Some wise people have said the definition of Insanity is;   "Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results"   I'd tend to agree with these wise words and I think all of us are seeing a bit of this so called "Insanity" within the rank and file of the Sprint Cup Series Ownership(s).  

I am not specifically speaking about the recent change of crews at Richard Childress Racing, but regurgitating, over and over again the same ole mediocre drivers hoping that pairing them with a new crew chief and a new crop of crew members will bring some kind of talent out of them that just isn't there in the first place, or there anymore, is just wrong and in my mind could be some of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Owner's version of, the definition of Insanity!  

I'm not going to name names here, but if you take a look at current Sprint Cup Driver(s) Point Standings positions 25 thru 40 you will clearly see some examples of what I am talking about.    

 Bring on the kids: BRAVO to the folks @ Hendrick Motorsports for bringing on Brad Keselowski and the same for the folks at Joe Gibbs Racing for being brave enough to bring along into the Cup Series the young and very talented, Joey Logano. Both these guys have understandably struggled a bit within their growth into Cup Series, but now both are beginning to shine and most likely will have long lasting Cup careers as we move forward.  

Logano particularly impressed me at Darlington as he kept his car under control and raced the race and raced the car he was given. In this case, I think we have to give some credit not only to JD and Coach Gibbs, but also to the folks at Home Depot who bravely agreed to stand behind moving this very young man into the big leagues and were willing to wait for his maturation before they would again see the type of results Tony Stewart was consistently giving them. This took guts and together the Gibbs folks and the folks at Home Depot took some shots from the media and they stood strong. They need to be commended for this and many other owners can now learn from their lead as the time has come to graduate some more of the kids that are diligently working to rise thru the ranks and into the Cup series so that some of the not so good and mediocre drivers that have been somewhat milking the good sponsors of our sport for years, can now move along.  

Young kids succeeding in our sport is a good story ! And we need more good stories right now !   

Also ran, fledging drivers who have fledged for years upon years, demanding millions of dollars in salary and perks up the Ying Yang, need to go home or drop down a series if they are not producing.    

Who's on the Rise:

Justin Allgaier has done so well and impressed the heck out of me this year in his Penske Nationwide Series ride, I do believe he is just a year away from being able to dip his toe in the water of the Cup Series. Allgaier, a graduate from the ARCA RE/MAX Series {reigning 2008 Champion} has surprised many with his maturity and car control from the word "Go." I do believe, like Logano and Kesolowski, Allgaier is moving along the line to embark in the Cup Series before too long.   Right behind him will be this year's self predicted ARCA Series Champion;

Justin Lofton. Lofton should follow along Allgaier's foot steps provided he keeps his head on straight and continues to make the progress he's currently making.

Sean Caisse is a name we should all get used to, as well. Caisse won the recent Rockingham ARCA event in the Billy Venturini  No. 15 hot rod. And after a somewhat rocky debut at Dover International Speedway a few years back in the Kevin Harvick Nationwide Series ride, I do believe that Caisse has the talent to go very far in this business and you will be hearing more about him in the near future. Other candidates to follow suit could be Roush Racing's

Eric Darnell. Provided the folks at Roush unleash this kid before he grows a gray beard, I think a continued full time ride in the Nationwide Series could also launch him to the Cup Series in less than a year and a half. I also like what I see thus far in

Brian Ickler. Learn this name because this young man is very impressive and he has a lot of the early career qualities of what I saw in Kyle Busch and is in fact, currently under Kyle's wing. I personally believe that Brian Ickler is about to make some big noise within the NASCAR ranks within the next few years.  

There's more kids coming and I don't believe all of them are going to be boys. NASCAR needs this new influx of kids. It keeps the sport fresh and growing and it gives the car owners more to sell instead of giving really good sponsors that dig our sport the same ole "Fuddy Duddy" Underachiever. Stay Tuned !    

Notes:  

I really do like Dale Earnhart Jr and in a way, I feel for him right now. This sport is tough in that when you're down, the press are most likely going to pick you apart and in the case of Junior this rings true, loud and clear. I think what Jr's camp and Jr's Nation needs to realize is; that if you're gonna "Talk the Talk" in being touted and more importantly, PAID as the "Sport's Icon" then you're gonna be expected to compete as the "Sports Icon" and live up to the expectations of the folks paying you, thus "Walking the Walk."

Herein lies the current dilemma in the overwhelming scrutiny that is coming Dale Jr's way. As the sports most popular and most touted driver, plain and simple, he's just gotta drive his way out of this mess, a little at a time.

It's still early in the 2009 season, but it has already become fairly clear who will be the 12 drivers battling for this year's championship come September.

