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First, can I just say God bless whoever invented the DVR? Unlike everyone who tuned in at the start of the race, I got to FF through the entire thing, and I just watched the last green flag-stint. At least they didn't wreck and have to add to the misery and ridiculousness with a green/white/checkered-finish.
The thing I take away from the weekend, as always, is how NASCAR's point-system punishes teams for things beyond their control. There were seven cars who failed to finish on the lead lap yesterday. Three of them are major contenders for spots in the Chase - none of the three high enough in the points to afford a DNF without severely hampering their Chase hopes. Here is the bottom of the finishing order from yesterday's race, and how they got there.
43 Michael Waltrip - crashed on lap 5
42 Brian Vickers - blew engine on lap 106
41 Paul Menard - collected in 55 accident
40 Kurt Busch - crashed on lap 14
39 Juan Pablo Montoya - blown tire on lap 29
38 Matt Kenseth - blown tire on lap 47
37 Kevin Harvick - collected in 2 accident
So, you've got Vickers' blown engine, which puts him now 132 points out of the Chase - can't blame anyone other than the team for that, I suppose, though a faulty part could easily be the culprit. However, Harvick and Kenseth - do their teams deserve ANY blame for what happened to them? Kenseth (and Montoya) was just a victim of the tire nonsense - what could they have done about that? Now, after being the hottest driver on the circuit - even moreso that Kyle Busch for a six-week stretch - thanks to Goodyear and NASCAR they find themselves barely in the Chase, only six points above the cutoff.
That's better than Harvick can say, though. Thanks to being collected in Kurt Busch's accident - a classic wrong place, wrong time deal - Harvick is now OUT of the Chase by two measly points. TWO POINTS! That's one position at the tail end of the field. If ONE more car had blown a tire and been forced to DNF, Harvick would be IN the Chase. It's just more bad luck for him that he's currently out.
At least there aren't millions of dollars at stake or anything, right?
JJD's updated points standings after Gateway
Thursday, July 24, 2008, 08:20 AM EST
[General]
I haven't posted an update since right after Dover, and right after that Kasey Kahne won at Pocono and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (!) won at Michigan. (Yes, I was sufficiently busy that I couldn't even be bothered to post after Junior won on Father's Day. That's "busy", people.) Since then, the Sprint Cup Series has actually become the new "Busch" Series, with Kyle winning at Sonoma, Daytona, and Chicago, and Kurt squeezing in a fuel strategy/weather/lucky-win at Loudon.
To me, Kyle's clearly been THE story of he season. With seven Cup wins, he's got a decent chance of becoming the 16th driver to win ten races in a season since 1972. He's got a pretty good chance at challenging the "modern era"-record of 13 wins in a season. He's ALREADY tied Kevin Harvick's 'modern era"-record for wins in all of the NASCAR series with 14, and if he wins four more times, with 18 wins he would have reached a level that has been achieved only five times in the history of NASCAR. Kyle is also leading the JJD points in both Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. If he wins both titles he would be the first driver to win two in a season. The closest I've ever come to that happening was Kevin Harvick in 2006, when he finished fourth in Cup and first in the Busch Series. In 2005, Greg Biffle finished second in Cup and third in the Busch Series. SPRINT CUP (DRIVERS) Rank Points LW 1 Kyle Busch 239 1 2 Carl Edwards 162 2 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 142 3 4 Jimmie Johnson 127 4 5 Jeff Gordon 112 5 6 Denny Hamlin 108 6 7 Matt Kenseth 103 9 8 Greg Biffle 102 11 Tony Stewart 102 10 10 Jeff Burton 101 7 Kasey Kahne 101 7 12 Clint Bowyer 88 12 13 Kevin Harvick 67 15 14 Ryan Newman 64 13 15 Kurt Busch 62 13 16 Brian Vickers 61 16 17 David Ragan 54 17 18 Martin Truex Jr. 51 18 19 Mark Martin 40 19 20 Elliott Sadler 32 21 As dominating as Joe Gibbs Racing has been in 2008, mostly due to Kyle Busch, they aren't quite up to the level that Hendrick Motorsports was in 2007. Last year at this time, HMS had a nearly 100-point lead over then second-place JGR. SPRINT CUP (TEAMS) NATIONWIDE SERIES Rank Points LW 1 Kyle Busch 209 1 2 Clint Bowyer 