Superspeedway racing tends to bring out the worst in everyone and this weekend in Talladega was no different. We had accusations of team orders, then subsequent denials, crew chiefs telling drivers to wreck on purpose, blatant cheating and complaints from everyone on track about the driving. There has been shock and outrage from the NASCAR press corps and the sport’s fan base. After all, who knew any of this went on?!
We’re Shocked Someone May Have Been Cheating
SBNation’s Jeff Gluck posted a story yesterday with audio from #48 crew chief Chad Knaus. Knaus is heard telling Jimmie Johnson to “crack the back of the car” if they win. Presumably they were beyond the allowed tolerances for whatever reason.
Knaus admitted the intention saying he was, “ Just being proactive, I just told Jimmie, ‘Look, man – we’ve just got to make sure there’s a tire mark or some type of visible damage.’ Just because cars do move when you race them like that.”
This ended up being the story du jour on Wednesday. It was unbelievable that a team could be working in the gray area – no one does that! Of course we already knew Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were cheaters…
The Roush Team Orders
Jack Roush telling his drivers to stick with Ford teams!? Ridiculous.
This was the outrage of the weekend after word seeped out that Ford and Roush had, at the very least, made it clear that their teams should stick together at Talladega.
Ford and Roush both denied “orders” were issued, but it was pretty clear what the expectation was.
The way the talk was this weekend though you would have thought Roush was the only one that made this expectation clear. Of course anybody with two eyes and a basic understanding of the sport could see every other team on track had done the same, and why wouldn’t they? As I wrote on Monday, you draft with who brought you.
You Feel Double Crossed?
Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon were both beside themselves after the race Sunday. They had committed dancing partners who they felt abandoned, or sabotaged them in favor of teammates. It’s a cruel world.
Stewart told SB Nation:
“It’s a shame, because I’ve never seen more politics in a race go on in my life than what I saw this weekend…I think the car owners are to blame, the manufacturers are to blame and the fans don’t deserve that.“
Gordon echoed Stewart, saying after the race:
“I don’t think [Trevor Bayne] really ever had any intentions of pushing me, and if he did, the Ford folks told him to do something different. It’s politics, that’s part of it.”
As they say, it’s business, it’s not personal. And of all people I would expect Gordon and Stewart to know that. It’s true it’s unfortunate for the fans, it stinks for those who got the shaft, but the fact is it’s reality. Welcome to NASCAR boys.
Hey Trevor, Cool It With The Hyperbole
Speaking of distraught, Trevor Bayne. He’s young and apparently doesn’t know when to go light on the hyperbole. In an interview with SceneDaily he said:
“I was caught in the worst situation I could have ever been in.”
Devastating. I’ll bet there was some cringing at Roush after that interview.
He did go on to say that he wasn’t forced to switch drafting partners but felt it was his role as Kenseth’s teammate. Either way, nobody can fault him for making the decision he made – not even Jeff Gordon. He’s in a precarious position at Roush and needs to do what he has to do to keep the bosses happy and his butt in a ride.
A lesson though (not for our interests but his own) when you’re trying to make a good impression, toe the company line.
This whole week has left me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. While we don’t necessarily get to be witness to some of this stuff on a weekly basis, it happens that often. No one should be surprised about ANY of this. Consider this week a window into NASCAR reality.
Now on to Martinsville and a decidedly less controversial setting.
TheNASCARInsiders.com Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!
Ford and Jack Roush made waves this weekend after word seeped out of the camp that the teams were directed to draft exclusively with their manufacturing counterparts. With two Roush Fords in serious contention for the championship it wasn’t a surprising edict – especially not from Jack Roush.
At the end of the race we saw what appeared to be the edict in action as Trevor Bayne gave up drafting with Jeff Gordon to draft with Matt Kenseth. The move was bad news for Gordon who ended up finishing way back in 27th. Bayne and Kenseth finished 15th and 18th.
The help kept Kenseth in contention, moving him to second in the points just 14 back from teammate Carl Edwards. And after everything, not doing damage is the most important thing at a place like Talladega.
The track serves as THE wild card race in the Chase where literally anything can happen. That uncertainty leads teams to do everything they can to control the things they can. This is why you see teams like Roush and manufacturers like Ford letting their drivers know where loyalties need to lie.
In this instance there seems to be some surprise that Bayne switched dancing partners choosing a teammate over a potentially better pairing. But it makes sense when considering what was at stake: a championship, a precarious future and a whole lot of money. Would you not have done the same?
Success in this sport involves reliance on those who are around you. That goes for the Ford teams, the Chevrolet teams, the Dodge teams and the Toyota teams. While the Roush and Ford team orders are the only ones that made the press this weekend there were no doubt similar understandings at organizations throughout the sport. Consider the other teams on track. Who was working with whom?
The Fords were with the Fords, the Chevrolets with the Chevrolets and on and on.
