TheNASCARInsiders.com Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!
This past weekend at Texas Tony Stewart notched his fourth win in the Chase – it was an impressive feat considering that prior to the first Chase race in Chicago it had been 32 races since he’d last seen victory lane. Despite the late string of success, Stewart still finds himself second in the championship points standings. For some that’s inexplicable.
This fundamental question of what’s more important in the push to a championship is something that’s dogged NASCAR and motorsports for a long time. Do we want a champion who the had the best overall Chase, or the one who had the most wins? Often times they are not one and the same.
NASCAR, prior to this season, retooled the points in an effort to simplify and put slightly more emphasis on winning. The new system gave three extra points to the top finisher in addition to another point for leading a lap. NASCAR also gave the two teams outside of the top-10 but inside the top-20 with the most wins berths in the Chase.
The result of the points changes, while certainly an improvement and much easier to understand has been pretty insignificant this season. But is that a bad thing?
Championship success in NASCAR unlike other sports is not and never has been solely based on winning. It’s of course important, but consistency and good finishes are often the key. Consider Carl Edwards has an average finish of 9.7 on the season, with one win, and 5.6 in the Chase with no wins. Tony Stewart on the other hand is averaging a finish of 12.6 on the season and 7.3 in Chase. For Stewart that includes those four wins.
Carl has without a doubt put together the better, more consistent season. He’s even put together the better, more consistent Chase. And that’s why he finds himself leading the points.
I’ve always been of the belief that the best team should win the championship no matter how it gets there. In this case I want the team with the best Chase performance to win it all. Whether that means the championship winning team has the most wins or the most number of better finishes.
So what do you think should get the emphasis? Consistency? Or wins? Does NASCAR need to restructure the points again? Should Tony Stewart be leading the points?
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.
The only thing as sure as the next race is that there will be flux and change during the NASCAR season. And this year hasn’t been any different. This summer we saw crew chief shifts at some of the sport’s top tier teams – I even wrote about it here. From Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to Roush Fenway Racing changes were made in the name of improving performance, but has that actually happened so far?
Juan Pablo Montoya
Brian Pattie Average Finish: 17.6 Average Start: 16.5 Place in Points: 17
Jim Pohlman (9 races this season) Average Finish: 18.2 Average Start: 16.4 Place in Points: 19
Montoya and Pattie had been together since the mid-point of the 2008 season and had success together. It was apparent this season though the relationship was straining and with the EGR cars not as strong as they were last year, something had to give. And it was Pattie.
In the nine races since Pohlman took over Montoya’s performance, as evidenced by the numbers, has actually gotten worse. There’s certainly time for improvement before the end of the season, but so far this move hasn’t impressed. And with Montoya’s patience notoriously short we’ll see how long this lasts.
Martin Truex Jr.
Pat Tryson Average Finish: 19.6 Average Start: 17.3 Place in Points: 21
Chad Johnson (15 races this season) Average Finish: 16.2 Average Start: 17.7 Place in Points: 18
A slight improvement is perhaps better than no improvement at all. Pat Tryson, a seasoned and successful veteran of the sport, left Penske Racing at the end 2009 to join Truex at Michael Waltrip Racing. The move was highly touted but a less than successful pairing.
Chad Johnson has been atop the pit box for 15 races and in that time the two have had slight improvement in their finishes and made up three spots in the points. I suspect he’ll have ample time to prove himself in the role.
Greg Biffle
Greg Erwin Average Finish: 16.8 Average Start: 17.9 Place in Points: 14
Matt Puccia (10 races this season) Average Finish: 16.9 Average Start: 13 Place in Points: 14
This was another duo that had been together for a long time and found quite a bit of success. This season though was a struggle and like Montoya and Pattie chemistry was waning. Ultimately, from what we heard, Erwin walked.
Matt Puccia, a long time fixture in the Roush organization and a reasonably successful crew chief in his own right took over 10 races ago. And the move has been negligible. Biffle didn’t make the chase and they have seen no improvement in their average finish and no change in their points standing. Was Erwin the problem? You tell me.
Jeff Burton
Todd Berrier Average Finish: 20.8 Average Start: 19 Place in Points: 25
Lucas Lambert (9 races this season) Average Finish: 18.1 Average Start: 20.7 Place in Points: 24
Todd Berrier joined Burton at the end of the 2009 season after stints with Casey Mears and Kevin Harvick. The two looked great at the end of 09′ and had a decent year last year including a Chase appearance and six top-fives. Then came this season. After 19 races without a single top-ten RCR’s leadership had seen all it needed to see.
Lucas Lambert’s performance in the top job has looked pretty similar to the 19 races prior. One thing Lambert was able to do that Berrier wasn’t, was help Burton to a top-ten finish. This is an interesting one to watch.
AJ Allmendinger
Mike Shiplett Average Finish: 17.1 Average Start: 15.1 Place in Points: 16
Greg Erwin (9 races this season) Average Finish: 16.3 Average Start: 15 Place in Points: 15
Mike Shiplett had been through a slew of drivers (and owners for that matter), during his time with RPM and its predecessor organizations. And during that time there was only fleeting success.
