The Definition of a “Good Guy” in NASCAR

It comes as no surprise that Dale Earnhardt didn’t win the most popular driver award voted on each year by NASCAR fans until after his untimely death. Dale was a winner. He would do whatever it took within the confines of “clean racing” to get out front late in a race and hold on, even if the car he was driving wasn’t the fastest. While Dale Sr. is the best example of the point I’m going to make,

other drivers like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and more recently Kyle Busch have also spent time in the not too liked climes among NASCAR fans. Why? Well these guys are all winners and in NASCAR, when you consistently win you’re stepping on the toes of 42 other drivers, teams and their fans. So in a round-about way, winners are the “Bad Guys” and conversely all the drivers who are consistently also-rans are the “Good Guys”.

The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season will long be remembered for the number of first time winners who have graced Victory Lane and for the variety (fifteen different winners to date) of drivers waving checkered flags. The “Good Guy” ranks have taken a major hit this year…

Marcos Ambrose, since moving to the US and NASCAR to pursue his passion for auto racing, has been considered a “Good Guy” for a lot of reasons, but in no small part it was due to the fact he had been winless in 104 starts at the Sprint Cup level.

Well, all that changed yesterday on the Watkins Glen road course. The two-time Australian Super V8 champion had finally tasted victory at the world’s foremost stock car racing level. Marcos thus joined Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, David Ragan and Paul Menard as a first time winner this season. That’s all fine and dandy, but boys you’ve all put your “Good Guy” standing in dire jeopardy. Since everyone likes first time winners, if you’ll all just calm down now and forget about winning again, you should be all right…

With four races left to qualify for the Chase, Marcos Ambrose has, by virtue of his first win, vaulted to 22nd in the 2011 Chase standings, only one measly point away from a three-way tie with Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex, Jr. for 20th place. If he shows well in these last four races, there’s an outside chance he could make the Chase if he happens to post one more win and improves his point total into a top twenty standing.

This is the beauty of the new Chase format. As it stands today, Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard, Marcos and David Ragan all have one win and are either in or within striking distance of the top twenty. There should be a real scramble between these one-win drivers before it’s over.

Brad Keselowski now appears to be a lock for the Chase as his 1st place finish at Pocono (giving Brad two wins on the season) and now his 2nd place finish at the Glen have pushed the Blue Deuce all the way up to 14th in the Chase standings.

If any of this group of four happens to swipe another win (which would either solidify their position in the top twenty or get them into it) then that driver and team would almost be assured of a spot in the Chase and a chance at the championship. The problem is Menard, Ragan and now Ambrose will risk slamming their “Good Guy” rating into the dirt with that next win…

The NASCAR Gods…

I’m just curious…

Who made the decision that it would be this at the end of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega last Sunday…


Instead of this?
There are a couple of possible answers to this question. First let me make it clear I don't think Richard Hendrick would demand a specific outcome, so let's throw out that theory right off the bat.

Do you think it was ultimately an agreement made between crew chiefs? Was it an agreement between the drivers? or... Was it just a matter of timing?

I'm leaning toward one of the drivers making a conscious decision to be a good teammate and if this is so, will Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ever win another Cup race?
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Leading to the first picture up above we all witnessed several hundred feet of this as HMS’s Johnson/Earnhardt tandem sacked their teammates…

How’s that rule about the yellow line go again?

You can tell me that while the 48 and 88 rode the yellow line they weren’t improving their position, but it doesn’t hold water… The simple act of moving to the inside while rounding turn four combined with two sets of cars racing in tandem immediately in front and on a headwind killing angle automatically set up “5 Time” and Junior to be sucked into the lead. The proof is that Johnson won the race…

What did Denny Hamlin do in the Shootout?

Oh… He was below the line at Daytona… Those HMS cars at Talladega were just on top of the line. I see...

