Lisa Fowler - SCR

2008 Changes: Good or Bad After 12 Races?

May 30, 2008
Lisa Fowler - SCR

As we near the halfway point of the regular race season, I thought it would be a good time to look back at the happenings so far in 2008.

As we started Speedweeks in Daytona there were many situations that we were anxious to keep an eye on:

1) How would Dale Earnhardt Jr. perform in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports?
2) How would Kyle Busch fit in at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)?
3) How would the switch to Toyota effect the Joe Gibbs organization?
4) How would the open-wheel drivers do in NASCAR?
5) How would the new car (COT) perform on the 1.5-mile tracks?
6) How would Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) survive without Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

I think that most of these questions have been answered in a more positive way than we may have expected.

Although Dale Earnhardt Jr. has still not made it to Victory Lane in a points paying race, he has had what may be the best and certainly most consistent year of his career. With two wins in Daytona (the Bud Shootout and his Gatorade duel), his season got off to a terrific start. Now standing third in the points, we have seen him run at the front of every race at all types of tracks. If not for his unlucky meeting with Casey Mears at California (still blame that one on NASCAR and the track owners), he could very well have the points lead. As much as his success and consistency he has had, just seeing the smile on his face has been enough to warm the hearts of the millions of fans that follow his every move. It is wonderful to see him run so well, it will be enormous when that first win does come, in the meantime, just keep smiling.

Kyle Busch has had no problem finding success at Joe Gibbs Racing. He has been on a roll of winning in every series, no matter what he drives or who he is driving for. I'm not sure how he is fitting in. I wonder Busch's current success is the reason Tony Stewart is thinking of leaving JGR, it may also be an indication of things not being so rosy on the home front. If that is the case, I hope Stewart knows that we all understand. The fact that Busch can win races has not endeared him to many fans. He seems to not mind being the villain, but I don't expect the sponsors or owners to continue supporting him if he doesn't grow up and chill-out. As fans turn against a driver, you had better believe, they will make a point to not support the sponsors of that driver. It may be all fun and games now, but when no one will eat M&M's anymore, just wait and see how fast they will drop him.

As far as Joe Gibbs and the switch to Toyota, this may be the biggest surprise of the season so far. I think we all expected that this move was much better for Toyota than it would initially be for JGR. I don't think to many people predicted that they would not only have wins right out of the box in Sprint Cup but they have won and ran up front every week in the Nationwide series as well. Even more surprising is how much progress all of the Toyota teams have made this year. Brian Vickers has been running well, all three of Michael Waltrip's teams have been able to stay in the top 35 (until this week) and Dave Blaney has been strong most weeks. Toyota is here to stay and I am glad to have them.

Open-wheel drivers, report card for this semester would have to show a low D, and that may be generous. I started to feel sorry for Chip Ganassi, but never made it there after his releasing Jimmy Elledge this past week. Dario Franchitti was really going nowhere, and then with a hard crash at Talladega, he ended up injured and has not been back in the car since. They say he plans to run the Nationwide Series in Dover this week, but who knows what is going to happen to that No. 40 team. Juan Pablo Montoya has had an up and down year. It could be attributed to the so-called sophomore slump, but it is most likely due to the revolving door for crew chiefs. They talk about the importance of developing chemistry and communicating well. As difficult as it has been for Montoya to learn the language of NASCAR racing, why would Ganassi think that a different voice on the radio each week would help him? Give the guy a break so that he can keep his mind on the races. Jacques Villeneuve never even got start before disappearing and Patrick Carpentier has shown moments of brilliance, interrupted by crashes. He has pulled a few rabbits out of the hat, but the

show never goes much further than that one trick.

The jury is still out on the COT on the 1.5 mile tracks. It has seemed like the mid-size tracks, which make up most of the schedule, are the real weak point for these cars. They have done well on superspeedways, really fun to watch on the short tracks since they can take a licking and keep on ticking, but they do not put on much of a show on the 1.5 mile tracks. The problem with making the car turn has lead to what everyone is referring to as crabbing. NASCAR has now told the teams to stop messing with the set-up. We will see this weekend how this is going to affect the cars. This may be the week that everything changes according to what teams have been using this to their advantage. Let's just say the jury is still out and see what happens over the next few weeks.

DEI after Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Again, I want to think that the jury is still out. If I had to make a judgment now, I would say "Not too good." They have no wins so far and no real promising runs. Mark Martin has had a couple of top five finishes. Martin Truex Jr. has had a few strong runs but stands in 15th place in the points. With everyone expecting Truex to carry the DEI banner, I am certain that no one is happy with 15^th in points. The rumor is that he will not stay at DEI after 2008. With Mark Martin running a partial schedule, Regan Smith is in 31st place, Paul Menard is in 28th place and Aric Almirola is only getting to race once in a blue moon. It is getting to the point that the "legacy" may be the only thing left, DEI fans hope not but in racing what goes around always comes around and this may be a roundtrip to nowhere. Someone needs to step in and take over and there is no one left to care.

So with 12 races down and heading into the long, hot summer it is time for Tony Stewart to start bringing home the wins, Dale Earnhardt Jr. to move on up further in the points and for someone to decide that they will race Kyle Busch the way he races them. I laughed at Joey Logano when he said that he had talked to Kyle Busch and Kyle was telling him who he could expect to race him fair and square. How would Kyle know, no one on the track wants to race with him, they all want to put him in the wall. Joey, word of advice, look for a new mentor and best of luck on your first Nationwide Series start at Dover. I hope the sliced bread nickname doesn't turn out to be toast.