New Hampshire and Dover create tight points chase and sheds some light on future of the Busch Series.
in Motorsports, NASCARWith two rounds in the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship complete, I would have thought by this point (after two races…) the chase picture would have looked more spread out considering what happened last season at first race with the lap 3 wreck and most contenders falling or crashing out early, but that wasn’t the case at all and no one expected to see Clint Bowyer pickup his first career victory and in such dominating fashion. When you looked at the other chasers after New Hampshire, just about everyone had really good runs and nothing really changed expect for Bowyers position moved up to fourth in the points.
However the opposite happened in Dover, I truly believe that that racetrack is the Monster Mile, it threw everything at the chase drivers including what some would say the kitchen sink, first the crash with Hamlin and Petty were Hamlin just looked like he ran over Petty and including the little fight sort of speck in the garage area, but the second thing, the huge crash coming off turn 2 with 15 to go with Busch breaking a frontend piece or blowing a tire, that created this huge mess and tight look in the championship.
However the final laps of this one were very exciting with first the third place battle with Dale Jr. finally passing his teammate Mark Martin (never thought I would say that…teammates) and second the lead battle of Edwards vs. Biffle with Carl Edwards and Roush-Fenway Racing winning the race, but it really should be no surprise that he won as he has dominated in most cases this season on concrete tracks.
Just one question, with no more concrete tracks left in the season, how will Edwards fair in the rest of chase and who will win the championship? First for Carl Edwards, he’s the dark horse this season for winning the championship, he’s got that car just right, as for who my picks are to win the championship, that’s easy, I would say either the two-time champion Tony Stewart or the defending Nextel Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. Both have great records all season long and this is really Tony Stewart’s time to shine as he always does and for Jimmie Johnson, his victories this season combined with the creative crew chief on the pitbox calling the shots, he’s right there in it.
Staying with Tony Stewart for a moment, last month I wrote a piece called “Could this really come true: Joe Gibbs Racing to Toyota?” just days before Gibbs Racing made it official and the reason I bring that up is first I asked the question of what isn’t JGR getting from GM in terms of support? And second, is Chevrolet ready to loose Tony Stewart? First JGR got everything from GM in terms of support they needed, that never should have been a question, but the second is what the bigger story here is, I believe Tony Stewart should be in a Chevrolet period and despite the fact that for 2008 and 2009 he will be driving a Toyota, in 2010-2011, look for Stewart to be driving a Chevrolet once again, but I just don’t know where.
Finally, on last nights WindTunnel, one of the guests was Darrell Waltrip and most of the time I enjoy listening to what he has to say on the topics except if has anything to do with removing a Cup date from NHIS, but last night he said something that struck me, being changing the Busch cars to Pony cars… he said they shouldn’t, simply because when ever NASCAR has changed the Busch series to be different from the Cup Series, it didn’t work, but the answer he gave sounds good to me, DW said that the Busch Series should use old Cup Series cars, as much as I hate it in terms of staying with old cup cars, he’s right, the owners are going to have 100’s of old cup cars and really no place to sell or use them, maybe except for the ARCA Series. Recently Frank Kimmel has been driving and winning in a used Matt Kenseth Cup car, he didn’t even repaint it, but just put decals on it and off to the races.
Tony Stewart's 2006 Modified Tour car.
Image was taken by me with a Kodak EasyShare DX6490.
One other thought from me on the Busch Series, NASCAR has to use a car they already have in production, my pick would be a 110 wheelbase modified tour car… it would be a mix of old cup cars and/or modified tour car pictured above…Think about that.
4 Feedback/Comments:
Hey, good column and great idea on the modifieds. I don't necessarily agree but it's something I'd never thought about before. The thing with the Pony Cars, as I've read it, is that they would use the chassis, engines and pretty much everything except the body from the old Cup cars, so that would reduce the huge inventory of the cars that are out there. Either way it'll be interesting to see.
I agree Stewart should stay Chevy and his dirt team isn't moving over to Toyota...that should be a sign.
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Johnny, I didn't know the specs on the pony cars were, if they were to use the old cup cars, it might work, but Pony cars are shorter then these long sedans - 110 inch wheelbase for a pony car? If we are going the route of using the old cup cars, why not use two-door coupe or two-door sedan (example: Cobalt coupe, Ford Focus Coupe, Dodge Caliber and Scion tC coupe) like in the NHRA Pro Stock class?
Kim, thanks for those words... consider this, one reader who is a blogger refers to me as brutally clear and intelligent... either way, works for me.
Not everyone has the same view points nor do I expect them too and that goes double for my readers.
Thanks for the comments.
You're right, the stock pony cars are quite a bit shorter but I think that the Big 3 would just crank out some longer custom bodies and all would be happy. Your 2 door coupe idea is cool too, it's just that I think the marketing dept. somehow wants to work the big names of "Camero, Mustang and Challenger" in there.
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