Chase is getting Good: ADD RAGAN to the List!

He’s hanging around and now he’s being rewarded for all his consistent efforts this season being put in a nice spot of 13th, tied with Clint Bowyer. Both drivers are only 26 points behind the struggling Denny Hamlin. Bowyer and Ragan better not count on Hamlin doing poorly at two of the three tracks in the Chase, such as Bristol and Richmond, because he’s better than most at those two facilities.

The driver that is taking a real dive that Ragan may be able to key on for the next 3 races is Jeff Gordon. With that 42nd place finish last week in Michigan, Gordon fell 3 spots from 6th to 9th. Ragan sits only 82 points away.

Ragan has been terrific at just about every type of track, except the banks of Bristol. His average there during his 3 starts has been a 29th place finish. The way Gordon is going, Ragan still might gain with a 29th.

Doesn’t Gordon own part of Hendrick Motorsports? As owner, why would he race in a car that Casey Mears even thinks is bad? Wouldn’t it serve his team and the entire organization better if Gordon were to transfer a Jimmie Johnson or Dale Jr chassis to the Dupont garage?

I can’t believe we can actually discussing the possibility that Gordon may not make the chase at this juncture after be so consistently good all season. He doesn’t have a win and really hasn’t actually competed for one.   


Busch Brothers the Favorites in Bristol?

Kurt and Kyle Busch might have been the favorites this week if Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart were not racing. Kurt has 5 wins at Bristol with the last coming in the spring of 2006. Lots has changed for the Penske team since, and it’s obvious not a positive change. Kurt is 25 to 1 at Bristol and he’s sure to get some takers who believe in his past.

Kyle won the Spring race last season while driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s currently listed at 7 to 1, which is kind of high considering the guy wins just about every race. Last season Jeff Burton was Mr. Nice-Guy with Busch on the last few laps. Burton could have bumped him out of the way on anyone of the last few laps, but Burton chose to be the gentleman driver he is and not win Bristol like most have before him.

I remember thinking that if it was Kyle behind him, Burton had no chance of keeping him off his bumper. He wouldn’t bumped Burton out of the way the first time the opportunity presented itself. Burton was applauded by many for his sportsmanship, but certainly not by me, nor Richard Childress who couldn’t believe what he just saw.

Anyway, I believe at some juncture Kyle Busch is likely to be leading. Yeah, I know, hard to believe, but he will. As the leader, he’ll get plenty of attacks from the sharks who will be nipping his heels. One driver who doesn’t like Busch too much is Harvick. He’s a good candidate to send Kyle spinning. Another might Junior. They have had their run-ins, and if they tangled in Bristol under the lights, with Junior getting the best of it? Wow! That would be some kind of showstopper.

It’s Cheating ONLY when You get Caught

I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard about the Joe Gibbs Nationwide series teams getting busted after a post race inspection at Michigan. Come on now? 14 wins in 25 races? That is embarrassing! The only thing that had me thinking maybe they could be that good playing straight was Joe Gibbs, because he has never taken the short cut to win, or at least that’s the persona he has.

Of course it was someone else in the garage attempting to gain an edge, and had nothing to do with anyone of the hierarchy in the Gibbs organization. But it doesn’t matter, because most teams have done several things to get edges over the competition. Some like to call it cheating, while I like to call it creative engineering. If you get caught, then, I guess it’s cheating.

The question with all of this that begs to be asked is if this creative engineer at JGR has anything to do with the huge gains the Cup series cars have made? Kyle Busch is leading the way with 8 wins and the team has a total of 9 wins. What have they done to be so much better than everyone else in their first year driving a Toyota? If it could happen with the Nationwide team, it could happen in the Cup series.

I don’t really care one way of another. Finding an edge has always been part of the sport and its that unwritten rule and lawlessness of NASCAR, beginning with its moonshine roots, that make it a very cool sport. The sportswriters around the country like to cry foul and think they are going to get an outcry from fans like they did when they tried to tell every baseball fan that steroids in baseball should make you feel angry. Not gonna happen here!  

So Who's it Gonna be this week?       

I'm thinking I gotta go with Stewart and it all stems from the March race where Stewart likely had the best car that day while leading the most laps. It's usually a much different story in the night race because the fans are all juiced up, the nation watching in prime time is fired up, and the drivers feel that pressure and feel they have to put on a good show. However, history does show that Bristol winners usually are the elete drivers in the series and most of the time former Cup Champions.

The one rediculous exception was when Elliott Sadler won for the Woods Brothers on those tires that never had to be changed. I think he could have raced the following week in those tires without changing as well. Goodyear used a compound for that Bristol race that was the same as what they make those little mini-rubber spare tires most of us have in the truck.

Anyways, In that March race all 3 Childress cars finished in the top 3 with Jeff Burton winning. That race went into 6 laps of overtime which essentially cost the race for Denny Hamlin. Unfortunately for Hamlin, Burton had much fresher tires and took him on the re-start where Hamlin was a sitting duck. The main fireworks occurred when Kevin Harvick, who finished 2nd, punted Tony Stewart, who was in 2nd, with two laps to go and caused the caution, which ultimately caused Hamlin to lose.

In that race, the Gibbs tandem of Stewart and Hamlin led 365 of the 506 laps run. Jeff Burton led just two laps and it was the only time he led all day.

Is it possible that we may see the same drivers competing for a win again this week? It’s likely and almost probable, but I wouldn’t expect Stewart to sit and wait to be punted again. I believe Stewart will come up with his first win of the season it will be him doing the punting.

Harvick and Stewart call themselves friends. After they mixed it up in that race, both took the blame. But I think Stewart has a different perspective on it after watching the replay. Because of Harvick’s great career record at Bristol it is likely that he’ll be in a position where Stewart just may be able to extract some revenge.