Here's my early prediction based upon what I've seen thus far this year (in no particular order):

Jimmie Johnson     Clint Bowyer      Carl Edwards

Denny Hamlin        Tony Stewart     Matt Kenseth

Kyle Busch               Kurt Busch         Kevin Harvick

Greg Biffle               Jeff Gordon        

Jeff Burton / Kasey Kahne

If you take a good look you will notice that even after only seven races in the books my picks virtually mirror the current top 12 in points. The only substantial changes are that I have Harvick making the top 12 instead of David Reutimann and I am also am on the fence about Kasey Kahne vs. Jeff Burton for the last spot.

How can I be so sure with 19 races left before NASCAR's postseason begins?  Well, a few things come to mind.

Take a look at history - Now that we have a superspeedway race, a couple of short track races and four downforce events all in the books, the teams that are going to excel (especially on the downforce tracks) have already done so. Perhaps a particular team that has gotten off to a rough start can pull up their socks and dig in and make some progress - But I'm here to tell ya, it's not impossible but it's highly unlikely.

Needs a little more seasoning - I don't see David Reutimann making the Chase even after the nice start he's had. Reutimann is a likeable guy and he's developing into a pretty good racer at this level. I think he and his team will need one more year before they become a serious threat for a slot in the chase. Ditto for Brian Vickers, although he has been around a bit longer now than Reutimann and therefore he should be a stronger threat than he is at the moment.

Come next year it will be time for Vickers and his Red Bull team to make some real tangible noise. I look for him to hover right around the cutoff along with Jeff Burton and Kasey Kahne. I'll be disappointed in David Ragan not making it because over the winter I picked him to make the Chase this year and it looks like I am going to be wrong.   

Kasey Kahne is off to a great start and his crew chief Kenny Francis is a good friend of mine, but the thing I don't feel great about when it comes to Kasey is his ability to be lethal at tracks like Lowes Motor Speedway and struggle at others like Phoenix, Talladega, Daytona and the road course events. To me, if you want to make the Chase you have to be "Good to Great" at them all. There may be a few free passes, but with this strong level of competition, there is little breathing room, at best.

Pretty interesting that after just a handful of races you can structure your 12 best that will dance in this year's Chase. Shows you just how important it is to get off to a fast start. Once behind, it's an awfully hard charge to make up lost ground.  

Where is Dale Jr.?

All this non-sense about Dale Jr. and Tony Eury and blah, blah, blah ...

Here's my take: All you Dale Jr. fans need to open your eyes!

First off, Tony Eury Jr. is a well respected, knowledgeable crew chief. He's good at what he does, he calls a good race and he's got a lot of experience. His driver doesn't make his job any easier by yelling at him each week when he can't drive anything but a perfect race car. Yes, Junior Nation, that's what I said. Your guy is having difficulty adapting to the way these COT cars have to be run through the corners and regardless of trying to control his outbreaks on the radio, he continues to negatively blow off on his crew and pit crew and it's on a fairly consistent basis. 

The problem here is fans are all in love with an ICON. Your love for your guy has gotten in the way of the seeing or better yet, coming to grips with the truth.

Truth is, as a driver, at this level of competition, your guy isn't as good as you think he is and in 2009, he's making mental mistakes he shouldn't be if he wants to compete and be seen as an upper echelon driver at this level. Yes, given the right day in the right circumstance, Dale Jr. can have a very good day and he has. At Superspeedways, it's hard to not pick him to have a great day. But overall, his talent level is challenged when looking at the entire schedule. Yes, he sells T-shirts and he's cool - but I don't think he's got the talent you all think he does and I don't think he works as hard as he needs to beat his competition either.

Case in point, there is absolutely no excuse for your guy driving by his pit stall on more than one occasion this year. Truth is, there are at least three safe fails that should prevent this from ever happening:

1.) Get out of your motorhome and pre-walk pit road before the race starts and visualize you're pit stall in and out. If this isn't cool enough, or crowd control is an issue, then here's an alternative; Study the pit road sheet we all have access to before the race.

2.) The spotter and or crew chief further reminds the driver before the race starts and again when every caution comes out of both the team behind him and in front of him on pit road and further tells him exactly where they are on the race track in comparison to his driver under caution before they are all about to hit pit road so the Driver is very well educated, time and time again, to his and others around him whereabouts every pit stop.

3.) The Spotter calls the driver into his stall from a full ten cars away. Ten away, five away, four, three, two and you're there.....  HOW CAN HE MISS ? YOU ALMOST DON'T NEED THE SIGN AT ALL.

Get in the game Dude!

Truth be known, the pit sign is now used more for positioning the car in the pit stall then an exact stopping point, whereas under the direction of the crew chief, the sign man will slide the sign more to the front of the box when the team in the box in front is no longer in the race or multiple laps down. This will allow the car behind to get out with more ease and is a pit road common courtesy. The sign man will slide the sign back in the box to get the driver to stop short when the car in front is making repairs or is arriving afterward in his stall. This will give the team a better chance of not getting pinned in their box and not have to back up before they pull out.

Yes, the sign needs to be seen, but if the driver is on his game there are other verbal and pre-studying measures to be taken by a dude truly wanting to be the best and not caught up in all the "Other Hoopla". Trust me, I am not alone on this observation about you're guy.

End of story!

Kyle Busch and his temper:

Again, more blah, blah, blah ...

Hey, the dude packs his lunch and he plays to win. Second place, is the first loser in his book. With all this in mind, he commands excellence in himself and in order to win and win it all, he commands excellence in his crew, as well.

If you want to work on a team he drives for, you better pack your lunch and come to play the same way.  Mind you, this is the case be it a Camping World Truck race, a Nationwide Series race or a Sprint Cup race. He really does love all his guys, he's just intense and with that intensity comes a demand of excellence. Frustration at not meeting expectations can and will happen. Not such a bad situation to be in when you look at the big picture. 

A few weeks ago, when he wrecked his Nationwide car going for the lead early on in Vegas, he apologized to his crew and came back the next day and won the Sprint Cup.

He's "The Show" - and the show has its good, its great and an occasional outtake, but it's a show I wanna watch all the time.

Karma - the atmosphere radiated by a place, situation, person, or object. Destiny or fate.

In the world of NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing, I firmly believe in Karma. I think it lurks and lives within the walls of each garage stall, pit box and on the race track itself "peek-a-booing" in and out when it wants to, when it feels like it, or better yet, perhaps when it's created or built, as if it were a living thing.

I think with the tremendous amounts of pressure and strain we put upon ourselves to succeed, we each have the ability to create Karma as well. And as I watch this year unfold, I definitely see some strong Karma flowing.

Case in point, Jeff Gordon has come into the new season as if he had a blindfold removed from his eyes. The dude is on it and he's got that look back on his face. I believe he's gonna stay on it and ride the positive Karma he and his team have obviously created over the winter, all the way to and through the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

We all witnessed Gordon and company struggle off and on over the last three years - last winning on October 13th, 2007. In 2008, he had an un-Gordonesque Chase as he started 10th and finished seventh overall.

I've got to admit, over the past two years there have been times when I have walked away headed to the plane thinking maybe Gordon is on the downslide of his career. But now, trust me, Jeff Gordon hates when Jimmie Johnson wins and even better, he hates when Jimmie Johnson wins the Sprint Cup Championship. Yes, I know Jeff is the listed co-owner of the #48 Sprint Cup team and I also know it doesn't ever come across this way when he's is on TV, but what do you think he's thinking when he closes his door at night and lays his head on his pillow? If you think he's anything but upset about getting beat by his teammate - YOU'RE WRONG!

These guys never like getting beat by their teammates, even if you think they are friends. Trust me, Jeff Gordon doesn't like losing to Jimmie Johnson anymore than Carl Edwards doesn't like losing to Matt Kenseth or Clint Bowyer doesn't like losing to Kevin Harvick. They just plain hate losing and that's why they are where they are. They are winners and winners NEVER LIKE LOSING. Some mask it better than others, but they all hate it. As a car owner, I want a guy (or girl) driving for me, that HATES LOSING.

Karma, I see it in Jeff Gordon's interviews, his demeanor, his walk and his "Chi." I see him doing what he's doing now all the way to the Waldorf-Astoria stage. He's gonna have the year he's been yearning to have the past few years. We'll see if it's enough to sit yet again, at the head table.

Karma - the atmosphere radiated by a place, situation, person, or object. Destiny or fate.

Notes:

Running after a getaway tire and putting half the field a lap down... PRICLESS!

Winning the Camping World truck race without second or third gear and they throw a late race restart thrown at ya ........ Raw Talent!

A weekend off before heading to Bristol .......... Refreshing!

These days, with the hours and hours of prerace and postrace NASCAR television and radio programs available to us all, we see and hear of a lot of stories about the drivers. Recently I heard none other than Buddy Baker create a new driver nickname and he promptly pasted it to the back of one of the elite drivers in all of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.  To me, it stuck immediately because it fit so perfectly.

Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you: "The Show" - Kyle Busch 

What a talent this kid is and in case you haven't paid attention, you are indeed watching racing history unfold before your eyes.

Love him, hate him, like him or you're just warming up to him ... This kid has truly been gifted by the Racing Gods. His kind comes along on a limited basis and it's time we properly recognize Busch for what he's done and what's he's going to keep on doing. Trust me folks, this young man has only begun to scratch the surface of the mark he will make in our sport.

