cut-n-paste it below...
So I've decided to liveblog the Gatorade Duels from Daytona for everybody who has to sit at work all day. I'd like to be able to break down all of the various qualifying scenarios for the GOGH cars, but WOW is it super-complicated. I understand the history of the Twin 125s/Duels (did you know they used to count as points races?) and why they would want to keep having them, but the top-35 rule has really messed them up. It used to be pretty easy - the top-15 in each qualifying race take the top-30 spots, with the rest of the field determined by speed. Why couldn't they just do that again, but put make it so the top-15 qualify, THEN the top-35 cars get in, THEN the GOGH cars that were fast enough to qualify, rank those last thirteen cars by speed an off we go. It's not really fair that you could have a scenario where eight GOGH cars are in one Duel and ten are in the other, just because they qualified that way in odd/even-spots, right? If you made that slight change, at least it would be easier to figure out who was in and out during the races. Not it is so convoluted - if this guy finishes in the top-two then that guy gets in...we'll see how the FOX guys handle it during the Duels. See? Everything is pretty well still as it was last year. Right now I'm watching a nice montage of past moments including Jimmie Johnson calling for Kevin Harvick's firing after a wreck in a 2003 Duel, and an appearance by Jeff Gordon's mustache, plus some ENORMOUS wrecks. 11:00 am: We kick off the Duels telecast with a quick intro from Krista Voda and then head right to the invocation and anthem. Second year in a row the anthem is sung my someone nobody would know. On the plus side, at least her mic is working properly. 11:02 am: Before we get going, I should just admit now that during the prerace they cut to Michael Waltrip and a guy in a Bud drivers suit who was wearing sunglasses and my immediate thought was "hey, Mikey and Junior". Um, nooooooooo. It's going to be a long day getting used to all of the new driver/sponsor combos. 11:04 am: Jimmie Johnson co-stars in a Gatorade commercial that is a 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail" knockoff. JJ, as always, dripping with charisma. You'll see what I mean probably 200 times Sunday. 11:07 am: To the desk, where the wind is playing havoc with all of the papers on the desk and Krista Voda's hair, but NOT Jeff Hammond's hair. 11:08 am: "Gentlemen, start your engines." Also, they show Joey Logano getting strapped in. Hopefully that's not the high point of his day. 11:10 am: That new Tony Stewart "Old Spice Swagger" commercial is already in the top-five of all-time Tony commercials. 11:11 am: Comcast ad reminds me to thank them for NOT having the temerity to have SPEED in HD. Jerks. 11:15 am: As they run the grid I notice JJ and Jeff Gordon right behind pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. wonder how long it will take for them to get to the front. One lap? 11:16 am: FOX/Speed oh-for-two on having their mic'd up drivers work as they can't speak to Truex on the parade lap. 11:17 am: Thanks to Yates for painting the 38 the same exact color as the 98. That's helpful. 11:18 am: The 07, 26, and the 55 to the back, but Mikey's in the pits due to the scoring transmitter not working. Will NASCAR start the race without him? 11:19 am: Mikey's good-to-go and he's OK to join the field. 11:20 am: Off goes the pace car and here's the green! 11:21 am: Truex makes a great start and he leads lap 1 with the field double-sided behind. 11:22 am: Bill Elliott goes low and snatches the lead on the backstretch, Truex retakes the lead at the line. 11:23 am: Kurt Busch goes sliding into the infield, bringing out the yellow. Robby Gordon ran right up on his tail but didn't appear to touch him. Kurt blew an engine last year and finished second in the 500, so maybe he's trying to junk the Duel again. 