You know what? There’s too much gray area involved here. The appearance is that NASCAR is doing a smoke and mirrors deal in terms of who it is, not what they've done. The grand hoopla of NASCAR has gotta revisit this “over the line” rule. I was reading somewhere that in the spirit of “Have at it” NASCAR should throw out their yellow line rule on the Superspeedways for the final, white flag lap of the race only. Let the drivers go for the gusto! This year alone it would have already affected the result on one exhibition race and would have eliminated any potential questioning concerning the outcome of the most recent Cup race…

Caption Time!

Give it your best shot!

What in the world are these guys thinking / saying?

1.

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5.

Go get 'em Lug-Nuts!

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships!

If I’m correctly reading what the Indycar Series people are doing, they’re now going to award three championships per racing season based on the tracks they race on. There will be a road course champion, an oval track champion and (I’m speculating here, but it makes sense) there will be an overall champion.

Taking a page from the IZOD Indycar Series (stealing their idea!), I’ve cooked the books down to yield four different NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships. Here are the categories:

The Short Track Championship (tracks one mile or less in length)

The Road Course Championship (Infineon and Watkins Glen)

The Intermediate Track Championship (tracks between one and two miles in length)

And The Long Track Championship (tracks two miles in length or longer)

At this point in the season, with 22 races completed, we have just found our first champion of the season…

Our 2010 Road Course Champion is Juan Pablo Montoya driving the Earnhardt-Ganassi red number 42 Target Chevrolet!

Here are the top 20 Road Warriors of 2010:

---Road Course Championship Final Standings---

-------------------------Average-Total --Total

--Driver -----------------Finish -Points -Earnings
1 Juan Pablo Montoya -----5.50 --329 --$374,087
2 Marcos Ambrose --------4.50 --325 --$302,121
3 Kevin Harvick -----------7.00 --295 --$304,602
4 Jeff Gordon --------------7.50 --289 --$271,027
5 Tony Stewart ------------8.00 --289 --$246,371
6 A J Allmendinger --------8.50 ---284 -$268,852
7 Jimmie Johnson --------14.50 ---274 -$443,431
8 Jamie McMurray -------10.50 ---273 -$243,408
9 Kasey Kahne -----------10.50 ---272 -$284,805
10 Ryan Newman --------14.00 ---247 -$223,633
11 Greg Biffle ------------15.50 ---237 -$182,625
12 Kurt Busch -----------17.00 ---237 -$304,576
13 Mark Martin ---------16.50 ---232 -$185,475
14 Carl Edwards --------17.00 ---231 -$248,496
15 Robby Gordon -------19.00 ---225 -$291,646
16 Jeff Burton ----------18.00 ---220 -$226,055
17 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ---18.50 ---215 -$169,850
18 Paul Menard --------19.00 --212 -$164,900
19 Matt Kenseth -------21.50 --197 --$237,277
20 David Reutimann ---21.50 --197 --$209,637

Congratulations to Juan and Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing!

So how are the drivers doing with the other three championships?

With half (6) of the short track races in the books entering mid-August here are the top twenty:

--------Short Track Championship Standings--------
--------------------------Average -Total ---Total
--Driver ------------------Finish --Points --Earnings
1 Jimmie Johnson ----------6.67 ---952 --$1,057,758
2 Jeff Gordon --------------6.00 ---931 --$979,354
3 Kyle Busch ---------------8.67 ---907 --$1,116,909
4 Ryan Newman -----------8.00 ---891 --$865,922
5 Carl Edwards ------------9.83 ---828 --$775,211
6 Matt Kenseth ----------10.33 ----825 --$871,479
7 Jeff Burton -------------12.17 ----807 --$849,738
8 Kevin Harvick ----------12.33 ---788 --$823,579
9 Denny Hamlin ----------13.17 ---785 --$711,800
10 Joey Logano ----------12.33 ---778 --$766,263
11 Martin Truex Jr. ------12.50 ---774 --$523,825
12 Tony Stewart ---------14.17 ----771 --$834,636
13 Greg Biffle ------------13.33 ----758 --$589,050
14 Kurt Busch -----------16.83 ----722 --$818,411
15 Clint Bowyer ---------15.33 ----712 --$571,225
16 Brad Keselowski -----16.50 ----686 --$651,008
17 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ---17.33 ----673 --$537,400
18 A J Allmendinger ----18.50 ----651 --$715,354
19 Marcos Ambrose ----18.83 ----641 --$638,598
20 Mark Martin --------20.17 ----629 --$611,585

