Filed under: Jimmie Johnson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR
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With the Cup cars being off this weekend, the Truck and Nationwide Series take center stage at Gateway. They will race under the lights on Friday and Saturday night. Before they do, we’ve got the 83rd edition of Ask The Insiders Wednesday. If you don’t know what this post is, we answer any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From yankeegranny:
With all the ideas being floated regarding the chase changes, if you could pick the racetracks that you would put in the chase, what would they be and in what order? Please use just the tracks that are on the schedule right now, even though you probably would like to add Rockingham or a dirt track.
In no particular order: Talladega, Darlington, Infineon (or Watkins Glen), Martinsville, Bristol, Las Vegas, Homestead, Phoenix, Pocono and Charlotte. In those last ten races I want as much variation as possible. If we’re going to have a 10 race playoff we need to be putting driver skills to the test every weekend. You could honestly float in and out another mile and a half for Las Vegas and Charlotte – but I think those are great venues. I’m not holding my breath on Darlington, but I think adding a road course could be in the cards. – Journo
2. From Allen:
Why do the drivers run passenger side windows on some tracks and not on others?
The only tracks where cars aren’t required to run side windows are the short tracks and road courses. Everywhere else they are required because if a car turns sideways, a side window will help keep them from going airborne. – T.C.
3. From Bob:
I know I’m not the first to notice, but why is it that the RPM cars seem to be faster than Roush-Fenway? You would think it would be the other way around, as RPM is considered the little brother team of the two, i.e. less funding and greater turmoil. Any thoughts?
While RPM has certainly become a satellite organization for Roush Fenway, I’m not sure it’s fair to call them the “little brother.” RPM has some seriously talented people working for them and it’s not fair to say they have less funding. With them getting support from Ford and Roush, they are most likely able to use their resources better than when they were a Dodge team. The word from Chicago was that the RFR cars were actually running RPM’s setups, and it seemed to work very well. They had three cars finish in the top 13, and Edwards was closing on Reutimann at the end for the win. – T.C.
4. From Garry:
We are watching The Chicago race, and Jimmy Johnson on lap 136 DID NOT wreck his car. I am not sure how or why, but I have watched a lot of NASCAR, and JJ was wrecked, done for the night, sideways at 190 mph… and he saved it. That is unreal. I am still not a fan of his, but that was amazing. How did he save it?
Traction control…just kidding. He’s good a racecar driver. I don’t really know what else to say. There’s a reason those guys are out on track in NASCAR’s top series, and you and I aren’t. – Journo
5. From Dee Dee:
You guys rock! I have a question about what exactly happened at the end of the Nationwide race Friday night. When Keselowski ran out of gas coming to the green flag on the G-W-C restart, why was Kyle Busch allowed to move up into second from fourth? Isn’t there a rule that you can’t pass before the start/finish line? In this case, he passed David Reutimann, who was in third. It seems to me that David got the bad end of that deal. Also I’d like to congratulate Beak on his win Saturday night in the Cup race. Good guys really can finish first!
NASCAR’s own policy is that if a car has to duck out of line or go to the back for any reason, the line just moves up. It’s much easier to do that, because choosing the alternative would mean that all the cars would have to flip flop their inside and outside positions from, in this case, second all the way back to the tail end of the field. That would have required NASCAR to put the caution back out and allow the cars to run at least another lap so they could get sorted out. It’s just easier for everyone involved to do it the way they do. – T.C.
6. From Anonymous:
With teams signing drivers that they don’t have rides for (Kasey) where does this leave Elliott Sadler?
In a tough spot. If RPM doesn’t re-sign him, which is looking increasingly likely, I’m not really sure what would be available to him. Elliott’s performance through the years has waned, with his last win coming in the 2004 season. Now no matter your thoughts on the quality of his equipment, it’s undeniable there hasn’t been much in quite a while to prove to one of the big teams that he’s worth taking a chance on. We’ll see what happens (as of right now he’s very frustrated with where he’s at), but I think he’s in a tough spot. – Journo
And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!
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Filed under: Carl Edwards, David Reutimann, Jeff Gordon, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
Motorsports fans are going to need to find a good NASCAR ticket broker for all of the great upcoming races. The Sprint Cup Series will return to Daytona Motorspeedway this weekend for the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday. Kevin Harvick is right now is the only man keeping Jimmie Johnson from his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup title. The #48 car has already won 5 times already this year and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The next race is The LifeLock.com 400 in Chicago where Mark Martin will try to defend his title. Then NASCAR head to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400 where an expected crowd of 250,000 will watch the world’s best stock car drivers compete. Jimmie Johnson has won the race the two previous years, but former winner Tony Stewart could prove a stiff test. This truly is turning out to be an exciting summer for NASCAR maniacs!