11:26 am: You know what - that was the 98 the entire time. There is no 38 right now. I'm an idiot. 11:29 am: No pit stops under the yellow. The green flies again on lap 7. 11:30 am: Truex leads the field up top, while Elliott tries to pull Paul Menard on the inside. 11:31 am: JJ goes low and takes the lead. 11:32 am: Fords looking good with Elliott, Menard, and Greg Biffle in the top five and Jamie McMurray moving from the back to 12th in six green laps. 11:33 am: Scott Riggs is one spot behind Tony Stewart for the second transfer spot on lap 12, as Truex retakes the lead with a push from Jeff Gordon. 11:34 am: Stewart ad Riggs move to third and fourth as McMurray moves up to sixth. 11:36 am: Joey thinks about going for the middle as DW and I hold our breath. 11:37 am: The top four have a bit of a breakaway going. 11:39 am: Back from a break the top four are still out from, but David Ragan is fifth, McMurray sixth, and Matt Kenseth eighth, so we'll see if the Roush Fords can hook up. 11:41 am: JJ's not interested in finding out about these Roush Fords so he passes McMurray for sixth and makes it a six-car breakaway, then passes Ragan for fifth. 11:43 am: Mike Skinner's #23 appears to have a problem as he pits on lap 24. 11:46 am: We're back under caution and what the hell just happened? 11:47 am: Everyone pits, but what's the deal with the 21? 11:48 am: They highlight a couple of makeshift pit crews - will they be a factor later on? Riggs loses a spot to Ragan on pit road. 11:49 am: The diagnosis on Elliott - locked-up transmission shot him into the wall. Elliott's day is done but he is in the field on speed. 11:50 am: Somehow Riggs is eighth in line, but he's still in the second transfer spot. 11:54 am: They moved Riggs back up to fifth, but the ticker isn't in sync with reality right now. 11:55 am: Green falls to start lap 31. 11:56 am: Riggs jumps out of line and starts falling back on the outside, but the next guy is Nemechek in 16th so he's still OK. 11:57 am: Tony TOTALLY cuts off Kenseth's run up top as Jimmie goes low to pick up Riggs and Ragan. 11:59 am: The top six breakaway a bit with Riggs in seventh desperately trying to hold on to the tail of their draft. 12:01 pm: Jeff Gordon goes low, everyone follows, and Truex is third. 12:03 pm: McMurray and Ragan go low and put their teammate Kenseth in the middle. Thanks, guys! 12:04 pm: 20 to go as we go to break with the 24 and 14 leading the way. 12:05 pm: I GET COMMENTS...I had to laugh at you about the new numbers/sponsors esp b/c your example is over a year old already! You are WAY behind my friend. Yeah. I was feeling quite sheepish at the realization. 12:06 pm: Back from break, single-file on lap 44: 24, 14, 1, 48, 26, 6, 36, 9, 2, 77 (!) are the top ten. 12:08 pm: Laps are ticking off with the drivers in single file file and WHOA Biffle gets WAY loose but he gathers it up without hitting anything or anyone. 12:10 pm: Truex is falling back and he spins with a flat! He doesn't hit anything (what a save by Ragan not to run him over) but he spins to the infield. Will EGR just park the 1 to keep the car safe? I would rather than send him to the back of the field, fresh tires or not. 12:12 pm: We're going to have a nine lap or so sprint after pit stops. Will everyone come in and get tires? Yup, except for McMurray they are all on pit road. 12:13 pm: Riggs' pit crew really lets him down. Aric Almirola and Paul Menard take two tires. Brad Keselowski in the 09, Terry Labonte in the 66, and Kirk Shelmerdine in the 27 all stay out in cars that need to transfer via the Duels. 12:14 pm: Labonte drops out of line and to the back as the green falls on lap 51. 12:15 pm: With fresh tires Gordon and JJ go through the middle as BK starts to fall back and an almost-Big One happens. 