2010 Restrictor Plate Rule Changes

Before I begin, I must apologize for not posting in over a month. That said, let’s talk about the restrictor plate races this year. Rule changes that will affect competition include a likely rear-spoiler change, yellow-line rules, and the size of the restrictor plate.

After a recent test at Texas Motor Speedway with drivers Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, and Brian Vickers, the use of a spoiler instead of the wing the Sprint Cup cars currently use is being debated. The drivers testing the spoiler had mostly good things to say about it. The cars would not be so awful to drive in traffic, for one. With the wing, a driver running 15th seems to have a much harder time passing others, as opposed to the leader in clean air, who usually can take off and leave the field. I think the spoiler looks a lot cooler, too. It brings back that look the old car had.

When Ryan Newman became airborne at Talladega, he was on dry asphalt, not grass.

The spoiler also will be a big help in restrictor plate races for keeping cars grounded when they spin backwards. As we saw in 2009, when a car got turned, it often times lifted off like a plane. I believe that big wing on the back, while creating downforce when running forward, has the opposite effect when turned backwards. When Ryan Newman flipped at Talladega during the fall race, he was on asphalt when his car became airborne. That, coupled with the roof flaps, shouldn’t have resulted in his flight. The wing caused him to flip, and with the arrival of the spoiler, perhaps we will see a reduced number of accidents like this.

NASCAR is considering taking away the yellow lines that form the barrier between the racetrack and the apron, which is great, because after the carnage at Talladega in the spring, drivers should be allowed to go below a car to pass, instead of turning a guy like Brad Keselowski did to Carl Edwards. Brad wasn’t at fault, he was just obeying the rules. Having been put into a box, he had no choice, unless he wanted to be penalized, like Regan Smith was when he passed Tony Stewart below the line, going for the win.

The bad side to having no lines will be drivers diving below others and causing huge wrecks. Mark Martin suggested an idea, saying anything goes coming off turn four on the final lap. The rest of the race needs the lines.

Bump-drafting also is likely to be allowed. The rule at Talladega that punished bump-drafting in the turns was stupid. I don’t understand why NASCAR made that rule because it worked in the spring when guys like Dale Jr, Ryan Newman, and Carl Edwards made it work. The thing that didn’t work was when guys blocked and got turned, like Edwards.

Anyway, with these rules, NASCAR should be a lot more interesting to watch this year.

Which Races Will She Race?

Danica will be racing a part-time schedule next year in the #7 GoDaddy.com Chevy (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

By now, all the racing fans in the world have heard of Danica Patrick deciding to climb aboard with JR Motorsports and race a limited schedule next year in the NASCAR Nationwide series. You can all read my thoughts about her here. The press conference didn’t reveal much, though. All that Danica, JRM co-owner Kelley Earnhardt and GoDaddy.com founder/CEO Bob Parsons said was that she would be racing in the Feb. 6 ARCA season-opener at Daytona, Tony Eury Jr. will be her crew chief, and the Nationwide races she runs will be scheduled around her IRL season, which runs from Mar. 14-Oct. 2.

One thing they didn’t mention were the exact races she will be running. So, I decided to make a list of the ones she will run. This is based on tracks she will most likely do well on/races that coincide well with her IRL season. She will probably run 10-12 races.

Feb. 13 – Daytona

Feb. 20 – Fontana

Apr. 24 – Talladega

May 7 – Darlington

June 12 – Kentucky

June 19 – Milwaukee

June 26 – Loudon

July 9 – Chicago

July 31 – Iowa

Aug. 7 – Watkins Glen

Aug. 29 – Montreal

Oct. 9 -Fontana

Oct. 23 – Gateway

Nov. 13 -Phoenix

Nov. 20 – Homestead

Ok, so maybe that’s a little more than 12, but those are all good racetracks that Danica should gain some experience on.

Decade Of Change

As I was thinking back on the world of NASCAR in the 00’s, the sport has witnessed the most change in this ten-year span than any other decade. The series’ name change (Winston/Nextel/Sprint), the advent of the Chase in 2004, the drivers themselves, and the historic crowning of a fourth consecutive title for Jimmie Johnson.

Looking back at the drivers who were on top at the beginning, in 2000, only six drivers racing that year are still active and competitive today: Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (and even Jr. hasn’t been good this year). All the other drivers are either retired, dead, or just not competitive at all in this day and age (Bobby Labonte, Joe Nemechek).

What really got me thinking about all this was a video I watched on YouTube (below). The death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 was what really set the wheels of change into motion, in my opinion. Some were for the better, like safety features. The Head And Neck Restraint System (HANS), which protects a driver in a crash, SAFER barriers, and the COT are all examples. Other changes haven’t been so successful, like drivers bland personalities (if a swear word were to slip, NASCAR would issue penalties), the Chase (which is arguably allowing the wrong driver(s) to win), and the racing we see on restrictor plate tracks, especially Talladega.

Viva Las Vegas!

Boy, NASCAR made the right decision to move the year-end ceremonies out of New York City to the west coast, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Not that the Big Apple didn’t live up to expectations. It was glamorous all right, with the awards presentation in the elegant Waldorf-Astoria. But something was lacking that Vegas has provided thus far in Champions Week.

The week has included the Jimmie Johnson Roast. The top-ten drivers in points all got a chance to poke some fun at four-time champ Jimmie Johnson. While some made fun of Jimmie’s hair and personality (“Four-in-a-row…wow, I bet you wish you could do that with your wife” -Ryan Newman) (“The only thing faster than Jimmie’s car is his receding hairline” -Denny Hamlin), some used a few four-letter words that can’t be repeated here. It just goes to show how the real personalities and humor of these drivers aren’t afraid to step over the line, instead of the vanilla we usually see. So, while the glamour and black-tie events of New York are gone, the crazy and let-loose atmosphere of Vegas is here!

In fact, NASCAR  has made a few pretty good decisions recently. Let’s see, double file restarts, earlier start times, the Nationwide series Car Of Tomorrow, to name a few. And, with the economy the way it is now, any good news is welcome news.

A Standard To Pick A Winner…

Check this out….

1998 Brickyard 400 winner: Jeff Gordon                                                                                                                                                        1998 NASCAR Cup Champion: Jeff Gordon

1999 Brickyard winner: Dale Jarrett                                                                                                                                                                 1999 NASCAR Champion: Dale Jarrett

2000 Brickyard winner: Bobby Labonte                                                                                                                                                       2000 Champion: Bobby Labonte

2001 Brickyard winner: Jeff Gordon                                                                                                                                                                2001 Champion: Jeff Gordon

2005 Brickyard winner: Tony Stewart                                                                                                                                                            2005 Champion: Tony Stewart

2006 Brickyard winner: Jimmie Johnson                                                                                                                                                     2006 Champion: Jimmie Johnson

2008 Brickyard winner: Jimmie Johnson                                                                                                                                                     2008 Champion: Jimmie Johnson

2009 Brickyard winner: Jimmie Johnson                                                                                                                                                     2009 Champion: Jimmie Johnson

Notice a pattern?….That’s right, eight times out of 16 years the winner of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis has gone on to win the Cup series championships that same year. That’s half!  And if the 2004 season didn’t use the Chase, then Jeff Gordon would’ve made it nine for 16!……I just wanted to mention that. I guess it’s true that only true champions win at Indianapolis.

 

2009 Season Recap

Every year in NASCAR is different from past years in different ways. This season was no exception, as Jimmie Johnson made headlines and smashed records previously thought unbreakable in this day and age.

The year started with a wimper, as the Daytona 500 ended up being the Daytona 380, as the rains came to halt the race prematurely. Matt Kenseth left as the winner, his first Daytona victory, and as the teams headed west to California, Kenseth continued to impress, winning the first two races of the season. His success was short-lived, though, as he blew a motor early in Las Vegas and finished last. The remainder of the season saw Matt slowly drop in the points and just missed the Chase for the first time in his career.

The Busch brothers were on a roll early as well, winning the next three races (Kyle at Vegas and Bristol, and Kurt at Atlanta). Kurt Busch experienced a comeback season of sorts, winning two races and playing the role of contender in the Chase. His brother Kyle, on the other hand, saw a four-win season go to naught, as he, like Kenseth, narrowly missed the Chase.

Jeff Gordon led the points standing for a while early on, buoyed by a popular and long-overdue win in Texas, but a surging Tony Stewart grabbed the lead after Dover in the spring. Stewart, in charge of his own team at Stewart-Haas Racing, wasn’t expected to have any success with a team that has been known as a back-of-the-pack team. But, he has silenced the critics in a big way, winning four races (starting at Pocono in June) and qualifying for the Chase, along with his SHR teammate Ryan Newman. To give some perspective, Newman hasn’t made the Chase since 2005.

All the while, Jimmie Johnson played it cool, hanging around the top-five in points with three regular-season wins to his credit, including a second-straight Brickyard trophy. But by the time the Chase came along in September, Jimmie put on his Superman cape, and that 48 team came to life, winning four of the ten Chase races and easily grabbing a record fourth-consecutive championship. His average finish in the 10-race span was 6.8, but if you take out his surprising 38th-place finish at Texas (accident), his average finish is 3.3!  Now that is domination.

Mark Martin ended being Jimmies closest competition in the Chase, ending up second in points for a fifth time in his career, adding to those in 1990, ‘94, ‘98, and 2002. Even though he ended up one spot short, the season has been a success for Mark, who, at 50 years of age, ended up with five wins, second behind Johnsons seven. Who says old geezers can’t keep up?

Juan Pablo Montoya made a surprising run at Jimmie Johnson in the Chase. Although he failed to win this year (coming very close at Indianapolis), he posted top-fives in the first four Chase races to close within 100 points of Jimmie before faltering at Charlotte.

 

Joey Logano ended up the youngest winner in NASCAR history when he outlasted the rain at New Hampshire. (Photo: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)

 

Don’t forget the finishes…and first-time winners. Joey Logano, who would ultimately win Rookie of the Year honors, started slow with a 43rd in the Daytona 500, but riding the wave of  a few ninth-place finishes, won at Loudon in late June, using strategy against the rain to become the youngest winner in the history of NASCAR, at 19 years and 35 days.

Some fans may say the victory wasn’t earned because he won it when he stayed out while the leaders pitted for fuel, which is very much the same way David Reutimann won at Charlotte, but I say it’s legit because they outsmarted the competition, even though they weren’t the fastest. Strategy is just as important to succeed as having a fast racecar.

My pick for most exciting/craziest/unexpected finish goes to Brad Keselowski’s win at Talladega in April. Brad, running in only his fifth career Cup race, led only the final lap as he pushed and shoved his way past Carl Edwards, who ended up careening into the fence in a spectacular wreck.

David Reutimann, or Rooty-Tooty as I like to call him, won his first race in a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 in May, and with that win, almost made the Chase, ultimately coming up short. Outgoing Roush driver Jamie McMurray had one more win left in him before leaving for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, taking the fall race at Talladega in another wild finish that saw both Ryan Newman and Mark Martin tumbling and flying upside down in the final laps. The victory was McMurrays first since July 2007 at Daytona.

Brian Vickers had a great run up to the Chase, racking up the top-tens and even winning at Michigan in August, which put him in the Chase for the first time in his career, but once the 10-race playoffs started, he fizzled, with no laps led, and no top-tens.

Drivers that experienced disappointing seasons include Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, David Ragan, and Clint Bowyer, who all went winless in 2009. Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards (who won a series-high nine races in 2008) both failed to visit victory lane in 2009, but both made the Chase nevertheless.

With the drivers celebrating in Las Vegas for the first time (instead of the usual ceremony in New York City), 2009 is  over with, and we now wait anxiously for the next seasons engines to roar to life once again. Only 77 more days until the 2010 Daytona 500!

 

 

A Man Of His Own Right…

Jimmie Johnson has created a new standard among NASCAR drivers. (Photo: Peter Andrew Bosch / Miami Herald Staff)

With the conclusion of the Ford 400 today at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, Jimmie Johnson created a page of his own in the NASCAR record books. Four consecutive Sprint Cup championships. With the advent of the Chase playoff system, Jimmie has played the system to perfection, capping off the decade by destroying and pulling away from the rest of the field in his two latest triumphs. The dominance the 48 team has shown in the last few years has been breathtaking. 47 career wins since his rookie season in 2002, four championships in eight years…this man has been rightly named “Superman”.

With a 108-point lead ahead of teammate Mark Martin coming into the day, all Jimmie had to do was finish 25th or better to clinch. Starting on pole, he led the first lap to gain five bonus points, meaning a 27th-place finish would suffice to clinch. The Lowes team played it cool all race long, with the exception of a few tense moments when Clint Bowyer wasn’t giving him much room to pass, irritating Johnson enough to complain about Bowyer.