Look around and you’ll see a common headline: ‘Jimmie Johnson is back.’ For weeks many questioned whether the #48 team had lost its Midas touch. After all Johnson went (gasp!) 10 races in between wins. In that time he had two DNFs, and three finishes worse than 30th. Jimmie had hit rock bottom. Or had he?
I wrote here a little more than a month ago that the team was struggling, not because of the spoiler as many had suggested, but because of bad luck and mistakes. The truth is the team has run quite well despite a few hiccups here and there.
Since the implementation of the spoiler – and before his latest two wins – Johnson had six top-10s, three top-fives, one pole, and he led a total of 422 laps (in spite of those two DNFs, and three bad finishes). Since Charlotte, where Johnson finished 37th after a series of maladies, he has finished 5th, 6th, 1st, and 1st.
As we move forward through the season there are certainly still questions about Johnson and team #48. Can they shake the bad luck and mistakes for the remainder of the season? Will the new addition to the Johnson family make any difference? And could Jimmie be peaking too early?
Still this season is shaping up a lot like Johnson’s 2007 championship season. Some bad luck, and DNF’s through the mid-point of the season gave way to ten wins, and one of Johnson’s best seasons to date. Six of Johnson’s wins came after Daytona, and four of those wins came during the Chase (four in a row to be exact).
My point with all this is to say Jimmie may have had some bad luck, and certainly made a few mistakes during the first half of this season, but he has never faded from competitiveness. Perhaps an argument could be made that the field is catching up to Johnson – he’s not necessarily having the dominating performances he has had in past years. Competition is strong from a number of teams. Johnson and Denny Hamlin, for instance, will, at this moment, enter the Chase tied for first with their win totals. Certainly, I think this year he’ll face some stiffer competition going into and through the Chase, but don’t count out team #48.
Is Jimmie back? As far as I can tell he never left.
I don’t care who you are, if you didn’t think the end of the race at Loudon was good, then you aren’t a race fan. There, I said it.
As a whole, I realize this probably wasn’t the most exciting race of the season, but the last 15 laps were awesome. We saw Jeff Burton make a rare mistake, and two bump-and-runs for the win.
It all started on lap 289. Burton got into turn three too deep, slid up the track, and got into Kyle Busch’s left rear. At the time, the two were racing for third, and both had led laps. Busch ended up 11th, with Burton one spot back in twelfth. Apparently the New Kyle Buschwas driving today, as he was surprisingly calm after the race with his comments. Don’t forget though, these two crossed paths a few weeks ago at Charlotte, in an incident that ended with Burton yelling at Busch on pit road after the race. This burgeoning feud is far from over.
Just a few short laps later, Kurt Busch pulled the classic bump-and-run on Jimmie Johnson to take the race lead. Busch got under Johnson into turn three, and he made just enough contact to send Johnson up the track and scoot by. The elder Busch was able to get away for a few laps, but Johnson ran him back down, and pulled the same maneuver on Busch! Johnson would go on to win his second straight race.
In his post race press conference, Jimmie told reporters that after Busch got into him, he only had one thing in mind: ”wreck his ass.”
We’ve now had two straight weeks where a number of drivers were upset after the race. Last week, the common theme was Jeff Gordon. This week, Clint Bowyer was mad at Juan Pablo Montoya, Montoya was mad at Reed Sorenson, and so on. The drivers have shown that the gloves are off, and anything can and will happen during these races. And if you think these guys are going to forget what has happened over the last two weeks, think again. It might not happen right away, but scores will be settled.
And you know what? There ain’t a damn thing wrong with it.
Four time champion Jimmie Johnson won at New Hampshire holding off Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. Johnson and Busch traded the lead at the end of the race after a few bumps between gentleman. There was a green lap love fest as the caution only flew a few times. The only major incidents were Juan Pablo Montoya wrecking after he and Reed Sorenson traded paint for a few laps and Reed got loose and bumped Juan Pablo into the fence ending his day.
The second was caused by Jeff Burton getting loose and causing Kyle Busch to spin with only a few laps left. As usual Jeff Burton owned up for making a mistake. I love it when drivers do that. The win helped Jimmie close the gap a little on points leader Kevin Harvick.
Jimmie Johnson Wins at New Hampshire is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
Filed under: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR
With road course racing in the rear view, both the Cup and NNS cars head north to Loudon this week. After what transpired at Infineon, the Magic Mile may play host to a little payback for some drivers. While they ponder their revenge, we’ve got more reader questions and answers. If you don’t know what this post is, we answer any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From Ric:
Do teams inform the NASCAR Pit Road Inspectors what they might be doing to the car so they are not in the way?