Erwin’s addition was interesting, but color me surprised performance hasn’t picked up much. Erwin has proven himself to be a capable crew chief, but things are apparently not quite working at RPM. We’ll see if they improve.
It’s interesting none of the moves made so far this season have had much of an impact on performance. Like all things though changes in leadership sometimes take a while to have an impact. I think the jury is still out on all of the crew chief swaps so far this season but after 9-15 races the picture is becoming clear. Stay tuned.
For months Carl Edwards and the speculation about his 2012 plans have dominated Silly Season coverage (TC wrote about it just last week). It was a daily will he or won’t he. In the last several weeks it looked increasingly likely Edwards would make the jump to Joe Gibbs Racing – some were reporting very specific rumors including signing bonuses, sponsors and driver pay.
And then, as quickly as it began, Roush Fenway Racing put an end to it with a press release last week announcing Edwards would re-sign with the team in a multi-year deal.
From the very beginning Edwards said performance was going to be the key factor in his decision for 2012. As the points leader and a winner this season Edwards was/is in a very good position at RFR. Improving on the situation he was in would have been difficult.
Enter Joe Gibbs Racing, a Championship winning organization, looking for the right opportunity to expand to four cars.
Early on RFR made an offer to Edwards that they say was firm throughout the negotiations. Apparently JGR also made an offer to Edwards.
As the days turned into weeks, and weeks into months details began to emerge about one side of the deal. Some were reporting rumors of Edwards to the #20 car and Home Depot. There were suggestions of a signing bonus as high as $10 million (signing bonuses are unheard of in NASCAR).
Even with all the details it was clear no one felt too good about any of the information they were getting. As TC said last week, Lee Spencer, who has some of the best sources in the garage, wrote about hearing “scuttlebutt.” Not inspiring language.
Where exactly it originated is anyone’s guess, but there was only one person who stood to benefit from talk of a massive deal with a competitor – Carl Edwards. With Roush standing firm on their initial offer, sweetening that deal was only going to happen with external pressure. The offer from Gibbs, whatever it was, was that necessary pressure.
Then came news that Ford had stepped in with a very generous package for Edwards to improve the deal with RFR. Ford didn’t want to lose Edwards anymore than Roush did.
What Edwards finally got was a contract that is almost certainly better than his last with RFR and he gets to stay in a position where he can win a championship. From the get-go Edwards had to know if he decided to leave Roush at any point during the season it would have spelled an end to his championship run this year. Jack might not have booted him from the car (see Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton) but he would have seen to it Edwards wasn’t going to win a championship only to move on to another team.
And in the end, I don’t honestly think Edwards had any intention of leaving Roush – there really wasn’t any reason to. He though, like anyone in his position, wanted a better deal than he had, and he was going to make it happen. It took a couple of months but he eventually squeezed what I’m sure is a very generous contract out of Roush that puts him at the top of the heap among his fellow Roush drivers.
With this move it’ll be interesting to see how quickly things fall into place. Silly Season is still in full swing, even if the big free agents are quickly falling off the market.
David Ragan finally notched his first Cup Series win this past weekend at Daytona. It was a long road for the 25-year-old driver after four and half seasons in the sport’s top series.
Ragan’s meteoric rise at Roush Fenway started with the old “Gong Show” (then called Roush Racing: Driver X for Discovery Channel) in 2005, and included in 2006 a 19 race stopover in the Truck Series, and three Nationwide and two Cup starts before being moved to the Mark Martin’s old Cup ride in 2007.
With a lot of pressure behind him to perform in the iconic #6, the then 21-year-old driver notched two top-fives, three top-tens and finished 23rd in the points. The next season he knocked down six top-fives, 14 top-tens and just missed the Chase, finishing 13th in the points.
With all the hope and expectations of the 2008 season, 2009 was nothing short of a disappointment – just two top-tens and a 27th place points finish. Then 2010 saw just three top-tens and a 24th place points finish.
Coming into 2011, Ragan had a relatively new crew chief in Drew Blickensderfer and needed to make something happen.
And so we found ourselves last Sunday. Ragan has been much improved this season (two top-10s, four top-fives before the win) with his highest average finish since 2008. He sits 17th in the points and has a real shot at the Chase with that win.
Everything is looking good, except for the fact that UPS hasn’t re-signed for next season.
“I’m not worried about the program next year. I certainly think about it some. UPS has been a great partner of ours and will continue to be,” Ragan said. “They’ve got some decisions to make in the next couple of months. I think we’re on the right path to bring those guys back; we’re happy we got that win for them – that certainly helped. The Fords are the strongest they have been in a long time. Jack [Roush, owner] and I are on the same page and UPS is happy.“
In a very unusual move for a sponsor, UPS sent a statement out after the race congratulating Ragan on his win and reaffirming their commitment to the driver. Certainly a good signal – I’m still not sure though whether it was simply a congratulatory note or had some other meaning.
Ragan has a couple of years left on his deal with Roush, and though that does mean security, it doesn’t necessarily mean his ride is a guarantee. A lot is going to depend on that all important sponsorship question, and to a larger extent, whether or not that win and the improvement this season is enough to make Jack Roush think Ragan has hit a turning point.