Jimmie Johnson

Looks like the usual suspects on this list. Four of the six remaining short track races are Chase races…

There have been 6 intermediate track races (out of 11) so far this year. Here’s how the leaderboard stands at this time:

-----Intermediate Track Championship Standing-----
--------------------------Average -Total -----Total
--Driver ------------------Finish --Points ---Earnings
1 Jeff Gordon --------------10.83 ---859 --$1,076,931
2 Kurt Busch --------------11.67 ----858 --$1,265,588
3 Denny Hamlin -----------11.33 ----847 --$1,229,475
4 Kasey Kahne -------------9.33 ----843 ---$919,615
5 Matt Kenseth -----------10.50 ----820 ---$937,381
6 Kyle Busch --------------11.67 ----814 --$1,071,986
7 Kevin Harvick -----------11.50 ---805 --$1,010,261
8 Mark Martin ------------13.00 ---767 ---$807,600
9 Jeff Burton --------------13.83 ---751 ---$812,390
10 Ryan Newman ---------14.33 ---729 ---$828,849
11 Jamie McMurray -------17.00 --725 --$1,081,599
12 Tony Stewart ----------16.50 ---707 ---$818,788
13 David Reutimann ------17.83 ---704 ---$968,721
14 Jimmie Johnson -------18.83 ---702 --$1,298,543
15 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ----17.00 ---685 ---$632,625
16 Clint Bowyer ----------18.33 ---684 --$660,025
17 Paul Menard ----------17.50 ---679 ---$614,225
18 Martin Truex Jr. ------18.17 ---658 ---$589,750
19 A J Allmendinger ------18.17 ---656 ---$784,681
20 Carl Edwards ---------19.50 ---645 ---$868,788

Jeff Gordon

Here again, four of the remaining five intermediate track races are part of the Chase. Notice the same names at the top of these standings…

Finally, here are the long track standings with 8 races in the books and 3 remaining (2 of which will be included in the Chase):

---------Long Track Championship Standings-----------
---------------------------Average --Total ----Total
--Driver -------------------Finish ---Points ---Earnings
1 Kevin Harvick -------------5.00 ---1,322 --$2,132,649
2 Denny Hamlin ------------12.00 ---1,127 --$1,355,820
3 Carl Edwards --------------9.13 ---1,117 --$1,401,325
4 Jeff Burton ---------------10.00 ---1,117 --$1,428,236
5 Greg Biffle ----------------11.38 ---1,106 --$1,787,545
6 Tony Stewart ------------10.88 ---1,098 --$1,498,525
7 Clint Bowyer -------------10.75 ---1,093 --$1,500,695
8 Kurt Busch --------------12.00 ---1,075 --$1,431,575
9 Mark Martin ------------14.00 ---1,013 --$1,182,770
10 Matt Kenseth ----------14.88 -----964 --$1,367,424
11 Jamie McMurray ------17.75 ------961 --$2,773,823
12 Kyle Busch ------------16.25 ------957 --$1,445,264
13 Jimmie Johnson -------17.63 ------954 --$1,581,934
14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. ----16.38 ------947 --$1,836,245
15 David Reutimann -----15.38 ------947 --$1,408,889
16 Jeff Gordon -----------17.00 -----946 --$1,390,824
17 Juan Pablo Montoya --18.25 ------916 --$1,342,739
18 Kasey Kahne ---------18.50 ------901 --$1,417,446
19 Joey Logano ----------18.38 ------883 --$1,273,297
20 Paul Menard ----------17.75 ------883 --$1,004,920

All Right! Kevin Harvick!

Based on these results, I really have to wonder what Jeff Gordon’s honest feelings are concerning NASCAR’s Chase format.

Jeff Gordon will make the Chase again this season and with 8 of the 10 Chase races on short and intermediate length tracks, Gordon might not be a bad bet to win it all, but will he in his last season being known as the Rainbow Warrior?