Jimmie cruised to a fifth-place finish, ahead of Mark, who finished 12th, to land 141 points ahead and with the Cup in hand, celebrated into the night.

Denny Hamlin won his personal-best fourth race of the year at Homestead, which leap-frogged him to fifth in the final year-end standings. Him and the #11 FedEx team have shown in the last third of the year that they are the team looking to upset Jimmie’s championship winning streak, as they have consistently been able to run with the 48 team. If not for some bad racing luck in the Chase, Denny might have been the one celebrating a title tonight.

While the magnitude hasn’t quite yet set in, the historic implications of this event will be the standard all drivers will strive for. Jimmie has set the bar very high, and it ranks up there with some of the best marks:  a record seven titles only two men have achieved, an untouchable 200 career wins, seven Daytona 500 victories…the list goes on.

The most interesting story of the night aside from the historic achievement was Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya’s set of run-ins. Running side-by-side on lap 116, Stewart forced Montoya down the track on the backstretch, which cut Juan’s tire and sent him into the wall. After making repairs in the garage, Juan got a shot at Tony about 50 laps later, punting him out of the way on the frontstretch, relegating Stewart to a 22nd-place finish, and ultimately finishing sixth in points, while Juan finished 38th in the race and eighth in points.

- Jeff Gordon started 20th and made some progress early, and stayed rather constant throughout the race. He ended up sixth, one position behind Jimmie, and ended up 3rd in the points overall, 179 markers behind Johnson. The season has been a frustrating one, as Jeff recorded only one win (Texas in April), and one pole (Texas in November), but he was very consistent all year.

The problem with Jeff is that he isn’t the young superstar racer he used to be. Marriage and a baby girl have really stunted his growth in the win column. He’s become the cool, savvy veteran like the drivers he used to race against as a young adult. This lack of aggressiveness has cost him on the track, especially with the introduction of double-file restarts. He doesn’t take chances, and it is that quality that produced only one win in 2009, and zero wins last year.

Le Finale

All good things must come to an end, and so here we are, entering the 36th and final race of the 2009 NASCAR season, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, not far from where the season started, at Daytona. It has been a surprising season, with start-up team Stewart-Haas leading the points with Tony Stewart, who has won four races this year, and Ryan Newman. Both made the Chase. Jimmie Johnson has been “Superman” in the Chase, and is on track to win an unprecedented fourth-consecutive title. Old news.

Homestead is a 1.5-mile variable banked speedway, with anywhere from 20 to 24 degrees of banking in the turns, which allows competitors to run side-by-side more easily. This race has also been the final race of the year since the 2002 season, and usually we see non-championship contenders win, as the driver(s) racing for a title are playing it conservative in hopes of staying out of trouble and scoring a decent finish.

Homestead-Miami Speedway has become synonymous with Jimmie Johnson winning the championship. (UPI Photo/Jeff Daly)

Jimmie Johnson kicked off championship weekend right today in winning the pole. His lap of 173.91 mph (31.049 sec.) knocked rookie Scott Speed off the pole. Speed will start second, with Marcos Ambrose behind him in third. Points runner-up Mark Martin will start fourth, in hopes of catching Jimmie Johnson for the championship. He is currently 108 points behind Johnson, and the most points a competitor can make up on another guy in one race is 161.

Here is the scenario: If Mark were to gain maximum points (lead the most laps and win the race), all Jimmie has to do is finish 25th or better to clinch the championship. While it’s not likely that the #48 team will slip up, it has happened before at this track. In 2005, Jimmie was second in points, chasing Tony Stewart, going into Homestead, but crashed and finished 40th, while Mark Martin finished second that day. That was a swing of  132 points.

Nonetheless, history will be made. Not only will Johnson probably win his fourth championship, but Rick Hendrick is guaranteed to win his 12th owners championship, which is a record.

Roush cars have won the past five races here, so that team will most likely run strong come race-time. Greg Biffle won three in-a-row from ‘04-’06, Matt Kenseth won in ‘07, and Carl Edwards pulled off a fuel gamble to win last year. Edwards’ average finish at this track is also 6.4, so if he is to snap his winless season, this is his last, best chance to do it. In fact, this is the last chance for a couple guys to stave off  a winless season: Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Juan Montoya, to name a few.

- Jeff Gordon will start 20th on Sunday. Homestead-Miami is currently the only track in which Jeff has not won a Cup race at. He has a Busch series victory there in 2000, but nothing in the win column in the Cup series. That’s usually because he ends up racing for the championship most years, so he races conservatively to gain points, instead of going all out for the win. Right now, he’s 169 points behind Johnson, ineligible for the title, so he needs to win on Sunday.

• Joey’s pick to win: Kurt Busch, who has been coming on strong these last few races of the season. He starts 12th, and I expect him to be good on this intermediate oval, which has been his strength all year.

Jeff Could’ve Been In The Same Club…

With the big story this season being Jimmie Johnson’s unprecedented fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title, I got to thinking….this could have been the second time a driver has accomplished that feat. Jeff Gordon almost won four in a row from 1995-’98, if only ‘96 had turned out a little better….

Jeff Gordon could've easily been the first driver to win four consecutive titles.

Jeff won the Winston Cup championship in 1995, 1997, and 1998; three out of four years. Had he won it in ‘96, that would’ve made him the first ever driver to four-peat. He finished second in the standings that year, just 37 points behind champion ‘Terry Labonte.

Believe it or not, he was leading the standings with only four races to go, 111 points up on Terry. Coming off a three-race winning streak (and the final race at North Wilkesboro Speedway), Jeff looked set to win his second NASCAR title. But engine problems that led to a 31st-place finish the next week at Charlotte, coupled with Labonte’s win at that race, cut almost all those points off his lead. Gordon left Charlotte with a slim one-point margin over Labonte with three races to go.

At Rockingham the next week, Jeff had a good car, but he became trapped a lap down and was never able to gain it back, ultimately finishing 12th. He lost the points lead to Terry, who finished third that day. Jeff was looking at a 32-point deficit with two races left on the schedule.

Phoenix didn’t help Jeff’s chances at rebounding, as he finished fifth to Terry’s third-place showing. This again allowed Labonte to widen his lead in the points to 47 as they entered the final race of the season at Atlanta. Not only was Jeff trying to catch Terry for the title, he was also hoping to keep third-place Dale Jarrett behind him, as he was within 100 points of both drivers.

In the season finale, both drivers led multiple laps to snag bonus points, but Jeff was only able to gain ten points on Terry, finishing third while Terry was fifth, ultimately coming up short for the Winston Cup championship. Terry’s brother, Bobby, won the race that day, and the brothers both celebrated as winners.

My point is, had Jeff not had the problems he did, even if one race had turned out different, he would’ve won the title in 1996, then gone on to win in ‘97 and ‘98, becoming the first four-peater. And, Jimmie Johnson would have had a partner to share this record with…

You Can’t Keep A Good Dog Down…

The win at Phoenix is Johnson's fourth out of the last five races there, and seventh of the season. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire)

Just when you think there’s a crack in the armor of the #48 team, they step it up and dominate the field. That was the scene today with Jimmie Johnson winning at Phoenix one week after wrecking three laps into the race at Texas and finishing 38th. Going into the day, Mark Martin was the expected man that would chop more points off of Johnson’s lead, but he never was able to get out front, and ultimately finished fourth, which put him 108 points behind Jimmie going into the season finale next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, making him the only driver capable of catching Jimmie. If Mark were to lead the most laps and win there, Jimmie needs to finish 25th or better to clinch the title. That task should come easy for the 48 team, which has shown to be the dominant driver of the decade.

- Jeff Gordon, starting from the 14th position, rocketed to the front early on, driving up to the top-five in the first 50 laps. Adjustments made to the #24 car sent it backward, and Jeff ended the day in ninth, 169 points out of the lead, which mathematically eliminates Jeff from title contention. As soon as Johnson takes the green flag on Sunday, Jeff will be officially eliminated.

At this point of the season, with one race to go, I’ve given up on waiting for Jimmie to slip up and lose the title, and now I am excited to witness NASCAR history and watch Jimmie win his unprecedented fourth consecutive championship. The stranglehold that team has on the sport is something nearly beyond belief, and you really can’t argue he didn’t deserve it, because he truly worked hard to get to this point of his career. When Earnhardt won a bunch of championships, there were naysayers, but the point is that it is his time. This is the Jimmie Johnson Era. Petty had his time. So did Waltrip, Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon. Someday, Jimmie will be struggling to make races, and we can say, “remember when he won four-in-a-row?”  And who knows, maybe this time next year, we will watching him take his fifth crown?  THAT would be a feat for the ages.