Silly Season continues to intrigue and this is certainly one storyline to follow.
With the announcement last week that Red Bull was ceasing its NASCAR operations at the end of the season, the 2011 Silly Season went into full overdrive. While the number of available rides just potentially got cut by one, the number of unanswered questions increased. Can Red Bull find investors? What will Brian Vickers do next season?
Along with those unanswered questions about Red Bull are the drivers and teams who find themselves without a solid deal for 2012. Still what are the realistic opportunities for movement before next season.
Carl Edwards is in the final year of his deal with Roush Fenway Racing and easily finds himself as the hottest prospect. He’s the current points leader and a 19-time winner in the Cup Series.
Edwards has been the subject of a rumored move to Joe Gibbs Racing. While a fourth car at Gibbs is the best option available to Edwards, is it really better than his current position with Roush Fenway? I think, at best, it represents a lateral move for the driver.
The rumors of an Edwards to Gibbs move no doubt came from either Gibbs or Edwards – either way it strengthens Edward’s negotiating position at Roush, which, I think, was the purpose of the rumors. We’ll see what happens, but I think the driver will more than likely stay where he is; despite his potential to bring money wherever he goes.
Clint Bowyer is in the final year of his contract with Richard Childress Racing and has been the subject of a rumored move to Red Bull Racing (that is, before Red Bull announced they were leaving the sport). Bowyer has had success at RCR but has played second fiddle to Kevin Harvick. With a move to Red Bull now out of the question, Bowyer is also very likely to stay where he is.
Brian Vickers finds himself in a worse position than the other two drivers mentioned. He has been with Red Bull Racing since the team began in 2006, leaving Hendrick Motorsports for the opportunity. With a severe lack of opportunities, he doesn’t have many better options but to stick it out with Red Bull and hope Jay Frye can put together investors capable of keeping the team alive.
Mark Martin is a man toward the end of his career who is not ready to end his career. With Kasey Kahne moving into Martin’s spot at Hendrick Motorsports when Martin’s contract ends at the end of the year, Martin is a wild card. Excluding unsubstantiated rumors that he would be investing in Red Bull Racing, Martin’s future remains very murky. He and Jay Frye have a relationship from Martin’s time at Ginn Racing and it wouldn’t be surprising, if Frye can put the investors together, that Martin ends up in a Frye car. We’ll see what happens, but that may be the only Cup opportunity available to the 52-year-old driver.
Danica Patrick, while maybe not the most sought after driver, is perhaps the most intriguing driver of this Silly Season. She is in the final year of her deals with Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series and JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and brings with her big sponsorship and endorsement deals. Her realistic available opportunities include a continued role at JR Motorsports and perhaps a third team at Stewart Haas Motorsports. Both are of course contingent upon the money she brings, but she can no doubt bring the money. We’ll see if she brings her talents to NASCAR.
What are your thoughts on the current Silly Season, these drivers and others? Where do you think these drivers will end up? Talk amongst yourselves.
Remember that time Roush went 31 races without a win? Yeah I don’t really either. With memories of 2009 slowly fading away, Roush is proving, with this season and last, that it’s still very much a team on top.
The team currently has two of four cars inside the Chase and one knocking at the door, and three wins, 12 top-fives, and 21 top-tens. They are all weekly contenders. And though fellow organizations Hendrick, Childress and Stewart-Haas all also have two in the top-10, no one has the stats of the Roush teams.
Carl Edwards currently sits atop the driver points with a 24 point lead, and one win. Even though last season was an improvement for the #99 bunch, 2011 is shaping up to be a better year. Edwards is averaging a 7.3 place finish and he accounts for one of those two wins and 307 total laps led.
Matt Kenseth has been the other standout, becoming only the third repeat winner of the season. Though there has been some bad luck, he’s managed a 14.1 average finish and a sixth place position in the points. His laps led? 231. Apparently he and Jimmy Fennig are working well together.
As for Greg Biffle and David Ragan, while they only combine for 41 total laps led, both have had bright spots here and there. Ragan, if you’ll recall, almost won at Daytona and has had some solid top-five and top-10 runs recently. He too though has had some bad luck and generally bad weeks this season. As for Biffle, he had a rough start to the season, but has made up for it with top-15 runs six of the last eight weeks. That includes one top-five and four top-tens.
All of that’s not even including the three wins Roush and Edwards have in the Nationwide Series this season. Add to that the very promising talent of Trevor Bayne (who won the Daytona 500 for an RFR supported Wood Brothers Racing) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Organizationally Roush is looking good this season. And after a less than wonderful couple of years they’re cementing their perch. With the competition tight and two thirds of the season remaining we’ll see if Roush can continue this momentum. As always, it’ll be interesting to watch.
With all eyes focused on the Montoya/Newman feud and Trevor Bayne’s health this weekend, you may have missed a NASCAR Series Director admitting they made an officiating mistake. Crazy, but true.
Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash said that penalizing Carl Edwards for “servicing outside the box” in Friday’s race wasn’t correct because Edwards was within the three stall limit of his box even though he was past the end of pit road. