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StarterIt's not like I haven't been watching the races, either. Thanks to my new Comcast DVR I haven't missed one second of action. The Talladega race is on "Save until I delete", and I think I've watched the last five laps of that thing about twenty times. I'm loving being able to watch every race I want - though I admit so far the IndyCar races have been mostly watched on FF. (God - they need to do SOMETHING about those races, because they SUCK, especially now that F1 has suddenly become must-see-TV.)
A funny thing happened this Saturday. I love boxing and I was hugely looking forward to the Pacquiao-Hatton fight, but due to a family commitment I wasn't sure if I was going to catch the main event. (I've recently become acquianted with watching sports online and not paying for them. Shhhhhhh. Don't tell anyone.) I got home and couldn't find the fight anywhere but it sounded like it was over.
Sure enough, I went to ESPN.com and found that Pacquiao had knocked Hatton out. (Then I watched it on youtube - Hatton got KTFO'd if anyone ever has.) Unfortunately - and something I've gotten better about - I also JUST happened to catch a glance of the headline "Busch celebrates birthday with win". Aaaaaaargh.
But you know what? I watched the entire race, anyway.
That's what it has become for NASCAR - either give me Carl Edwards flying into the catchfence (and being thankfully OK) or give me Kyle Busch. Shrub's got 50 wins already. FIFTY. Is there any doubt he'll get six more wins in the next 52 weeks? If (when) he does, he will already be NINTH on the all-time list of winners in NASCAR. At age 24. The only names ahead of him when he does it? Petty. Pearson. Waltrip. Earnhardt. Martin. Gordon. Allison. Yarborough. FAST company.
Clearly the guy who Busch's career mirrors most closely in that group is Mark Martin, and I don't think it is any kind of stretch to say if you ranked those eight drivers Mark is clearly eighth. However, Mark has 91 wins - 36 at the Cup level. Busch has 50 wins - 15 at the Cup level. They both get into whatever they want and win - though Mark never had the kind of winning streak Kyle's been on at the Cup level he did win 32 out of 115 Busch starts - which is just over three season's worth of races. And Mark drove the #6 truck 14 times in 2006 to the tune of six wins and 11 top-four finishes, while at the same time finishing ninth in Cup points. So it's not like it's NEVER been done in all three series to some degree. Just not THIS degree.
And since you know I can't stand not to, let's talk points. In the interest of brevity, I'll just post the Sprint Cup points here now and I'll do the rest later in the week. A quick refresher...
POINTS THE JJD WAY
20 for a win, 16 for second, 14 for third, then 12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 down to 12th
one point for the pole
one point for leading a lap
two points for leading the most laps
SPRINT CUP (DRIVERS)
Rank Points
1 Jeff Gordon 98
2 Kyle Busch 87
3 Jimmie Johnson 80
4 Tony Stewart 77
5 Kurt Busch 72
6 Mark Martin 63
7 Denny Hamlin 57
Matt Kenseth 57
9 Greg Biffle 52
10 Clint Bowyer 48
11 Ryan Newman 45
12 Jeff Burton 42
13 Kevin Harvick 32
14 Carl Edwards 31
15 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 30
16 Brian Vickers 29
17 David Reutimann 25
18 Brad Keselowski 21
19 Kasey Kahne 20
20 Juan Pablo Montoya 19
21 A.J. Allmendinger 18
22 Marcos Ambrose 17
23 Martin Truex Jr. 16
24 Jamie McMurray 15
25 Sam Hornish Jr. 13
Bobby Labonte 13
27 Elliott Sadler 12
Scott Speed 12
29 David Ragan 11
30 Michael Waltrip 9
31 Reed Sorenson 7
32 Joey Logano 6
33 Casey Mears 5
34 Paul Menard 2
John Andretti 2
Joe Nemechek 2
Jeremy Mayfield 2
38 David Stremme 1
Robby Gordon 1
Dave Blaney 1
41 Regan Smith 0
David Gilliland 0
Travis Kvapil 0
Max Papis 0
Aric Almirola 0
Bill Elliott 0
Scott Riggs 0
Terry Labonte 0
Todd Bodine 0
Mike Bliss 0
Sterling Marlin 0
Tony Raines 0
A couple of notes...
- Brad Keselowski is 18th. He is behind plenty of guys without a win, but ahead of only one guy with a top-three finish this year. (That would be A.J. "Remember when we talked about me making the Chase?" Allmendinger.) You know where BK is in NASCAR's standings? 42nd! Behind Scott Riggs. Scott. Riggs. Riggs' best finish in 2009 is 25th - but NASCAR says he's had a "better" year than BK. I'm pretty sure if you could go back in time and give Tommy Baldwin the option to have BK's 2009 for his driver, he take it, don't you think?
(And don't tell me NASCAR's not saying Riggs' season is better than Brad's, OK? Because if they're NOT saying that, then there is NO point to the, uh, points. If first-place had a better season than second in points, then the same holds true for 41st and 42nd, does it not?)
- Last night I watched This Week in NASCAR (which featured Michael Waltrip telling Steve Byrnes "there are three types of people in this world: those who can count and those who can't." Not only did Byrnes NOT get it, he was kind of annoyed about it because Mikey wouldn't correct himself. High comedy.) Mikey also mentioned that he and Kevin Harvick are "neighbors", with Mikey 23rd and Harvick 24th in the standings. Unreal. Harvick's finished second and fourth in 2009. Mikey's best finish is seventh, and his next best is 13th. Again - who'd take Mikey's season so far over Harvick's? Not me.
Here is the deal with the team's points. I use the same system as the driver's points, but only the highest finishing driver counts, so if Hendrick sweeps the top four spots they get points for first, then whoever came in fifth gets points for fifth. That seems like the best way to balance it out from the one-car teams to the four and five-car teams.
Another thing - the 96 is considered a Yates Racing team, and the 47 is considered a Michael Waltrip Racing team. There was a lot of funny business with the points being sold for top-35 spots and mergers that weren't really mergers, but all of the MWR guys refer to the 47 as an MWR car, and the 96 is run out of the Yates shop.
SPRINT CUP (TEAMS)
Rank Points
1 Hendrick Motorsports 159
2 Joe Gibbs Racing 121
3 Roush Fenway Racing 107
4 Stewart-Haas Racing 101
5 Richard Childress Racing 83
6 Penske Racing 79
7 Michael Waltrip Racing 47
8 Richard Petty Motorsports 43
9 Red Bull Racing Team 35
10 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing 34
11 Phoenix Racing 21
12 Yates Racing 15
13 Front Row Motorsports 2
Mayfield Motorsports 2
15 Robby Gordon Motorsports 1
NEMCO Motorsports 1
Prism Motorsports 1