The Cup race in Loudon New Hampshire was being run in an opening between the thunderstorms that had plagued the New England area over this final weekend in June. As the race progressed a wary eye was being kept on a weather front as it approached the race track from the west. The TNT race commentators were discussing the chances of rain as the race wound down to the final few laps. Kyle Petty jokingly refered to it as approaching humidity as he hoped out loud that the race would be completed.
Just as the race had run relatively caution free and it was beginning to become apparent that the lead cars were going to be forced to pit for fuel as the final 30 laps neared, the weather front could be seen not far from the track and it was readily apparent from the televised view that these weren't just clouds, it would be raining shortly. Finally the teams leading the race were faced with making a call. Then the hoped for caution occurred as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was evidently down on the apron to be the first into the pit and here came Jamie McMurray running on the apron and paying more attention to who he was running with than to anyone that might be in front of him. He plowed into Junior, David Ragan got spun as a result and debris went everywhere. Now, with the yellow out, the question became do you make a mad dash into the pits for fuel, or play the odds that you might be able to make it without additional fuel. If a caution or two came out before the checkered flag flew, it could mean all the difference. These are the normal strategy questions these people should have been mulling before pit lane was opened. But what about the nearing storm front? The TNT commentators were saying that the radio traffic between the pit bosses and the drivers was not only about such things as fuel and handling, but also of the possiblitiy of rain. What would be the right call?
Here's a look at the radar weather picture taken just before the rain started falling that would discontinue the LENOX Industrial Tools 301...
The white dot is where the Loudon Speedway is located. Notice the yellow and red areas of intense storm activity and remember the storms were moving west to east. You can't tell me the crew chiefs in this race didn't have access to information such as this...
Pit lane opened and here came all of the leaders with only a handful of cars staying out on the track. The Hendricks cars that had run strong at or near the front most of the day all came in for a quick gas n' go, as did most of those pitting. The race leader, Tony Stewart, made a right sides only tire change along with fuel. Between the eight cars that didn't pit and the gas n' go cars, Stewart found himself clear back in fourteenth place when the cars lined up for the restart. This would be a two row restart making Stewart as good as buried in the middle of the pack after having made a great run racking up over 130 laps as the race leader. The decision these folks made to pit for fuel is one thing, but why the tire change too?
By the time the restart took place, the Miller Lite number 2 Dodge driven by Kurt Busch was in first place on a wish and a prayer that there would be more cautions or that the skies would open up before the cars that had run up front all day could catch him as they gambled on their fuel situation.
The race no sooner restarted with Kurt having to deal with lapped cars than another wreck occurred bringing out yet another caution at the end of this race. Then Kurt's brother Kyle, who had been running in the middle of the pack all day, got intentionally spun by Juan Pablo Montoya while the race was under caution... Each driver blamed the other for the incident and thank goodness no one else became collateral damage. There will be more on this I'm sure.
Then the rains came... It wasn't long before NASCAR stopped the race, handing Kurt Busch his first Cup win of the 2008 season.
The winner Kurt Busch being interviewed after the LENOX 301 was discontinued...
Two races ago Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat by continuing his run while his fuel gauge screamed for more fuel, now the Miller Lite Number 2 Dodge team is able to also grab the golden ring under similar circumstances, only the rain made it an elementary decision in my opinion... Rolling the dice.
Congratulations to whoever made the call to stay on the track among the Kurt Busch crew... Maybe Klvalus can find out... This Miller's for you!
Last night Ken Griffey Jr. knocked the 600th home run of his career, is this a harbinger of great things for the Juniors of this world? This coming Sunday is Father’s Day, are the stars lining up? What could be more fitting than to do something fantastic on Father’s Day when your name is followed by the term Junior? Ken Griffey Jr. has set the pace… Who are the other Juniors that could do their Dads proud this week?
There are many in baseball, but since Ken Griffey Jr. has already stepped up, we’ll concede baseball to him.
The NBA Finals are on the schedule, but neither the Celtics nor the Lakers have any Juniors on their rosters… Whats up with that?
The U.S. Open is on this week. I suppose many look at the game of golf as an uppity endeavor and based on the fact that I couldn’t find a single “Junior” in the field, this may be an indication. The fact that there are two with the “III” at the end of their names goes a long way toward reinforcing that uppity moniker… The two “high brows” are Davis Love III and Charles Howell III, well la-de-dah… Personally, I grew up with a guy who had the “III” behind his name and if he was any indication, then the uppity thing works… Remember the old MASH sitcom with Major Charles Winchester III? Now that’s uppity personified…
Davis Love III and Charles Howell III
So that boils the week’s sporting events on this Father’s Day week down to racing. No, the Formula cars and the Indy cars will be idle this week. NASCAR will be on the docket with the Trucks and Sprint Cup cars running Friday and Sunday at Michigan International Speedway (the Cool City Customs 200 and the LifeLock.com 400, respectively) and the Nationwide cars will be running Saturday at Kentucky Speedway in the Meijer 300.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There will be two Juniors trying to qualify for the Truck race as Ron Hornaday Jr. and Scott Lagrasse Jr. are among the drivers there. There is only one Junior trying to qualify for the Nationwide field in Kentucky. Bobby Hamilton Jr. will be looking for a top finish there. That leaves us looking at the Sprint Cup LifeLock.com 400 on Sunday. There will potentially be three Juniors in this field as Martin Truex Jr., Sam Hornish Jr. and finally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be in the qualifying.