12:16 pm: Upon review Kenseth goes up the middle when they are already three-wide, pushing Hornish and John Andretti in the 34 up into each other and the wall. Casey Mears getts hit in the rear by Joey Logano, but most everyone seems mostly OK. Somehow Ragan ended up in the infield. BK still is in a transfer spot for now with Stewart right behind. 12:21 pm: We come back with five to go and the green waving as the Hendrick cars pass McMurray for the lead. 12:22 pm: Riggs passes BK and gets to fifth with Nemechek in ninth. 12:23 pm: Three to go, Nemechek at the back of the lead draft, about five cars behind Riggs. 12:24 pm: Stewart and Almirola go low and pass Gordon for the lead, and now Logano is in SECOND behind Gordon. 12:25 pm: Now it's 24, 14, and 20 headed to the white flag. Nemechek is right behind Riggs. 12:26 pm: Gordon wins! Stewart second! I think Logano came in third - him Almirola, and JJ were three-wide at the line. Scott Riggs gets into the field for Tommy Baldwin. Regan Smith also gets a spot due to Tony qualifying via the Duel. Nemecheck still has an outside chance to get in based on the second Duel. 12:30 pm: Johnson third, Logano fourth, Almirola fifth. Also, so much for the notion that you can't stay out front on the last lap. 12:33 pm: Kurt Busch finished sixth, btw. 12:34 pm: Joe Nemechek is now "the biggest Travis Kvapil and Regan Smith fan in Daytona". That and the only one. 12:35 pm: They just showed a replay of Gordon's pass, and Joey deserves mad props for making it through 60 laps and getting to the front. 12:41 pm: So far, Joey Logano makes Jimmie Johnson look like George Clooney. That Home Depot commercial is kind of brutal. 12:45 pm: Duel 2 has some pretty heavy hitters: Mark Martin, Junior, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, and three RCR cars. Should be some good stuff coming up. 12:51 pm: Seeing "Age: 34" and "11th year in Sprint Cup" beside Dale Jr.'s name makes me feel quite old, thank you. 12:56 pm: The drivers are getting in their cars for Duel 2. Can't they speed this up a bit? 1:01 pm: DeLana Harvick is sure cute in her Shell firesuit. 1:07 pm: Again, WHY don't they put the drivers that go to the back, you know, IN THE BACK, on the grid? Ryan Newman's got to go to the back, but there he is on row 1 of the grid. 1:09 pm: I'll be honest - I REALLY hope A.J. Allmendinger gets in out of this one. 1:11 pm: Harvick and Newman, the last two 500 winners, are going to be in the back of this grid. I'll be interested to see how quickly they clear the riff-raff in the back. 1:13 pm: Mark Martin takes the green to start the second Duel. 1:14 pm: Junior and Kyle Busch dispatch of Kvapil and Junior leads lap 1. 1:16 pm: Mark and Juan Pablo Montoya go high to challenge Junior for the lead, and they are side-by-side after four laps. 1:17 pm: JPM bumpdrafts Mark in the trioval and damn near runs him over. Meanwhile, Carl Edwards gets all squirrelly thanks to Jeff Burton's bumper. Everyone's still going OK, though, as it's a Hendrick 1-2 at the front with Junior leading Martin. 1:19 pm: Boris Said has passed Smith for the second transfer spot with Allmendinger right behind them. 1:20 pm: Junior, Martin, JPM, Kyle, and Denny Hamlin have made a bit of a breakaway at the front. 1:24 pm: Mike Wallace has moved into a transfer spot and Boris Said scraped the wall during the break. 1:25 pm: Newman pitting for tires. He's sure to go a lap down but he's surely get the Lucky Dog. 1:26 pm: Caution is out as Boris hits the wall again and collects Scott Speed, but the 82 looks scuffed but OK. 1:27 pm: Boris can now only make the field if Kvapil and Smith take the two transfer spots. 1:28 pm: Everyone hits pit road. Mark Martin and Kyle Busch win the race off pit road. Junior overshoots his pit, costing himself about seven spots. He does better than JPM, who misses his pit box entirely. 