Well, we’re just passed the halfway point in the season and it’s looking like 2007 all over again; the one guy still leading both titles.
Joe Nemechek managed to bump out AJ Allmendinger after the solitary qualifying run at Daytona (no points for washouts remember) while Dale Earnhardt Junior has swapped places with Jimmie Johnson and closed the gap between himself and Kyle Busch from 54 points to 30.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 19 rounds:
The two races have been a complete Kyle Busch benefit as his lead over the rest has grown to over two full races now. No personnel changes within the top 20, but Matt Kenseth, due to his recent hot form, has risen to fourth from eighth while both Jeff’s lost two spots.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 19 rounds:
After a week off, the teams head to Indy and Tony Stewart will be hoping to repeat and give his season a big shot in the arm.
On a side note, I did some digging around and found some interesting stats. The comparison between the actual Cup points this time last year and now makes for interesting reading:
(2007) Jeff Gordon - 2911 points, 4 wins, 12 top fives, 17 top tens, 1 DNF, 764 laps led and a 303 point lead over second place (Denny Hamlin at that stage).
(2008) Kyle Busch - 2881 points, 7 wins, 12 top fives, 13 top tens, 1 DNF, 1065 laps led and a 262 point lead over second place.
Now, I don’t seem to recall Chevrolet attracting as much stick about having a significant advantage over everyone else (they did launch a new engine package, remember?) as Toyota are this year and yet Jeff had a bigger lead in the Championship. I do wonder if Kyle will be getting all of those “the Chase is unfair since he’ll lose his big championship lead!” comments like Jeff did around this time of the season…something tells me he won’t, but Kyle won’t care as long as he can keep winning I guess.
Yes Tez has looked back and saw. Kyle has a couple more wins.3 and 4 less top tens than Gordon had last year. But did you hear, they aree cheaters, lets test the motors. NooOhh. Kinda makes you think a little. Great post Tez..
One thing i've noticed that has improved greatly for Dale Jr since moving to Hendricks is his average qualifying spot.
Until this year, he's never been that good in qualifying except at the superspeedways.
noah; yeah, the only reason I checked was that I did remember all those Chase comments Jeff got and was curious to see how he was going about now last year, lol
Texas; to be blunt, qualifying had never really been that important but with the car is it is now, it's become the easiest way to make your way to the front so I suppose Jr figured he needed to improve that aspect of his racing *shrugs*
Your back! I liked your comparision at the end. The kid is putting up some amazing numbers... Cant say I am too happy about my Penske boys and now that Ryan is leaving I wonder if Kurt is considering going next year...Dodge is a hurting pup these days.
Amazing the differnece a year makes. I do beleive that you are right...Kyle wont give a hoot about the reset of points for the Chase.
After hearing his comments from last weekends race. He's just glad there's fans there to watch the race...whether they cheer or boo for him doesnt matter.
Yep. Not that much difference in comparisons between Kyle and Jeff as far as this year and last year. Funny how a difference in a year can cloud your memory. Almost a repeat of last year but a different driver.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
