Amongst Historical Greatness

Pearson or Petty?
Allison or Yarborough?
Earnhardt or Gordon?
Now, we must ask ourselves Johnson or Edwards?
It is evident there is a rivalry brewing in NASCAR, not like the old 'beat-and-bang, send 'em into the wall' rivalries of yore, but a more cautious one. I don't think it will reach the pinnacles that the others have, but if Edwards has a few more seasons Edwards, not only Johnson, will be in the stories of racing's greatest for generations to come.
Even though, on tonight, the much anticipated achievement Johnson, Chad Knaus's crew and the entire Hendrick organization has sought after, many will boo and jeer and shout allegations of conspiracy, listen not to them. Revel in the fact that we are witnesses to a grand time in our sport's history. Do not hope for misfortune or wish ill health on any of these people. Remember, they too have suffered to get there (2004, Martinsville). Applaud, at least, the genius of Chad Knaus, many call him a cheater, and maybe he is, but based on NASCAR history, and NASCAR past that everyone seems to be stuck in, the cheaters prospered, as long as they didn't get caught. Cheating, even if it is lacking morally, is what drove this sport to the technological enigma it is today; getting every minor improvement, grabbing all the 'grey area' you could - this is yet another aspect that makes NASCAR so unique from the 'stick and ball sports'. Remember this, and remember the history that took place earlier tonight.
Remember this when Johnson finally has a drought; it will come, just as it has to Jeff Gordon. Remember Gordon was supposed to be the next Champion to win the elusive 7 Cup Titles. Now, it seems it will more likely land with Johnson. Weather or not the man from El Cajon, Cali. ever wins another race, let alone championship, he is among the greatest drivers NASCAR and the racing world has ever seen.

Congratulations Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, the #48 Lowe's Team and all of Hendrick Motorsports for another NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship!
(Hendrick's 8th).

Also, please note, Jeff Gordon now has 7 Cup Championships, 4 as a driver and 3 as an owner. Keep coming back over the off season to see my predictions for next year and a season review of organizations. Also a full race review will but up later this week.




Share

Phoenix Review and H-MS Preview!

It's not so much phoenix that is the talking point this week, but the events swirling around in the silliest part of the true silly season. Earlier today Chip Ganassi Racing With Felix Sabates announced they have successfully completed a merger deal with Dale Earnhardt, INC. In my own personal opinion I truly believe Dale Earnhardt, Sr. is rolling around restlessly in his grave. There is nothing wrong with Chip Ganassi, the man is a savvy business connoseiur and obviously has some idea of the racing world, at least on the IRL side (keep in mind they've been behind since they lost--er...fired Marlin a few years ago). As far as DEI? They will not be the legacy team that Dale Earnhardt had in mind, they will most likely never win a championship and may not be a factor again for a few years, if ever.
First, let me clarify, I am in no way a member of Junior Nation, he's a fine racer but is overrated for sure. Let me say though that if Teresa had let Dale Jr stay at DEI they would not have to worry about sponsorship woes. If she wanted an at-the-track-owner, like Mr. Ganassi, why did she not keep her step-son, and give him the portion of ownership he wanted? Greed. Max Siegel did a fine job at Sony, but he doesn't have the know-how, or in my opinion the desire to be passionate about racing. He too is a fine business man, but I think was driven by one thing- greed.
I don't like mixing politics and racing, but let me just add that it is that sole mindest that got this country in the economic mess we are ing- greed.
On to the cars!
Phoenix did bring us some great stuff that can be brought up to get fans through the off-season. I'm going to go in reverse on this one. On the last lap coming across the finish line, Matt Kenseth for one of the few times, showed some fire and anger, and had every right to. He came off the last corner hard, bouncing off the wall into A.J. Allmendinger who then slid across the track into Juan Pablo Montoya. What led to these events happened around 7 laps to go when Allmendinger, running fresher tires, attempted to push his nose under Kenseth who was battling fiercly with Tony Stewart, and nudged him up into to stewart. Kenseth probably would have saved it but sicne Stewart was there they both spun taking Robby Gordon with them. Allmendinger drove by just fine. I think due partly in fact that Allmendinger is still 'auditioning' for rides next season.
One of the strangest crashes also happened leading to the peculiar circumstances as the race was winding down (see last post here). With about 39 laps or so to go, Montoya got into Casey Mears and spun him, which caused a multi-car crash and had Scott Speed heading into a cloud of smoke and into the back of David Gilliland's #38 Fusion which was then on top of Speed's car. That brought out a red flag, which is part of the reason ABC thought AFV was presumably more important. It was a pretty nifty race, even though Jimmie Johnson was able to claim another victory.
As far as Homestead-Miami and Ford Championship Weekend go if Johnson doesn't wreck or have mechanical failure he will be the 2008 Sprint Cup Champion, tying him with the Legendary Cale Yarborough, the only other driver to win three championships in a row in the history of NASCAR. If Carl Edwards wins the race while leading the most laps Jimmie Johnson needs to finish 36th, if the 48 Impala SS leads a lap he needs to finish 37th, and 39th if he leads the most laps, which should be a breeze if you lead the most laps. It is not over, officially, and methodically just because Roush-Fenway cars are the Kings of Homestead-Miami. Johnson has finished outside the top ten since 2005 when he was 40th due to an accident, he was second in 2004 and 7th last year after winning the pole. Edwards has never won on the 1.5 mile track in southern Florida, but has as many top 5's as Johnson in less starts. It should be a good race to watch, and if not for the Championship, watch it for the top-35 battle, that's a close one. I'd also recommend watching both the Nationwide and Truck races as their points battles are extremley close.
I'll have a review up shortly after Homestead and then I will begin my off season topics.