1:32 pm: Green on lap 19. 1:33 pm: At the green the transfer guys are Mike Wallace (got to think he makes it right now) and A.J. 1:34 pm: Top four are Martin, Kyle, Denny, and Bobby Labonte, as Regan Smith passes Allmendinger for the second transfer spot. 1:35 pm: Junior, Harvick, and Newman are all hooked up with Junior in seventh right now. I suspect these guys may make their way toward the front. 1:38 pm: Mike Wallace is in the second transfer spot with Elliott Sadler (who is locked-in), Regan Smith, and Allmendinger on his tail. 1:39 pm: JPM gives Allmendinger a huge push and now Smith and A.J. are side-by-side for the second transfer spot. 1:41 pm: Meanwhile, up front zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... 1:42 pm: At half-way, it's Mark Martin followed by a bunch of Camrys. 1:44 pm: A.J. has passes Kvapil for the FIRST transfer spot on lap 33, while Jeremy Mayfield grabs the second spot from Kvapil. I successfully jinxed Mike Wallace as he's lost the draft, and Mayfield gets past A.J. 1:46 pm: At the front, the top five are Mark, Kyle, Denny, David Reutimann, and Brian Vickers, with a gap back to Junior in sixth, who has Newman and Edwards in tow. 1:48 pm: Now, business might pick up as Junior passes Vickers for fifth. 1:49 pm: Junior and Newman look high and try to make the pass on Reutimann for fourth. 1:50 pm: Transfer update: A.J. and Mayfield are 14th and 15th. 20 laps to go. A.J.'s got his RPM teammate Reed Sorenson just in front. 1:53 pm: I've seen it five times and I still don't get that commercial with Mikey and the guy from Ally McBeal. 1:54 pm: Junior pits under green thinking he has a tire problem, losing a lap. He's only got five more laps to get the Lucky Dog, too. 1:55 pm: Mark Martin and Brian Vickers also pit with possible tire problems. Hmmmmmmm. 1:56 pm: Up front it is now Denny, Kyle, and Newman. 1:57 pm: Ryan Newman turns hard right and head-ons the wall. Since Martin and Vickers were on the tail end of the lead lap Junior gets the Lucky Dog. 1:58 pm: Reutimann got into the back of Newman and chucked Ryan into the wall. Bummer. 1:59 pm: Newman gives a passing-by Reutimann a "WTF?" shrug before he gets into the ambulance. 2:00 pm: The Budweiser pit crew gets the 44 out into the first transfer spots among guys who pitted. Eleven laps to go. 2:02 pm: Mayfield took two tires and now sits third. A.J. is eighth. Travis Kvapil is next among the GOGH cars in 13th. Mark Martin will lead them to the green. 2:04 pm: Round 1 of the rookie battle goes to Joey Logano as Scott Speed is 25th, two laps down. 2:05 pm: Eight to go, here's the green. 2:06 pm: Kyle and Denny go high to displace Vickers from second. 2:07 pm: A.J. has his teammate Sadler between himself and Mike Wallace for the last transfer spot, and together they move up to ninth, four cars clear of Wallace. 2:08 pm: Junior's moving up from the tail of the field, already to 13th. Meanwhile Denny pushes Kyle to the lead with 4 to go. 2:09 pm: Leaders: 18, 11, 5, 83, 41, 29, 42, 96, then the 44. 2:10 pm: Two to go and it's all the same up front. Mayfield and A.J. are in the transfer spots. 2:11 pm: White flag. 2:11 pm: Mark to the inside of Denny, they touch and Vickers pushes Mark past Denny, but Kyle holds them off to win! Vickers second, then Mark. Mayfield and A.J. make the show, and I'm OUT. Tags:
NASCAR tops themselves, again
Saturday, January 17, 2009, 08:22 AM EST
[General]
Was there anything wrong with the previous Bud Shootout qualifying format? Anything at all? It was so simple. Win a pole - you're in. Win the Bud Shootout - you stay in as long as you are a mostly full-time competitor. Simple. Easy. Made qualifying mean a tiny bit in a time when the top-35 cars are locked into the field.