At superspeedways you draft with who brung ya – it’s true for EVERY manufacturer and EVERY team. While it’s unfortunate for those left out, it’s a cold hard fact.
Seven races into the season and all those questions we got in the off-season are starting to be answered, namely what off-season changes have worked, and in some cases haven’t so far in 2011.
One of the biggest changes that came after Homestead last season (and the topic for this particular follow up) was the crew chief swap at Hendrick Motorsports. Alan Gustafson was moved from the #5 to the #24; Lance McGrew was moved from the #88 to the #5, and Steve Letarte was moved from the #24 to the #88. And the results so far? Well, it’s a mixed bag.
After struggling through much of last season, Mark Martin’s fortunes have not turned around with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Through the first seven races of last season Martin averaged a finish of 16.1 including three top-fives – this year, he’s averaging 17th place finish with just two top-ten finishes. He finds himself 15th in points.
How about Jeff Gordon? He was able to finally overcome that winless streak and head to victory lane at Phoenix, but he’s had some struggles elsewhere. A wreck at Las Vegas and sub-20th place finishes at Texas and Daytona have pushed Gordon’s average finish to 17.9 – compare that to an average finish of 12.2 after the first seven races of last season. In points, he sits next to teammate Mark Martin in 14th.
The biggest winner of this shift appears to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. who struggled through his first three seasons at Hendrick with crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew. With Steve Letarte at the helm Junior hasn’t finished worse than 12th since Daytona and was in position to win at Martinsville. With an average finish of 10.9 he sits sixth in the points right now. Not too shabby for a guy who, just a few short months ago, finished an abysmal 21st in points. Consider though through the first seven last year he was averaging a 14th place finish and sat 10th in the points. Can his strong start be maintained?
With 29 races still remaining in the season there is a ton of time for the slow starters to start making some headway. Still it’s interesting to see where they stand right now. What do you think of the swap? Has it been a success? A flop? Talk amongst yourselves.
After a weekend that was totally dominated by Kyle Busch it was Jeff Gordon that was the winner of Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Phoenix. The #24 “Drive to End Hunger” Chevrolet ran very good all day and it was no surprise when he came to the front at the end. This win breaks Jeff’s 66 race win streak and it showed as it looked like he forgot how to do a burnout after the race. With this win Jeff Gordon tied Cale Yarborough with 83 wins in Cup racing. A big accomplishment indeed in the world of NASCAR
Jeff Gordon Wins at Phoenix - Image courtesy of NASCAR
The race had a lot of wrecks as tires seemed to wear out and cause some pretty big wrecks. The worst was when David Regan blew a tire and hit the wall pretty hard causing a wreck behind him that took out a lot of drivers from being able to have a good finish. Carl Edwards had a good car and looked to be a tough guy to beat but it just wasn’t meant to be. Kyle Busch got into Carl and sent him into the grass and messed up his handling on his race car.
Jeff had to catch Kyle Busch with only a few laps to go but Jeff Gordon’s car was much better and gained on Kyle every lap until he caught him with a few laps to go. With Kyle coming in second he takes over the points lead by 3 over his brother Kurt Busch.
Hendricks winning today’s race was a surprise to many as they qualified terrible in all four cars. It was Hendricks powered cars that made the top of the field as Jimmie Johnson was third and Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr near the top ten.
Kyle Busch on Jeff Gordon winning -”I think he was on a mission today, that’s for sure and when Jeff Gordon has a good car and he has the opportunity to beat you, he’s going to beat you so. There’s no doubt about that. He’s my hero and I’ve always watched him and what he’s been able to accomplish over the years. It’s no surprise that he beat us. You know, we were good. If you look at it, we were better than the third place car by a little ways, kind of like yesterday. Seemed like front two would just kind of walk away from it. But there’s always that one car that’s got to ruin the whole weekend, and it had to be the 24 car.”
Jimmie Johnson finished third and his car was running very good at the end but not enough to catch the leaders. Jimmie was asked about it after the race “We were struggling and getting smarter through practice. The first half of the race we could not really get going, just way too loose and we pitted every caution that there was. And at one point we thought we were going to be out of tires because we came to pit road so many times. We got the car right and I was trying to come through traffic and I was right in the middle of those two wrecks on the backstretch and luckily I got through there clean, but from that point on, after the red flag, we were able to then get going because the car was underneath me. We got it tightened up and off I went.”
The race had 8 cautions including one on lap 68 that involved 14 cars. It appeared to be a sold out crowd of 75,000 . Jeff even mentioned how cool it was to see the stands full when he tried to do a burnout.
You can read more about the race on our Racing Forum
Welcome to Victory Lane Jeff Gordon is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson, Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Fans, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Petty Enterprises, Sprint Cup, FanHouse Exclusive, NASCAR
Filed under: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR Fights, NASCAR