Thoughts on An Epic Battle Looming
Coming into Watkins Glen, the talk was centered on how Jimmie Johnson has become the favorite to win this year’s Sprint Cup championship. And it’s not hard to see why everyone has been beating the Johnson drum the last two-weeks. He won the Brickyard 400 for the second-straight year, and rallied back in impressive fashion from a three-lap deficit to leave Pocono with a 12th-place finish. What has gone under the radar though, is that Johnson’ biggest hurled to his fourth-straight title, Tony Stewart, has been just as impressive in the two races leading up to the Glen. He finishing third at Indy, and staged his own comeback at Pocono to leave with yet another top-10 finish. If there was any doubt that Tony Stewart shouldn’t be talked about in the same breath as Jimmie Johnson, look at what Stewart accomplished yesterday. Stewart led the most laps, won for the third time in 2009, and his fifth time at Watkins Glen, and extended his vast points lead to an immense 260 points over second-place Johnson. Not to mention that on the year, Stewart has a series-best 18 top-10s, four more than Johnson has, and his average finish is almost four places better than the three-time champ. Is Stewart, and most importantly his new team, up to the task of dethroning the 48? I don’t know. What I do know though, is that the 10 race fight between clearly the two best teams in NASCAR in 2009 is one that I am eagerly anticipating.
 
I read and heard a lot this weekend how Jimmie Johnson needed a win on a road course to justify his credentials as one of the best to sit behind the wheel of a stock car. That’s ridiculous. Actually, that’s beyond ridiculous, it’s asinine. Johnson has won three-straight championships, something only one other driver has ever accomplished. He’s won one Daytona 500, three Brickyard 400’s, and 43 career Sprint Cup races. Does a career like that need anything else to justify it? A win on a road course is going to elevate Johnson’s career to another level? Really? I don’t think so. Johnson has done more than enough already. Don’t forget too, that Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR champion won only one race on a road course, and he didn’t do until 1995, a full 15 years after his first championship. If Earnhardt hadn’t won that race, would that have made him a lesser driver? Of course not! Much as it won’t diminish Johnson’s credentials if he never gets that win on a track where you turn left and right.

I’m not an engineer, in fact me changing a light bulb is cause for celebration, but what I do know, is that whenever NASCAR is running on a road course and it rains, they should be racing. Just about every other prominent series in the world runs in the rain whenever they’re turning right and left. Goodyear and NASCAR say they have been working on making this happen for I don’t know how many years now, someday, hopefully soon this will actually come to fruition. I guess I won’t hold my breath because I don’t want to start looking like a Smurf.
 
While Kyle Busch’s third-place finish yesterday didn’t move him inside the Chase, it might very well be exactly what Busch needs to jumpstart his chances and propel himself inside the Chase cutoff. Busch is a momentum driver, so it will be very interesting to see if he can carry yesterday’s strong run to Michigan this coming Sunday.

This is going to sound a bit convoluted, but to me it makes perfect sense, and I guess in a way it’s more of a backhanded compliment in regards to what I think of Juan Pablo Montoya and his ability. Despite a sixth-place finish, which should secure Montoya a place in this year’s Chase, I was disappointed in his performance yesterday. I guess with how strong Montoya looked the past two-weeks, I expected him to be more of a factor in the outcome. He never led a lap, never ran near the front, and was really never in contention for the win. I guess win number two will now have to wait for another week.
Posted: 8/12/2009 1:06:53 PM
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