In 2008 a few odd occurrences happened in qualifying... - Ten, count 'em - TEN - qualifying rain outs meant only 15 drivers won poles, down from 18 the previous year. - Thanks to the top-35 rule and GOGH cars showing up in qualifying trim while the locked-in cars did so in race trim, GOGHer Joe Nemechek won the pole at Talladega, edging out Tony Stewart at the end of qualifying. - Patrick Carpentier won the pole at New Hampshire. In August, NASCAR announced that instead of the Shootout line-up including pole winners - eliminating any incentive other than the small monetary award given for winning the pole - they would award the top-six cars from each manufacturer a spot in the field. What? Now, at the time, Tony Stewart had already announced that he was buying into what is now Stewart-Haas Racing. Despite winning the Shootout three times, he was now OUT of the Shootout after taking over a GOGH car for 2009. So, I don't think you can call this the "Tony Stewart Rule", but consider that the following changes have happened to alter the field since they announced the new rules... - The Chevrolets stay the same, with thre Hendrick cars and three from RCR. - The Fords stay the same, with five (!) Roush cars and Yates Racing's #28. - The Toyotas stay the same, with three Gibbs cars, the #83 Red Bull and the #00 (ex-#44) and #55 from MWR However, the Dodges are an absolute MESS. Four Dodge teams were "in" when they announced the changes in August. - Two Dodges from Gillett Evernham were in - Kasey Kahne's #9 and the #19 which went from Elliott Sadler to A.J. Allmendinger and back over a couple of weeks. - Two Dodges from Penske were in - Kurt Busch's #2 and the #12 of new driver David Stremme, who will be racing while 2008 Daytiona 500 (and 2008 pole-winner AND 2002 Shootout winner) Ryan Newman will not. - Although Petty merged with GEM, their #43 - now presumably driven by Reed Sorenson - is in the Shootout. But here's where it gets interesting... Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated merged and announced they will be running Chevrolets. What did NASCAR do? They deemed that EGR, now a Chevrolet team, gets all of the cars from 2008 listed as Chevrolets, effectively knocking Juan Pablo Montoya out of the Shootout. Who is replacing him? Robby Gordon, who was the next highest-finishing Dodge. Do you know what make Robby Gordon is running in 2009? Hint: NOT A DODGE. A Toyota, in fact. So let's go over this again... NASCAR removed a car that ran a Dodge in 2008 but is running a Chevrolet in 2009, in favor of a driver who had worse results (by the new qualifying criteria) in a Dodge but is running a Toyota in 2009. What?! And NOW, we get the announcement that NASCAR has changed the rules to let Tony Stewart into the filed as a "wild card". AYFK me? We're all USED to NASCAR bending the rules on a whim, right? (Even though I complain about it to no end and you probably do, too.) But changing them BEFORE THEY EVEN RUN ONE RACE UNDER THE NEW RULES? That's a new one even for NASCAR. The sad thing is this all could have been avoided if they would have THOUGHT THIS THROUGH in August. Tony Stewart wasn't going to be in the field THEN. People were speculating about the economy and teams going under and merging and the car manufacturers having trouble in August - why change the rules to be MORE about the GD TEAMS and MANUFACTURERS to begin with? Why take the focus off the drivers - who AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE? Why make qualifying LESS important than it already was, which was hardly important at all? What is NASCAR going to do NEXT year? What if a manufacturer pull out of the sport completely? What if a new one comes in - are you going to have a thirty or forty car Shootout? What if Richard Childress decided to switch to running Fords? (Yeah, that won't happen, but JGR went from Chevy to Toyota, right?) Why create a bunch of open-ended scenarios when the rules were already black-and-white? On the plus side - just three weeks and WE'RE GOIN' RACIN'! Boogit-shutupDW. Tags:
2008 Craftsman Truck Series FINAL
Saturday, November 15, 2008, 09:30 AM EST
[General]
First off - congratulations to Johnny Benson for winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship last night. I feel like I need to put that in here so I don't sounds like a whining Ron Hornaday-fan, which I might, but I'm not. I just really don't like the fact that, well, let me just repost what I wrote two months ago...