It’s certainly not a rule, but often times one of the pit crew guys will let the officials know what’s going on. There are a few that don’t pay attention sometimes, and it’s not uncommon for an official to either get hit, or come very close to getting hit. – T.C.
2. From Christopher:
Maybe this is a little off-topic, but I’ve been watching Inside NASCAR on Showtime this year. I noticed in the first bunch of episodes none of the track radio chatter was censored. Lots of swear words made it through, which I thought was kinda neat- gave you a little more reality than what you hear during the race. All of the sudden, they beep out anything offensive. Not a big deal, just wondering if anyone knows what gives?
You know I noticed that too. And I honestly don’t know why they all of sudden started censoring it. I think it’s probably the only show on Showtime that has any censorship. Perhaps people (within the garage) were complaining about being uncensored, but I don’t know. Sorry. – Journo
Here is a question that only Rick Hendrick and NASCAR can answer, but how can Hendrick have Kasey Kahne under contract for 2011 and not be considered his car owner? I can’t think of any scenario that would not somehow include arranging for a sponsor and/or paying the salary directly. Will NASCAR really go for this? Help me out here.
Oh yeah NASCAR will go for this. The issue isn’t Rick Hendrick employing people (he could employee every driver in the garage). It’s Rick Hendrick owning more than four cars. If Kasey is contracted out to someone else (even if Hendrick is still paying him), they are well within the rules. – Journo
4. From John:
Hey guys, love the site. Say a Nationwide Series team gets a sponsor last second during the weekend. Because the series has impound rules, do they have to get permission to wrap the car and when the car has to have the decals applied is there a NASCAR official supervising the process to make sure there’s nothing done to the car on the side?
If it happens that late in a game, all the team has to do is get permission from Joe Balash and the officials to put on decals. And if they are allowed to do it (which they would be), there will most certainly be at least one official there to supervise the team. – T.C.
5. From Floyd:
What was your take on the way Jeff Gordon was driving?? I think that some other drivers would of been penalized for rough driving.
I think the proper penalty would have been for stupid driving. But seriously rough driving isn’t really applicable in this situation. I don’t think he was being malicious, he was just making very poor decisions and unfortunately other teams paid the price. I’m sure Martin Truex Jr. won’t soon forget though. NASCAR wasn’t giving Jeff Gordon any special concessions. He certainly wasn’t alone in his stupid driving this weekend. I heard guys afterward comparing the amount of damage to the cars in the field to Martinsville and Bristol – something you don’t normally see at a place like Sonoma. – Journo
6. From Steve:
The last caution Sunday was (seemingly) due to Keselowski backing onto the racing lane instead of moving forward, a move that I viewed as his attempt to draw a caution which would keep him from losing as many positions than if the race stayed green. The caution likely cost Ambrose the win. I know Ambrose has no recourse but does NASCAR ever take action against drivers who game the system? On road courses, do you know why NASCAR doesn’t use yellow flags the same way the other road racing organizations do, where the yellow applies only to the specific area and not to the entire track? I like Jeff Gordon but to whine one week about somebody pushing him around and then to do the same to others. Am I wrong to think that the standard seems to be simply ‘if it’s done to me, it’s a crime, it I do it to someone else, sorry, but that’s racing’?
To your first question, NASCAR will (and have) penalize cars who they feel intentionally bring out cautions. I think though NASCAR made the right call with Brad K. To the caution question, it’s just the way it is. They do give quite a bit of leeway to cars straightening themselves out, but I agree it can be a bit daunting with larger courses (Road America for instance). The policy does make it safer for all safety crews involved however. And to the Jeff Gordon question, well, I’m not going there. – Journo
7. From MS:
What is NASCAR’s rationale behind using carbs instead of injection? Are teams in favor of going to injection?
This is one of those “we’ve always done it this way” situations. There is not a rational reason for why NASCAR hasn’t changed. And I think it doesn’t really matter to the teams whether they use carbs or injection. Injection will certainly cost the engine builders a little more money, because they need to re-tune engines, but it won’t be a huge deal. – T.C.
8. From Marcus:
Being this is sort-of an opinion based site I have a different type of question for you guys. After watching what unfolded during the last 7-8 laps at Infineon do believe that NASCAR gives wins to Jimmie Johnson? Let me explain. When Brad Keselowski spun they called a caution with 7 laps to go. Now all day cars had been spinning and they didnt call a caution. Even after Johnson got the lead 3 more cars spun. Then under caution Marcos Ambrose stopped on track when he was trying to save fuel. NASCAR then pulls out this rule that NASCAR fans had never heard of but the NASCAR community has heard of. They put Marcos Ambrose in 6th I believe and then wind down the laps to 5 to go. Thus ensuring that Jimmie wins. So that is why I asked you, Do you guys believe that NASCAR gives Jimmie Johnson wins? Because after a situation like that I certainly do. And I did before. For Instance “Jimmie Cautions”? Just wondering.
As we have said here before, NASCAR does not benefit from Jimmie Johnson winning every other race and the last four championships. If anything, it would have benefited them more to have Ambrose win. A foreign driver gettting his first ever Cup win would have been a big story. So all this talk about NASCAR favoring Johnson is crazy. The officials just made the call they needed to make in this particular situation, and Johnson happened to be the one who benefited. There is no underlying conspiracy at work here. - T.C.
I agree with T.C. – Journo
9. From Michael in SoCal:
Nascar.com lists the owner of the 24 & 88 as Rick Hendrick, the owner of the 48 is Jeff Gordon, and the owner of the 5 is Mary Hendrick. That said, obviously all of these cars are ‘owned’ by Hendrick Motor Sports. So does the listed owner come into play in any way with the 4 car per team limit?
No not at all. All of Jack Roush’s cars don’t have Jack Roush listed as the owner either. Same at Childress, Gibbs, Penske, EGR etc. What matters is what organization really owns and operates the cars. – Journo
Sad to see what happened to Ambrose and I am not here to necessarily to defend him, but maintaining the pace car speed rule and its enforcement leaves me a bit perplexed. Marcos obviously stopped when the engine would not turn over momentarily causing him to fall below the pace car speed. As no warning was given by NASCAR like “hey 47 you better get up here and keep your position,” how is that any different than others that have exceeded pace car speed and actually passed the pace car, only to be told to back and get back in line, or else. Or better yet during the caution when the leader on an oval slows near the pit entrance commitment cone, is passed on track by one or more cars that stayed out, only to void his pit, stay out and accelerate back up to the rear bumper of the pace car.
Ambrose was not allowed to pull back into his original position because he pretty much stopped on the track and had to restart the engine. I’m not sure you can really compare this situation to the others you mentioned. I’m not sure I remember seeing an instance where a car purposely passed the pace car trying to gain some sort of advantage, only to be told to go back behind. Usually the only cars that need to pass the pace car are the lucky dogs. Also, when a car is faking to pit road, they don’t usually come to a complete stop. Ambrose was attempting to save fuel under the caution, and he got bit. It’s really as simple as that. – T.C.
One of the biggest storylines of the 2010 season has been the conflict we’ve seen between high caliber teammates. First, it was Jeff Gordon taking exception to some moves that Jimmie Johnson made at Texas and Talladega. Both races resulted in destroyed race cars for the Dupont team, and Gordon didn’t hesitate to tell everyone who he thought was at fault. It appeared that even Gordon was starting to suffer from the JJ fatigue that some fans complained about regularly. The most recent example we’ve seen is the trouble brewing between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch following a run-in at the All Star race. Busch felt Hamlin blocked him on a late race pass attempt, and subsequent contact with the wall would later result in a cut tire for Busch. Since the incident, the feud appears to be an on-again, off-again affair, with each driver taking shots at the other via the media.
In both cases, some were calling for Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs to step in and fix the situation between their drivers. The fear was that conflict between the drivers would hurt the organization as a whole. While I don’t know the extent to which both got involved, I’m sure there was at least conversations that happened. I’m not so sure they were necessary though.
Unlike traditional sports, it’s not vital to the success of a race team for teammates to get along. If Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin never speak again, there is no reason to think they couldn’t still contend for championships. The people within a race team who’s collaboration is necessary to success are the crew chiefs, mechanics, and engineers. They need to share information and work together towards making the equipment better. That is where races and championships are won. Besides at maybe a restrictor plate track, drivers like Hamlin and Busch don’t work together on track anyway.
Where a problem between two teammates could become an issue, is if the conflict spreads from the drivers to the teams. There have been cases before where two teammates have tangled on track, and the incident spawned discontent between guys on the teams and in the shop. When the teams quit working together, the advantages of being a multi-car operation go away. I actually wrote a post about this exact topic a few years ago (see it here).
If I’m Mr. H. or Coach Gibbs in either of these situations, I’m monitoring my employees to ensure the conflict doesn’t spread. I may also step in to make sure that these “feuds” aren’t affecting my sponsors. And while I certainly don’t want my drivers to hate each other, I don’t mind if they don’t hang out when they leave the race track. Besides, a little rivalry between my guys might actually push them to be better.
What are your thoughts? If you are a fan of a driver that has tangled with a teammate, were you worried about how it would affect the team? What would you do if you were an owner and two of your drivers tangled?