I fear I may be developing angry blogger syndrome

I'd like to first off address the biggest issue regarding Phoneix, not cheating or scandal, but being cheated. I encourage all of my readers, however many you are, to reach out and be vocal at ABC, the corporates, not your local station. In case your wondering what I'm talking about ABC's programmers decided that the washed up "America's Funniest Home Videos" was more important than the next to last race of the NASCAR season. A race that, given the outcome [Jimmie Johnson winning] could've easily seen a feat wrapped up that has only be achieved once before in the history of our sport. Johnson was 21 points away from locking the title down where no one would've been able to catch him at Homestead as long as he started the race and faced no penalties. Instead the last 38 laps or so were moved to ESPN2 in Eastern and Central time zones. I, fortunately, do have cable although it is poor quality and not the luxurious HD signal I get over the air, so I am thankful for that. But, ABC needs to realize that a good concentration of NASCAR fans are in the eastern time zone and I'd venture to say MOST NASCAR fans are within Central time and Eastern time. There was absolutely no excuse to their decision. I feel sorry for the drivers as well, as I'm sure many of them felt robbed of what should've been their time in front of America as opposed to some guy who got hit in the groin by a rake.

This is what I sent to ABC: "Hey, what the heck was the big idea interrupting the Phoenix NASCAR race for AFV? Does anyone still watch that show? I don't know who in your programming department made that call or what they have against NASCAR, but that was poor judgment! What are AFV's avg. shares anyway? I bet if that was an NFL playoff game or MLB playoff AFV would've been pushed back or never aired. If you guys can't treat your NASCAR contract right, give it up! You've made many angry!"

Please note a review of the race will be up later today or tomorrow as well as a preview of the final race.

A quick note regarding the Texas review

I forgot, in my haste and amidst other happenings, completley about the Gilliland/Montoya wreck at Texas. A reminder: Basically David Gilliland was a lap dow, Juan Pablo Montoya was running tenth. Montoya was having trouble passing the #38 Fusion, a lap car, and bumped and nudged him a bit - in my opinion there is nothing wrong with moving a lapped car if you're on the lead lap. What I do have a major problem with is what happened following that. Coming on to the backstretch Gilliland takes a hard left into Montoya's right rear quarter panel. Now, Gilliland said he was just trying to get back behind Montoya but misjudged and hit Montoya. If he misjudged, he did it by quite a bit, two feet or so. The 42 Texaco Dodge was done for the night, after a hard and somewhat frightening impact with the outside barrier. NASCAR decided to park the 38 with no further penalties. That's the real shame here, is yes, NASCAR needs to let their competitors have flair and emotion, but when something is that blatant and dangerous, there should have at very least been a stiff fine, if not a point deduction. I am not really a fan of Juan Pablo Montoya, he's taken out my drivers numerous times, and I don't mind seeing him have a bad day. However, I don't want to see anyone get hurt, or worse, and what Gilliland did was flat out stupid. The main reason NASCAR makes rules is for safety, and I am still concerned why Gilliland was not penalized beyond what took place that night at Texas Motor Speedway.