185 2 3 Carl Edwards 156 5 4 Brad Keselowski 147 4 5 Denny Hamlin 143 3 6 Tony Stewart 124 6 7 David Reutimann 113 7 8 David Stremme 98 8 9 Kevin Harvick 93 9 10 David Ragan 92 10 11 Scott Wimmer 77 11 12 Mike Bliss 66 12 Joey Logano 66 16 14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 64 13 15 Jason Leffler 54 19 16 Greg Biffle 52 14 17 Jeff Burton 51 15 18 Brian Vickers 47 17 19 Mike Wallace 46 18 20 Kasey Kahne 35 20 While the #20 Camry continues to dominate the Nationwide Series, JR Motorsports' #88 team is having a somewhat underappreciated season. I feel like the real place to evaluate Nationwide drivers in via the owners points, because with so many drivers being part-time in the series it skews the drivers standings toward the guys who run every race. (A good example is Brad Coleman, who is 16th in drivers points. The team, however, is 24th in owners points, 23rd out of 35 teams that have attempted every race.) After Dover the 88 team was tenth in my owners points, but with several strong performances they have moved up to fifth in points, by far the highest-ranked team that does not use any Cup drivers. NATIONWIDE SERIES (TEAMS) Rank Points 1 Brad Keselowski 254 2 David Reutimann 227 3 David Ragan 218 4 David Stremme 174 5 Mike Bliss 170 6 Scott Wimmer 132 7 Jason Leffler 115 8 Mike Wallace 97 9 Jason Keller 95 10 Joey Logano 86 11 Kelly Bires 77 12 Steve Wallace 75 13 Marcos Ambrose 71 14 Bobby Hamilton Jr. 63 15 Dario Franchitti 53 Kyle Busch isn't leading the Craftsman Truck Series standings, but he left quite an impression on them. NASCAR has three drivers separated by five points, but in my standings Matt Crafton is quite a bit behind in third. What's the difference? On green/white/checkered finishes Kyle's dumped both Ron Hornaday (at Michigan) and Johnny Benson (at Martinsville), costing each of those drivers roughly 80 points as a result. CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Rank Points LW 1 Johnny Benson 136 2 2 Ron Hornaday 135 1 3 Matt Crafton 111 4 4 Kyle Busch 104 5 5 Todd Bodine 98 3 6 Erik Darnell 82 6 7 Mike Skinner 80 7 8 Jack Sprague 71 8 9 David Starr 68 10 10 Rick Crawford 65 9 It will be interesting to see if there is an impact from NASCAR's decision to make Toyota drop some horsepower from their Nationwide Series engines. Taken individually, Toyota does lead all three of the series in my manufacturer's points, but they do have their biggest advantage (+59 points) in the Nationwide Series. (Compared to +39 in Cup and +26 in trucks.) MANUFACTURERS Rank Points LW 1 Toyota 995 1 2 Chevrolet 871 2 3 Ford 670 3 4 Dodge 371 4 Tags:
A serious question
Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 08:15 AM EST
[General]
So, you are in charge of NASCAR, and you need to come up with a way to determine your season champion. You come up with a point-system - the best you can come up with at the time - and say "from this point forward, anyone will know who has had the best season - they just need to look at the points standings." I mean, no one likely said those ACTUAL words, but I'm sure that was the intent, otherwise, what is the purpose of the point-system, right?
Then, let me ask you this - who has had the BETTER 2008 Nationwide season so far, Johnny Chapman or Joey Logano? I'm pretty sure everyone who would read this blog knows who Joey Logano is, so let me give you a bit of background on Johnny Chapman. From Statesville, NC, Chapman is a 40-year old driver who has made 81 NASCAR starts with zero career top-ten finishes. Started one Winston Cup race in 1993, earned $6,526, which is $6,526 more than Joey Logano's Cup-level career earnings, to be sure. As far as I can tell, his best finish in any NASCAR race is a 13th-place result at the 1996 Busch Series season-opener at Daytona. (Honestly, I'm not sure how the Nationwide Series could be going through some "crisis" when a guy with that resum Tags:
Poking more holes in the top-35 rule
Friday, June 6, 2008, 06:03 PM EST
[General]
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Haas-CNC Sprint Cup teams were going to appeal the 150-point penalties NASCAR levied for their alleged illegal wing brackets. The catch is that until the appeal is heard, the teams will be listed in the owners standings with point totals reflecting the penalty. Now, leaving aside this SPECIFIC question of guilt or innocence at Haas-CNC, is there anyone here who REALLY would like to ever see THIS scenario?
1. Team inside top-35 gets penalized, moving the team outside the top-35. This essentially happened to the #66 team, although they were in last week at Dover, their finish (39th) was poor enough to move them down to 36th. They were 25th without the penalty headed to Dover, and they would have been 28th headed to Pocono. 2. Team, now outside the top-35, misses a race or two. Could happen, right? The 70 team has missed races. So has the 96. And the 10. And more. 3. Due largely to missing races, team falls well below top-35 cutline. This happens SO MUCH faster than you would think. Right now, there is one team - the #66 - that is within 100 points of 35th. For J.J. Yeley to put his #96 back into the top-35, he would nearly have to win a race, or string together top-ten finishes - which, by the way, ISN'T nearly required to be barely in the top-35 (see Waltrip, Michael.) Every other team besides the #66 is at least 142 points behind 35th. 4. NASCAR accepts appeal and restores points that were penalized. Again - not specific to the Haas-CNC case, but it could happen. Robby Gordon was docked 100 points this season that were returned. This is not an entirely implausible scenario. Now, WHAT IF the rescinded penalty, applied for a few races then withdrawn, knocked a team out of the top-35 and forced them to miss races which they would have OTHERWISE qualified? WHAT IF NASCAR restored the points, yet those races that were missed left that team STILL outside the top-35? You know what that team would be? Screwed. Now, if you are reading this blog, you probably already don't like the top-35 rule - hardly anyone who really likes NASCAR does, right? But seriously, how can NASCAR not see that they made a rule that could potentially have GRAVE unintended consequences? In this case, all the affected team could get is a "sorry, OUR bad" from NASCAR. Tags:
JJD's updated points standings after Dover
Monday, June 2, 2008, 07:31 PM EST
[General]
Despite a weekend of dreadfully boring racing this weekend at the Monster Mile, NASCAR has continued to reward us with the winning exploits of Kyle Busch. Busch dominated the last half of the Best Buy 400, and a quick pit-stop by the #18 crew sent Kyle on his way to a four second-win, and truthfully, it wasn't THAT close. Kudos to NASCAR for NOT throwing a debris caution, which would have been expected by many savvy NASCAR viewers.
Kyle's win is his fourth of the season in Sprint Cup, leading the series, but what I find immensely more fascinating is that it was his TENTH win of the season. Perspective? How's this list of the top winning seasons (on all levels of NASCAR) since 1982, the first year of the Busch Series. YEAR CUP NWS CTS TOTAL Kevin Harvick 2006 5 9 0 14 Jeff Gordon 1998 13 0 0 13 Darrell Waltrip 1982 12 1 0 13 Dale Earnhardt 1987 11 1 0 12 Mark Martin 1993 5 7 0 12 Bill Elliott 1985 11 0 0 11 Dale Earnhardt 1990 9 2 0 11 Jimmie Johnson 2007 10 0 0 10 Jeff Gordon 1997 10 0 0 10 Jeff Gordon 1996 10 0 0 10 Rusty Wallace 1993 10 0 0 10 Harry Gant 1991 5 5 0 10 Dale Earnhardt 1986 5 5 0 10 Mark Martin 1997 4 6 0 10 Sam Ard 1983 0 10 0 10 Kyle Busch 2008 4 4 2 10 That's where Kyle sits on JUNE 2ND! Props to FOX for bringing up during their broadcast: this is one of THE most dominating streaks in NASCAR, ever. And the best thing? Kyle's running Texas, Nashville, AND Pocono next week. Kyle's win extends his JJD points-lead over race runner-up Edwards. Dale Earnhardt Jr. holds third despite being collected in Elliott Sadler's lap 19 crash. (Is it me, or does Sadler seem to get into a lot of rookie-ish incidents for a veteran? And nice call my FOX blowing by Jeremy Mayfield's presence in the #40, racing Sadler hard on the outside 20 laps into a 400-lap race. Gee, why would Mayfield do THAT? And I suppose you could toss the fact that Gilliland was on the bottom and make a big soap opera out of it, too.) Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle gained spots with top-five finishes after Sadler's crash crippled many top-ten cars. SPRINT CUP (DRIVERS) Rank Points LW 1 Kyle Busch 171 1 2 Carl Edwards 127 2 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 99 3 4 Jeff Gordon 92 6 5 Jeff Burton 90 5 6 Denny Hamlin 86 4 7 Greg Biffle 85 10 8 Jimmie Johnson 84 7 9 Tony Stewart 73 8 10 Clint Bowyer 72 9 11 Ryan Newman 55 11 Matt Kenseth 55 14 13 Kasey Kahne 53 12 14 Kevin Harvick 50 13 15 Mark Martin 34 15 16 David Ragan 33 16 Martin Truex Jr. 33 17 18 Kurt Busch 23 18 19 Travis Kvapil 21 20 20 Brian Vickers 20 19 Joe Gibbs Racing strengthened its hold on the top-spot in the team standings with Kyle's win, but Roush Fenway Racing finished 2-3-4, with Greg Biffle winning the pole and leading the most laps, and they bumped Hendrick Motorsports from second-place, a big change from how things were a year ago. Some lower-ranked teams had good days at Dover as well, with Dave Blaney equalling his best finish of the year for Bill Davis racing in ninth, Travis Kvapil with yet another solid run finishing 11th, and Juam Pablo Montoya, he of the revolving door of crew chiefs, finishing 12th after starting 35th. SPRINT CUP (TEAMS) Surprisingly, NO teams would have been knocked out of the top-35 this week. However, a couple of big-time teams need a good week at Pocono after getting caught up in the early melee at Dover, as Tony Stewart is 24th and Kevin Harvick is 25th in owners points over the last five races. Paul Menard would need a good run at Pocono as well, as he loses a 14th-place result from Talladega next week. JJD's IMPROVED TOP-35 RULE (including Haas CNC penalties) NATIONWIDE SERIES Rank Points LW 1 Kyle Busch 151 1 2 Clint Bowyer 121 2 3 Carl Edwards 98 4 4 Tony Stewart 97 3 5 Denny Hamlin 88 6 6 Kevin Harvick 80 5 7 David Stremme 72 8 8 David Reutimann 67 9 9 Brad Keselowski 66 7 10 David Ragan 49 10 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 49 10 12 Jeff Burton 46 12 13 Mike Bliss 42 13 14 Greg Biffle 40 18 15 Jason Leffler 38 14 Scott Wimmer 38 15 17 Brian Vickers 35 16 18 Matt Kenseth 33 17 19 Kasey Kahne 27 19 20 Steve Wallace 25 20 Joey Logano's sixth-place finish in his maiden NWS start actually further extends the #20 team's points-lead over Clint Bowyer and the #2 RCR Chevy, who finished ninth. Carl Edwards' runner-up finish moved the #60 team up from fifth to third, and depsite running only six out of fourteen races, the #18 moves up to fourth with Denny Hamlin's win. NATIONWIDE SERIES (TEAMS) Rank Points 1 David Reutimann 150 2 Brad Keselowski 140 3 David Ragan 139 4 David Stremme 133 5 Mike Bliss 114 6 Jason Leffler 95 7 Scott Wimmer 70 8 Steve Wallace 67 9 Mike Wallace 60 10 Kelly Bires 53 11 Bobby Hamilton Jr. 51 Marcos Ambrose 51 13 Jason Keller 49 14 Dario Franchitti 47 15 Patrick Carpentier 35 For the third week in a row, a previously winless driver went to Victory Lane in the Craftsman Truck Series, as Scott Speed won the AAA Insurance 200 by over three seconds. Speed joins previous winners Matt Crafton and Donny Lia as newcomers to the NASCAR wins list. Series veteran Jack Sprague was second, and he moves from 12th to seventh in JJD points, while Ron Hornaday's third-place finish gives him the points-lead back from Kyle Busch, who had transmission trouble while dominating and had to settle for 27th. CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Rank Points LW 1 Ron Hornaday 79 2 2 Kyle Busch 73 1 3 Todd Bodine 62 3 4 Matt Crafton 60 5 5 Johnny Benson 55 4 6 Mike Skinner 52 6 7 Jack Sprague 50 12 8 David Starr 48 9 9 Rick Crawford 45 7 10 Chad McCumbee 42 7 What did all three race winners have in common this weekend? All were in Toyotas, and the sweep of the weekend extends Toyota's points-lead to 55 over Chevrolet, whose weekend peaked Friday with a second-place finish in Trucks, and Ford actually outscored Chevrolet for the weekend. MANUFACTURERS Rank Points LW 1 Toyota 637 1 2 Chevrolet 582 2 3 Ford 454 3 4 Dodge 237 4 Tags:
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