NASCAR Racing

Now, on to 2010....

NASCAR'S 2010 Sprint Cup season starts with The Budweiser Shootout at 8pm on Saturday February 6. This race consists of twenty-eight drivers, twelve drivers who made the Chase in 2009 plus past champions and past winners of the Daytona 500 and the Coke Dis Zero 400 (formerly the Pepsi 400). The race is seventy-five laps divided into two segments. The first segment is twenty-five laps. Then there is a ten minute intermission where the racecars can be worked on followed by a fifty lap segment. Each segment has rules to be followed like pit-stop and fueling requrements. There is no qualifying for this race. The line-up is by the luck of the draw.

With attendance down in 2009 NASCAR's bosses decided to consider some input by some of the fans and drivers and decided to make some changes for the 2010 season. So far, NASCAR has announced more uniform race start times of 1:00pm for eastern and central regions, 3:00 pm for west coast regions and night races starting at 7:30pm with the exception of the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte which will start at 5:45pm. Next, NASCAR officials decided to let racing get "back to basics" by allowing drivers be themselves and express themselves a bit more freely and be a bit more aggressive in the field. The rules will now relax the restrictions on bump-drafting on superspeedways such as Daytona and Talladega. Remember bump and runs? Larger restrictor plates in Daytona and elimination of double-yellow out-of-bounds line will be among the new rules.

NASCAR's Sprint Cup racecars will also take on a bit of the old car style with the return of spoilers in place of the unpopular wings. This change will take place after the Daytona 500, NASCAR's biggest most prestigous race. Word is that Crew Chiefs and their crews will have a bit of chance to show their expertise in making their cars perform better by adding their own special touches.

This season also brings Danica Patrick to NASCAR's track. She will drive in her first ARCA race at Daytona starting in 12th position. She will face many changes and challenges coming from Open-Wheel racing as Juan Pablo Montoya has. She faces this challenge with the attitude that she will push as hard as she is pushed and do whatever she needs to to succeed.

For Dale Earnhardt Jr fans: after a really rough season in 2009 Jr led the rain shortened practice for the Budweiser Shootout. Granted it was only two laps but it's a good place to start.

So, on to 2010. Let the racing begin....

A year off . . .

2009 starts out as a phenomenal year for NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth in the #17 DeWalt Ford. He won the first two races including the Daytona 500. But his year went downhill from there. Not only did he not perform well but for the first time since The Chase format began in 2004 he did not make it into the top twelve in points to qualify for it. DeWalt who has been the main sponsor for Kenseth in NASCAR's Sprint Series for the last ten years has pulled out as sponsor. Is it because of the economy? Or is it because of Kenseth's lackluster performance? But don't worry - Daytona 500 winners rarely have problems finding new sponsors. In this case Crown Royal (former sponsor for Jamie McMurray) will step up and be sponsor for Kenseth. It's hard to feel too sorry for a driver who has made over fifty million dollars driving the #17 Ford. By the way, McMurray had to move to a new team because of the new limit of four cars per team.

In 2009 The Chase has been commonly called "the playoffs". Is this what NASCAR fans want? If we wanted playoffs - we would be watching football. This is NASCAR - all drivers should be able to be competitive all season long. What about the fans of the drivers who don't make the Chase? Would you still be excited if your driver does not make the Chase? Are you still going to watch when NASCAR makes your driver insignificant and in some cases told not to interfere with Chase drivers? What about the non-chase drivers? Do they just ride around for the rest of the season as fillers for the race? Or maybe they don't have the pressures to win and can go out and just drive. But then again there may be more pressures on the non-chase driver because of the pressure to do well to retain your sponsors or even your spot on your team. Don't forget- all of the drivers have earned the right to be members of this elite NASCAR Series called the Sprint Series and deserve your respect.

I have a lot of respect for Tony Stewart for having the guts to leave the established Joe Gibbs Racing team and his Home Depot sponsor and venturing out to become owner/driver of Stewart-Haas Racing. He went from the #20 Toyota to the #14 Chevy without missing a beat. He went from a driver who needed to be babysitted and was sometimes violent toward the press to a calmer, more responsible nicer person. He also took Penske driver Ryan Newman with him. Newman was the former driver of the # 12 Dodge. He now drives the #39 Chevy. Stewart put together a very sucessful team. Both Stewart and Newman made the Chase and had a great NASCAR Sprint Cup Season. Even those who are not Tony Stewart fans have to admire his guts and accomplishments this season.

Many strange things happen in the Chase. Kyle Busch won six races this season and still did not make the Chase line-up. Maybe this will humble this driver and force a change in his rather nasty disposition. Maybe he will act like a grownup and give interviews even if he doesn't have a good race. Of course he may not go for the new rule that you can bumpdraft at Talladega or Daytona. He made a statement that he wanted drivers black flagged for bumping the leader. I guess his position will depend on if he is the bumper or the bumpee.

2009 also showed that the COT cars were safer. Ask Carl Edwards who rolled over and over. Have to admit he showed class when he got out of that car and ran over the finish line. Ryan Newman and Kyle Bush walked away after flipping a number of times. And rookie Joey Logano walked away after flipping end over end. But are the cars competitive? There are so many restrictions. NASCAR should give the drivers and their teams a little wiggle room so they can make the car their own. But maybe within some limits to let smaller teams still compete with the larger teams.

This year NASCAR showed that it would not put up with drivers using drugs. Jeremy Mayfield was accused of using illegal substances by NASCAR and banned from driving. But, was Mayfield really using illegal drugs or was he using prescribed ADD drugs with an OTC nasal decongestant as he claims? On one hand - you definitely don't want someone using drugs and driving 200mpg with forty-two other cars and endangering the lives of all. On the other hand, is Mayfield being railroaded and being falsely accused by NASCAR as an example? Has he lost his team and reputation unfairly? I wonder if we will ever know the truth.

To wrap up the season, Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive Championship in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, thus setting a record. This ties teammate/owner Jeff Gordon's four Championship wins. Johnson has has four phenomenal years. Can he keep it up? Mark Martin had one of the best seasons of his career. He was very much in the running for this years championship. He has shown that you can still race clean and fairly and still kick some butt. Jeff Gordon also had an awesome year and has shown us that he is still very competitive and still a contender for that fifth NASCAR Championship. He may have even had two or three more championships under the old racing format. These three teammates have also set a record for coming in first, second and third in the Chase standings. The only Hendrick Motorsports teammate that had a fairly poor season is NASCAR's favorite driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. We can only hope that he can get out of his dad's shadow and make his own racing history.

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NASCAR

Sprint Cup - 2010

Sprint Cup - 2009

Sprint Cup - 2008

Nextel Cup - 2007

Nextel Cup - 2006