Here we go again

There really isn't much to say other than when Johnson's "Bad Day" is still a top twenty and Edwards wins two in a row, there isn't much hope of stopping Jimmie Johnson's historic run that could easily be wrapped up by night's end in the Arizona Desert. The championship will most likely be decided officially in Homestead. If the 48 team can get a mere 60 points up on Carl, it will be a lock. That's quite a bit but going into Ford Championship Weekend, anything over 100 points is going to be difficult to overcome. If Johnson is leading by more than 100 this week, it's all but locked up. Crazier things HAVE happened, the 2008 Championship deciding Formula One race, which put Lewis Hamilton in the points lead by ONE POINT. I doubt it will be that close but the only other 'exciting' thing to watch for is the manufacturing championship which is spread between Chevy, Ford and Toyota, by less than 5 points. The rookie battle is also fairly close but the rookies themselves aren't that exciting. More or less this season will end on a great note, either we can Watch Jimmie Johnson tie/make history; in the unlikely even that doesn't happen, we get to witness one of the greatest upsets in racing, if not sports, history.

Predictions:
Jimmie Johnson will finish in the top 10, Carl Edwards and the Roush Gang will finish in the top 15 and an entry from the RCR stable will win the race.

Keep checking back after the season for my season review, and 2009 overall preview and then team by team review/preview. Also, I am working on developing a new, cleaner format for the 2009 season.

Atlanta Review/ Texas Preview

In Atlanta, Jimmie Johnson was 7th with 7 laps to go. He finished 2nd to Carl Edwards. In victory lane the celebration seemed to fizzle a bit when Edwards was asked if he knew who finished second, he looked at the scoring pylon and uttered a disappointing "Are you kidding me?!" followed by an all too telling "Man, you've rained on my parade all day. I could have done without that one. ... Man, Jimmie is magic."
He did everything he needed to, he went out and drove hard and won the race but only gained a mere 15 points of leader Jimmie Johnson. Earlier in the day Johnson had a pit road speeding penalty, but through the grace of driving and the caution falling to give him his laps back, it was only a matter of time. I've seen and heard people say "it's Jimmie's year" - evidently he moves fast enough he doesn't notice when one year ends and the next begins. The question that will be looming across Daytona in February is 'Will Jimmie Johnson get an unprecedented fourth cup title?'. Cale Yarborough, one of the toughest fiercest competitors this sport has ever been graced by didn't do that, but Jimmie is part of this new era of drivers, in a new era of sport. Jimmie Johnson will have more wins and more Championships than Jeff Gordon by the end of his career, there is little question in my mind about that. He in all honesty has a good 15 years of racing left in him. He can achieve 90 career wins if he averages seasons like these last few, needing just under 6 wins a season to get to 90 before he's age 48. I wanted to be optimistic, I wanted to not believe the media, and yet believe the other half, but the obvious has risen about. Jimmie Johnson, unless a catastrophic event happens in the next 3 races, will be the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, and will be only the second driver in the history of NASCAR to win 3 consecutive championships. His greatest chance at failure comes this week (today) at Texas Motorspeedway, my favorite track. He's won there though, but this is a great chance for Carl Edwards to really gain some ground.

On to the classification system! [ I need a good name for this section for 2009, send any ideas to me]

2008 Presumptive Champion: Jimmie Johnson - alright, pilgrim, who's gunna stop him now?
2008 May be able to pull out some kind of miracle: Carl Edwards
2008 "Also Rans" : Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Following the race at Homestead-Miami I will have a short recap of the race and to fill the offseason I have a few ideas, first of all a season recap, recalling my favorite moments of the year, a Championship banquet review, any other thoughts that enter my head and for about 4 weeks a series of reviews for each team's 2008 performance any changes for the 2009 season and how I think they will fare next season. I will also discuss the owners championship, rookies and any other hot topics that arise in the next weeks. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote!