Jimmie Johnson's name doesn't exactly radiate when you mention the greatest drivers in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series history. However, he might just creep into that list if he's able to repeat as champion this season. That last guy to repeat is his so-called mentor, Jeff Gordon, who won back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998.
Can he do it? I think so. Even though he had a very tough summer, he and his team have ounce again found the magic at the right time. They put together a string of incredible finishes during The Chase last year, and I think he'll be just as consistent this year.
There are a lot of guys who have a great shot at it. Certainly don't count out Gordon himself, Tony Stewart or even Kurt Busch. But, if you're going to put your money on any one of the 12 drivers, you might want to throw it in Johnson's direction. There's a lot to be said for consistency, and Johnson and his team seem to have found it again.
There's probably a lot of you out there that are thinking, "Why in the world didn't Jeff Gordon just put Jimmie Johnson into the wall?" in order to win the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway. I'm sure Johnson himself was thinking that.
It's not as if Gordon didn't try to move him out of the way. Gordon said that himself, and, with the Car of Tomorrow and it's nuances, it was a difficult task.
Kudos go out to Gordon, however, for not outright wrecking him. He did just about everything else he could do to get past him. But, as Gordon knows, it would have made for a tense situation between the two friends and teammates, and it probably could have come back to haunt him later. He didn't take the cowardly way out like Brian Vickers did at Talladega last October.
Good job, Jeff. That's a great way to earn even more respect than you have now.
I hope that we can now all forget about the fact that Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were caught cheating following qualifying for last year's Daytona 500. EVERYBODY cheats, as we have discovered this week. Some are just better at hiding it than others.
I applaud the actions of NASCAR for lowering the boom on Michael Waltrip and his team. The money isn't much to them, but the suspensions and the loss of championship points sure are a wakeup call.
Evernham Motorsports got their just due as well, along with Roush Fenway Racing and Robbie Reiser, Matt Kenseth's crew chief. Again, kudos to NASCAR for cracking down. They're backing up their words.
It all makes Johnson and Knaus' actions seem insignificant, eh?
After reading about the changes to The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, I've got to say that I'm impressed. NASCAR, I'm sure, put countless hours of thought and discussion about the changes and, for my money, came up with a pretty good solution.
Race winners should be rewarded for their excellence, and they did so with a change in the points during the regular season. It's possible now for a race winner to receive up to 25 more points than the second-place finisher. That should make the winners a lot happier.
The 400-point cutoff was done away with, and I also believe that's a good thing. The only flaw I see is that they're allowing 12 in the Chase instead of keeping it at 10. I could go through the whole deal about how the playoffs in each of the big four sports have too many teams, but it's all been said before. That's still my stance, however, and 10 is a great number for the Chase. Guess we don't want to leave out the Tony Stewarts or the Greg Biffles of the series. But, if they're not good enough to make the top 10, then they shouldn't be in.
Again, good job, NASCAR, with one glaring exception.
In the 12-year history of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, there has not been a driver who has won back-to-back championships. Jack Sprague, a three-time champion, couldn't do it. Neither could Ron Hornaday, or Skinner. Skinner probably came the closest. He won the inaugural title in 1995 and then finished third in 1996 after faltering the final few races of the season. Could this be the year we see a repeat champion? I'm going out on a limb to say "yes." Bodine has been a model of consistency in the Truck Series ever since he joined the series full-time in 2005. His loyalty to Germain Racing is an admirable quality, and he has worked hard to be the first of the three racing Bodine brothers to win a NASCAR championship. When they come back to Homestead in November for the season finale, Bodine will be celebrating again. Bank on it.
This has probably been hashed and hashed and re-hashed over the past few weeks, but I'm going to re-hash it some more. What should Dale Jr. do about his impending expiring contract at DEI? Should he stay at DEI or should he go elsewhere?
I'm taking the the high road. Junior's got the clout behind him enough to say, "I'm outta here." Teresa Earnhardt obviously doesn't want him there at DEI. He can take his Budweiser sponsorship and go anywhere he chooses.
The best location? Richard Childress Racing, of course. He should tell Richard he wants to come over and drive the No. 3 car right now and finish his career there. It's been argued by some that Budweiser doesn't want a black car but a red one. I don't see that. Budweiser and Dale Jr. were meant for each other, and the company would be ecstatic to have a black No. 3 on the track every week. Any fans he might not have had would certainly come over to his camp with that type of combination.
Whether Junior will do that or not, who knows? He could stay at DEI and gather enough money to try and buy Teresa Earnhardt out sometime down the road, sort of a "hostile takeover" of the company, if you will (has anyone ever seen the movie "Secret of My Success" with Michael J. Fox?). He could stay with DEI for the rest of his career and end up owning the company outright in a few years.
In any case, Junior will certainly do what he feels is best for him. He can't lose either way, but I know we'd all like to see that black No. 3 back out on the track with an Earnhardt driving it as soon as possible. Who knows, I might even secretly become a Junior fan if that happens.
It's been a couple of weeks, time enough to digest the official announcement that Ricky Rudd has returned to Robert Yates Racing. It's a good thing that Rudd was able to take a year off and that he was able to come back to the NEXTEL Cup Series and find a good ride.
The question here is: Ricky, what were you thinking when you left RYR in the first place to go to the Wood Brothers? Rudd left RYR after a stormy 2002 season, and, only he, the people close to him and Yates and the people close to him know why that relationship was severed four years ago. Until mid-season 2002, Rudd was a championship contender. With all of the distractions about his eminent departure, the team's performance started going downhill.
But to go over to the Wood Brothers, where he had no chance of even winning a race? I remember sitting in that press conference when he was announced, thinking "Why Ricky, why?"
You have to do what you think is best for you and your family, but this just conjures up bad memories. Perhaps if he had stayed with RYR and worked out the differences with Yates, Texaco would still be on the side of the car along with the No. 28, Elliott Sadler would have spent 2003-2005 somewhere else, nobody would have heard of David Gilliland yet and Dale Jarrett might have finished his career at RYR because it was still thriving.
You never know.
Ever wonder why the NASCAR Busch Series has no identity? Take a look at the team lineup for 2007. As of right now, there are less than 20 teams that are scheduled to run a full season with only one driver in their car. Only half of those have any kind of legitimate shot to win a Busch Series championship.
Most teams that are competitive to win races — the big name teams — have more than one driver. Joe Gibbs' two cars, the No. 18 and the No. 20, have three and two drivers, respectively. Greg Biffle and Todd Kluever will split time in the No. 16 Roush Racing Ford. Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer will split time in the No. 29 Chevrolet.
The No. 33 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick Inc. actually has four drivers scheduled to enter races, and KHI's other car, the No. 77 Chevrolet, has three. Ginn Motorsports is fielding one car for drivers Regan Smith and Kraig Kinser.
Everything is left to the imagination as far as the Busch Series is concerned. As a matter of fact, we just might have a situation next year very similiar to this year, when Harvick ran off with the championship. You just might see Carl Edwards do that in 2007. Who in the world is going to challenge him, Mike Wallace or Auggie Vidovich?
This is probably the reason we don't have A Chase in the Busch Series. There aren't 10 viable teams for a Chase.
The Busch Series used to have its own identity. Now, there's not much left.
It's not often that I can say, or will say, "I told you so." But, what the heck, I'm going to do it anyway.
Prior to the start of the 2006 season, I predicted that this would finally be Jimmie Johnson's year, the year that he would shake off his second-best label and win the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship. There were detractors — especially in our office. Oh yes, there were detractors, especially when I began to get behind Johnson's efforts. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I had gotten behind a "cheater." I was also told, back in April, that Johnson would NEVER win a NEXTEL Cup Series championship.
All looked black for Johnson when Brian Vickers dumped him mercilessly at Talladega. But, when Johnson finished ninth at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was vindication that I had backed a good driver who is talented enough and hungry enough to win a title.
I hadn't picked a NEXTEL Cup Series champion correctly since 2002, when Tony Stewart won, so, I was due. I must be on a roll, with Johnson's championship coming on the heels of the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series.
Thanks for vindicating me, Jimmie. Enjoy your championship.
Matt Kenseth hasn't exactly been the biggest cheerleader for himself or his team over the past couple of weeks. He's been playing up how poorly he and his team have been running and that they literally have very little chance of winning the NEXTEL Cup Series championship.
Kenseth is only 63 points behind Jimmie Johnson heading into the Ford 400. That's not a tremendously insurmountable lead, especially considering Kenseth finished third at Homestead-Miami Speedway last year.
You never know what's going to happen with Johnson. He's had a great run over the last five weeks with no finishes lower than second, but things could happen. Look at Tony Stewart last year. Had Johnson run up front and gotten a victory or perhaps a second place run, he might have been able to win the championship last year or at least come within a few points.
Come on, Matt. At least try to pump your team up a little bit going into the last race. They could use a little enthusiasm right now.