Ron Hornaday Jr. and Sam Hornish Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. and Bobby Hamilton Jr.
So which of these racing Juniors is the most likely to once again bring glory to the name he proudly wears?
After looking at their histories on the tracks being run and with careful consideration into who is due to win, I’ve got to believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most likely to win in their respective races this weekend…
To all you fathers out there, have a Happy Father’s Day, and may the best Junior win!
Looking back at last season’s races as each new 2008 race weekend comes into view, I keep seeing the same team winning last year and the same team not in victory lane this year. What in the Sam Hill is going on here? By this time last year, Hendrick Motorsports teams had won 7 of the 10 Cup races run. That is pure and simple domination. On top of that the four team stable had 11 finishes from second through fifth and another five finishes in sixth through tenth! This team had won 70% of the 2007 season’s races through this point last year!
Naturally leading the way for Hendricks were two of the top drivers in NASCAR, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Johnson had 4 firsts, 1 second, a third and a fourth, while Jeff Gordon brought in 2 firsts, 3 seconds, a third, two fourths and one tenth place finish. What one driver didn’t win or was in the running for, the other pretty much was. Kyle Busch was holding his own with these two veteran drivers as he had one first place finish (Bristol), a second, a fourth and three finishes between sixth and tenth. Casey Mears followed with just one tenth place finish.
Fast forward to 2008. Hendrick Motorsports replaced Kyle Busch with another top NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the racing team looked poised to once again dominate NASCAR with it’s four car stable of Chevrolets. A year begun full of optimism has not yet developed for Hendrick though. While Dale has held up his end of the bargain with a second, a third, a fifth and three other finishes in the top ten, it’s Johnson, with one win on the season and three other top ten finishes, and Gordon, with no wins and four top ten finishes, that have fallen off in performance. The production these two are responsible for has been cut in half concerning top ten finishes from 16 to 8, with the largest fall in wins from 6 to only 1. Hendrick Motorsports as a whole has fallen from 23 total top ten finishes in 2007 to 16 this year.
The question remains: What is going on here? According to Jimmie Johnson it’s NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow. In a recent interview, Johnson stated, “If you look at a lot of my victories last year, at the start of the season they were on the 1½-mile and two-mile tracks, with the old-style car. And we’ve been working hard to understand what this new car needs on the big tracks.
“My teammates have gotten off to a little better start than I did. Then I came on at Texas and ran well.
“I think our short-track program has been on par. At Bristol I was more competitive than I have ever been. At Martinsville, Jeff and I were up front and very competitive.
“We’re just trying to develop the bigger-track stuff.”
Gordon’s explanation: "We've got to start putting more consistent runs together, and getting ourselves further up in the points. You've got to walk before you can run, and I've always said when you're consistently top five and leading laps, the wins are going to come. We just haven't been doing that....
"One of the things we are being challenged with right now is Goodyear has changed the tires just about everywhere we have gone this year, except for Martinsville. So all the setups we had last year, you can just throw them out the window; they don't seem to work.
"Not to mention that the other teams have stepped up, and we are trying to step up along with them.
"What comes along with that are challenges -- sometimes you hit the setup, sometimes you mess. Right now we are definitely a little off our game because we are coming back to tracks we have had success at -- but not everything is the same.
"It is pretty confusing to us.
"I know how great our organization is, and our teams. And I have confidence in myself. But when you show up at the track and cars are doing things you aren't used to, it throws you for a loop.
"We spent three or four days testing in Nashville the last two weeks and felt we really had some big gains, and showed up here and it didn't feel anything like that.
"We aren't there yet; we still have work to do. It is as much me as it is our cars and setups.
"Sometimes you have to learn how to drive different setups. I went through this many times in my career. I probably go back to, like, 2000 and 2005: both years we really were searching for speed, and everybody was transitioning to different setups. We tried them, and they didn't work for me.
"A little bit of it was my driving style; some of it, just getting used to a different feel. That is one of the things we are dealing with right now.
"There are some major, big changes going on in setups.
"This car was created to simplify things -- and in my mind all I have seen is things becoming more complicated."
In another vein, it always helps if your teammates work together with you as Gordon alluded to at the end of the Talladega run two weeks ago. Gordon, while stating it’s a non-issue now, was upset with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for not helping him in the restrictor plate race. Gordon and Earnhardt have moved beyond that now saying that the team needs to sit down and review what tactics will be best for Hendrick Motorsports prior to the next restrictor plate race.
The bottom line in all of this? It appears more time is needed figuring out the right set ups for the CoT and possibly more fellowship is needed among the drivers.
The people on these teams are too good for this to continue much longer, and like Jeff Gordon says, “When you're consistently top five and leading laps, the wins are going to come.”
