NASCAR BLOG

The Talladega race has been a source of controversy for the last several years and there are good reasons for that. The restrictor plate issue is still brewing and the drivers are not happy with it. There are safety reasons to have them in place, as well as for the purpose of making each race more interesting. At the same time, they seem to keep drivers all bunched up, creating more chance for mistakes along the way. For this race, Nascar introduced a ban on cars bumping each other on the steep banks of Talladega. As a result, we thought it was going to be a boring race. The cars went around in single file for most of the race. But then, during the last part of the race, there were more than 50 lead changes. But there was also a 13 car pileup. The drivers aren’t happy that they got wrecked, even with all these rules in place, and it’s getting harder for them to do their job. Mark Martin fell out of contention after he was wrecked. So after watching a boring race, people got to see their favorite drivers go airborne for the last quarter of the race.

Nascar comes back to Talladega this weekend, but there are many controversies around the race and people will be having trouble focusing on the race itself. Allmendinger was arrested for drunk driving earlier this week, so that’s going to be one of the big headlines throughout the day. Meanwhile, the race will be a big deal for some racers. But it’s hard to imagine Johnson losing his lead unless something extra weird happens. So he’s going to take the race a little bit easier, we think, than some of the previous races. So lots of other racers have a chance to win, with the top racers sitting back a little bit. Will Earnhardt Jr try his luck? How about Jeff Gordon? Racers that haven’t won in awhile might actually get their chance this weekend. It’ll give them some good confidence moving into the final weeks and into the offseason.

Denny Hamlin won this weekend at Martinsville, and he was quite proud, of course. It was a tight race most of the way and there weren’t any major controversies. But the putative frontrunner for the Sprint Cup, Jimmy Johnson, came in second place and ended up in second place. This puts him even further ahead of the other racers. He almost won the race, because he led for about half the race. But Hamlin took the lead and kept it for the rest of the time. Johnson will be hard to catch for anyone, but we’ll still be hoping to see a good competition lasting until the end. But Martinsville is where Johnson came close to clinching the cup win last year too, so it’s not a huge surprise that a similar occurance happened this weekend too.

There are only a few people that most observers are watching this fall for the Sprint Cup. Mark Martin still has a good chance to win. He’s down by about 90 points but he’s been racing really well this year and will hopefully make it really tight in the end. He could make up those 90 points very quickly. Of course, Jimmie Johnson is in the lead again. He might make his Two-Peat, as you could call it, this year, and he seems to be racing well enough to pull it out. It will be interesting to see whether he’s able to hold off the tougher competition this year. Finally, Kyle Busch, who was on a big run of wins early in the summer, has slackened a little bit in the last couple months, but he’s still in the running. If he gets on a good run of luck, it might work out!

We are at the cusp of crowning another Sprint Cup winner this year. Will it be Martin? Or will Johnson take it again? Perhaps Stewart will jump back up? The last one seems less likely, because we haven’t heard much out of him for awhile. We have been expecting that Tony Stewart would be back on the way to the top, having built up such high expectations this year. But it will only be a little while before we find out for sure. Mark Martin has been having a phenomenal year for himself and will be very close to the top all the way to the end. Jimmy Johnson, on the other hand, seems to be getting himself back into the swing of things with his best racing just now coming up. He didn’t peak too early and seems to be headed on towards a top position.

Nascar has been looking to start a Hall of Fame for many years, and now they’ve just elected the first class of players into it. Dale Earnhardt is among the first in it. He won 76 races over his career and was the Nascar champion several times. He was killed in a collision during the Daytona 500 in 2001. He will be inducted with four other people: Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, and Bill France Sr and Jr. The ceremony will take place in May and it will be very beautiful, that seems obvious. We will also be watching to see who attends. Clearly, most of the people in the current Nascar world will be there to celebrate the lives and careers of these 5 players.

Jimmy Johnson has proven his really dominant side once again. We mentioned last week that he was close to being in the lead of the Sprint Cup chase again, but that he was right behind Mark Martin. Martin wasn’t able to stay ahead at Fontana this weekend, but Johnson actually won. He was worried, though, that his racing was going to be slowed down by the cautions that came up at the end of the race. But he wasn’t prevented from winning and now his really is the team to beat. His talent is hard to contest and hopefully we’ll get to see him challenged towards the end. The last few races of last season made the whole thing sound like a fait accompli rather than a tough competition. This year might be different, depending on who’s able to jump up and make it tighter!

Matt Kenseth has been having a rough year, having had no luck in getting himself into the Sprint Cup playoff this year. He started out great guns. His first two races were stellar. He was able to win both of them and it got him right at the top of the leaderboard for awhile. But for whatever reason, he has fallen off since then, having won nothing since the Auto Club 500. Hopefully he’ll be able to redeem himself at some level before the end of the season, but people are not confident about that at all. Over the next few months, you can believe that he will be looking into his car’s systems and design to see if that had anything to do with it. He might even look at some tapes to see if he might’ve made some driving mistakes along the way too. Kenseth’s promising year turned into the “most disappointing of [his] career”. He’ll have to work his way back to it, it appears.

Greg Biffle was working his way into the top of the leaderboard at this weekend’s Price Chopper 400. He hasn’t been in the close running for awhile however. We enjoy having a bunch of good racers at the top and Greg Biffle is definitely one of those. He did a great job with the race, but his pitstops weren’t as good as they could have been. There were too many 2-tire changes and he made some other mistakes. Instead, Tony Stewart won yet again, but he still trails Mark Martin in the overall standings. In second place is still Jimmie Johnson who hasn’t been a major force, but he’s kept pace with everyone else throughout the season. He hasn’t won so often as last year, but he comes in second or third, gathering points really well. That’s what I call consistency and hopefully he’ll be able to bring himself up to the top soon enough. Martin will have to beat out Johnson for much of the rest of the season if he’s going to have a chance at all.

Hendrick Motorsports has been warned by Nascar this week. The two cars of their big stars in the Sprint Cup has put the team have been put on notice. There are a lot of things that are interesting in the world of Nascar, particularly at this time of year. Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have been warned now because both of their cars were very close to failing the inspections after their most recent race. They aren’t being penalized, but it’s a warning to make sure that they know that they aren’t too far from being punished for the mistake. This is tough, because both of the players are very close to the top of the leaderboard, with Martin on top. If they get penalized, it’s going to be very strange to see how the winner gets decided, especially if points are involved.