Those of us who have, up close and personal, seen his ability come to life and the moves he performs each week - week in and week out... Stand there at race track after race track, with our mouth's wide open - in awe.

Yes, like a lot of others, when he's put in a good car he has the God-given ability to win and win often. What separates this guy from most of the others is his knack to equally win when his car or his truck, is off. He can flat - out drive an ill handling racecar, especially a loose one and he commands his car like no one I have ever seen. He's the boss of his car. His car is never the boss of him.

If his car is right, his competition better be ready for a fight, for the folks at home they get to see ... "The Show"

Jeff Gordon himself, in this week's Las Vegas prerace program on FOX vehemently pronounced this fellow competitor as one of the most amazing talents he's ever seen.

So, Buddy Baker wasn't far off at all, in fact he was spot on. Yes, in NASCAR's Sprint Cup division there is a plethora of new talent, old talent and even talent that rim rides between hot and cold. Each of these talents deserves the accolades that they earn. In my mind however and in the minds of many other well respected folks in this business, none are currently more entertaining, more exciting, more visually confident, and more driven than "The Show" and right now, one Kyle Busch and his innate ability to awe us week in and week out.... is "The Show"

Brief notes:

--I was really impressed by the run Justin Allgaier had Saturday in Vegas. There were times in this race when some of the more experienced Sprint Cup drivers tried to muscle him and the kid stood up to the test and shined. I look for him to show more of this and on a repetitive basis. For a rookie to demonstrate this kind of maturity so early in this Series coming from the ARCA RE/MAX Series, really speaks volumes for his potential.

-- As I have said a few times here, if you look at the performance history over the past three years, the top three to five finishers of both the early California and Las Vegas events have found themselves battling for the Sprint Cup Championship at year's end. With the majority of the seasons 36 point races run on mile-and-a-half type racetracks, these two venues bode well as a litmus test for the balance of the year's results and in that light, I think we have seen that;

1. The Penske cars have indeed improved over the winter.

2. If history holds true, {no surprise here, this we all know} Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle will all be trying to out muscle Kyle Busch and a very selected few others for not only one of the 12 Chase positions, but ultimately, these six will be the ones fighting for the Sprint Cup Championship.    

You'd have to look long and hard within the NASCAR Sprint Cup garages to find a more respected driver than Mark Martin. There come and go many a driver thru the ranks of NASCAR's elite division, but few have made the mark this Mark has so eloquently and admirably, engraved in our sport.

Born January 9th, 1959, Mark Anthony Martin was meant to race. The 1977 ASA Rookie of the Year, Five time IROC Series Champion, Forty Eight time Nationwide Series winner {a record that still stands tall today}, Thirty Five time NASCAR Sprint Cup Winner, Runner-up to the Sprint Cup title four times; 1990, 1994, 1998 and most recently in 2002,... Martin's accomplishments have been equaled or bettered by only a few.

Like a lot of successful athletes in all walks of sporting history, he's tried a few times to walk away, even had a much ballyhooed goodbye and farewell tour a few years back. One would think Martin would speak the same words of HBO's storied mobster, Tony Soprano .... "Just when I thought I had finally gotten out, they reeled me back in." Not the case here with MM. Martin's come back to the sport full time, because he's wanted to.

The last few years, he's gotten a chance to run part time schedules in some good equipment which first seemed to be a convenient way to keep solidly involved and still in love with what he's done best for the last 34 years. Now, after an offer to drive full time again from yet another man equally as respected as Martin himself, how could anyone in the garages or in the media rooms not agree that Mark Martin in Rick Hendricks machines with teammates the likes of Johnson, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr., - wouldn't be a match made in heaven ????

I agree wholeheartedly and think this is a fabulous opportunity for the mighty Mark Martin and the Hendrick organization too. Besides performance, with Martin - there comes stability, wisdom, experience and "The Will to Win."

Like everybody else that's been in and around the garages living this NASCAR life over the past few decades watching this guy flex his racing muscles like few others could ever do, I am looking forward to see how another stab at the title shakes out for Martin over the full year in Mr. H's cars. At 50 years old, in spite of being in outstanding shape, my guess is that once we get into the stretch of the schedule that throws 17 weeks in a row at us in the heat of the summer, the kids, although armed with less experience and wisdom, will still prevail over the remaining prowlness of Mr. Mark Anthony Martin.

Yes, experience and wisdom will garner Martin many a good finish, but to me this racing we watch today and the talent level of the kids like; Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards will easily exceed the wisdom. These kids are good, they're very good and Martin knows it. And they........well they know they are in the company of greatness and they are blessed that they will have one last chance to fight him off for their Championship, not his.

Mark Martin will not be your 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, but he will go down as one of the best we've seen. One who was good, he was real good, yet he never managed to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship and that's ok.