But really - what is the reason why Ron Hornaday is not the points leader today? I think you can point to our nation's economy. Yes, I'm being totally serious. In what is surely a situation affected by economics (and a Gateway-Loudon-Las Vegas in three weeks schedule that likely doesn't help) only 31 trucks were in Las Vegas Saturday - the smallest turnout for a Truck Series race since 2001 at Nashville. When Johnny Benson cut down a tire and hit the wall, he was the fifth truck to retire, leaving him in 27th place. Now, because of the way NASCAR's points-system works, Benson was awarded 87 points (including five bonus points for leading a lap). HOWEVER, if a full 36 truck-field had turned out for the race, and Benson had been the fifth truck out - he would have been 32nd - receiving 15 LESS points than for 27th. He would actually be 14 points BEHIND Hornaday if not for the short field Saturday. When you give points to everybody, regardless of the minimum performance, you create a situation where the differences in the worst performances - things dictated often by what drivers can't control like a bad tire or a blown engine or someone else's crash - are as important as the differences in the best ones. That's how dumb luck can be the difference - TOO big of a difference - in a championship. It is also worth pointing out that not only did Hornaday have more wins that Benson, he actually beat Benson on the track, head-to-head, 13 times out of 25. They also had the same number of top-fives and top-tens, so essentially their seven NOT top-ten finishes were the championship-deciders. Whatever the case, Benson won the championship by seven points. It will be interesting to see where he ends up next year. Strangely, since Ron Hornaday won the extremely prestigious JJD version of the Truck Series championship, that makes SIX years in a row that my champion has been different from NASCAR's. 2008 - Ron Hornaday (NASCAR - Johnny Benson) 2007 - Mike Skinner (NASCAR - Ron Hornaday) 2006 - Johnny Benson (NASCAR - Todd Bodine) 2005 - Todd Bodine (NASCAR - Ted Musgrave) 2004 - Ted Musgrave (NASCAR - Bobby Hamilton Sr.) 2003 - Brendan Gaughan (NASCAR - Travis Kvapil) 2002 - Mike Bliss 2001 - Jack Sprague 2000 - Greg Biffle 1999 - Jack Sprague 1998 - Ron Hornaday 1997 - Jack Sprague 1996 - Mike Skinner (NASCAR - Ron Hornaday) 1995 - Mike Skinner Congratulations also to Todd Bodine for winning the Ford 200. The win gives Bodine 15 Truck Series wins in his career, and with his 15 Busch/NWS wins he is only the second driver to get to 15 wins in both series. (Greg Biffle has 18 Busch/NWS wins and 16 Truck Series wins.) He is also the 34th driver ever to get to 30 TOTAL wins, but only the third to do so without a Cup victory. (After Ron Hornaday's 43 wins and Jack Ingram's 31 wins.) Here are the final 2008 drivers standings, including every driver who scored a point. CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Rank Points 1 Ron Hornaday 290 2 Johnny Benson 274 3 Todd Bodine 240 4 Kyle Busch 226 5 Erik Darnell 174 6 Matt Crafton 153 7 Mike Skinner 138 8 Rick Crawford 121 9 Dennis Setzer 103 10 Jack Sprague 101 11 Scott Speed 81 12 David Starr 80 13 Terry Cook 70 14 Chad McCumbee 69 Colin Braun 69 16 Travis Kvapil 57 17 Brian Scott 52 18 Brendan Gaughan 47 19 T.J. Bell 40 20 Kevin Harvick 36 21 Donny Lia 35 22 Ted Musgrave 31 23 Michael Annett 27 24 Landon Cassill 26 25 Stacy Compton 23 26 Ryan Newman 21 27 Shelby Howard 20 28 Denny Hamlin 15 29 John Andretti 14 30 Bobby East 12 Ken Schrader 12 32 Mike Wallace 10 33 Justin Marks 9 34 Jon Wood 8 Brad Keselowski 8 36 Marc Mitchell 6 Jeff Green 6 38 Shane Sieg 4 Sean Murphy 4 Phillip McGilton 4 David Stremme 4 Sam Hornish Jr. 4 43 Jason White 3 Timothy Peters 3 45 Andy Lally 2 46 Chad Chaffin 1 Ryan Lawler 1 Mario Gosselin 1 Jack Smith 1 Mike Bliss 1 Jimmie Johnson 1 This is also the first year that I have tracked the manufacturer's standings. NASCAR gives points based on the order of the makes - so in last night's race Chevrolet came in "second", even though their first truck finished THIRD behind two Toyotas. That doesn't make a whole lt of sense to me, so I scored them based on where the highest-finishing truck was. (So last night Toyota got first-place with the pole and the most laps led, Chevrolet got third while leading a lap, Dodge fifth, and Ford sixth.) Toyota 488 Chevrolet 433 Ford 287 Dodge 124 No big surprise there - Toyota won 13 races to Chevrolet's ten, with more poles (11 vs. 6) and more most-laps-led bonuses (13 vs. 9). Tags:
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