The scene shifts to Darlington South Carolina, the track that couldn’t be tamed! More Saturday night racin'!
I’ve got to preface this post with the following words you’ve read before from me: I’m a first year NASCAR fan. That being said I was quite surprised at the outpouring of hostility directed toward one of the brightest stars NASCAR has seen in quite some time thanks to a racing incident in Richmond last Saturday night. Do you recall the incident? It occurred after Denny Hamlin had tire problems and lost control of the Sprint Cup race as well as first place as a result. Both Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kyle Busch simultaneously passed Hamlin, thus setting the scene for a race to the finish by these two drivers.
First, I understand that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most popular NASCAR driver of them all right now. His NASCAR gear is number one in sales and that alone tells the story. Second, I’ve got to say that the intensity of emotions NASCAR fans have for their favorite drivers is unrivaled in any of the other sports I’m familiar with. I had heard about this and was aware of it in passing as a sports fan, but I had never become directly involved... until now.
I’ve become very interested in this young driver Kyle Busch. I figured that since I’m a new fan, why not follow an essentially new driver. This guy’s style has been likened over and over again to a young Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s style. The win at all cost mentality that eventually gained Earnhardt at first begrudged respect and eventually out and out love and admiration as one of the greatest NASCAR drivers to ever don a racing helmet, is mirrored in Kyle Busch’s driving. Dale Senior’s untimely death, at a time when his son and namesake, Dale Jr. was starting to make a name for himself on the Cup circuit, transferred the lion’s share of Dale Sr.’s huge fan following directly over to Jr. These steadfast fans remain firmly entrenched behind Dale Jr. to this day.
Enter a new young prodigy, and almost all of the sport’s fans have taken exception to what he’s done. The NASCAR media seized the opportunity whenever the brash young man spoke his mind, usually without thinking how his comments might be perceived (a trait common in most young people), and suddenly Kyle Busch is seen as a threat and the villain. Several respected and long-time NASCAR followers have made the comparison between Earnhardt Sr. and Kyle Busch’s driving. Earnhardt had to scrape and crawl his way to a chance in this sport and when he finally got it, there wasn’t anyone or anything going to stand in his way. He assaulted his fellow drivers and was known for his recklessness. Never willing to back off, always looking for the opening and (early on in his career) rarely displaying patience, Dale Earnhardt Sr. had a terrible reputation. He was blamed time and time again for the poor showings of the more popular drivers of that day, and he let the criticism run off of him without showing a care. Does this sound familiar?
So wouldn’t you know it… The son of the man many people compare Kyle Busch’s driving style to, the man who most of Dale Sr.’s fans have transferred their loyalty to, the most popular man in NASCAR today, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch end up racing side by side on a fast short track. Mr. Popularity verses the driver everybody loves to hate. The driver who has personified the “Good Guy” image, the most commercialized face of NASCAR, the hometown southerner verses this vile, brash, in your face guy from way out west. Then, to add insult to injury, Earnhardt and Busch come together as they enter turn three at the end of the 397th lap of a 400 lap race. The proverbial good guy, most everybody’s favorite, the guy who hasn't won a race in two season's worth of races, loses control and wrecks finishing in 15th , while “bad guy” Busch, although not winning the race, finishes in good order for second to become the new points leader in the 2008 Sprint Cup.
I'm a sports fanatic living on the west coast of Florida. I'm a rare bird that moved here from the left coast a couple of years ago. I advocate an even playing field in all of life's endeavors.
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for caution occurred as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was evidently down on the apron to be the first into the pit and here came Jamie McMurray running on the apron and paying more attention to who he was running with than to anyone that might be in front of him. He plowed into Junior, David Ragan got spun as a result and debris went everywhere. Now, with the yellow out, the question became do you make a mad dash into the pits for fuel, or play the odds that you might be able to make it without additional fuel. If a caution or two came out before the checkered flag flew, it could mean all the difference. These are the normal strategy questions these people should have been mulling before pit lane was opened. But what about the nearing storm front? The TNT commentators were saying that the radio traffic between the pit bosses and the drivers was not only about such things as fuel and handling, but also of the possiblitiy of rain. What would be the right call?
racing team looked poised to once again dominate NASCAR with it’s four car stable of Chevrolets. A year begun full of optimism has not yet developed for Hendrick though. While Dale has held up his end of the bargain with a second, a third, a fifth and three other finishes in the top ten, it’s Johnson, with one win on the season and three other top ten finishes, and Gordon, with no wins and four top ten finishes, that have fallen off in performance. The production these two are responsible for has been cut in half concerning top ten finishes from 16 to 8, with the largest fall in wins from 6 to only 1. Hendrick Motorsports as a whole has fallen from 23 total top ten finishes in 2007 to 16 this year. 
interview, Johnson stated, “If you look at a lot of my victories last year, at the start of the season they were on the 1½-mile and two-mile tracks, with the old-style car. And we’ve been working hard to understand what this new car needs on the big tracks.
when you're consistently top five and leading laps, the wins are going to come. We just haven't been doing that....
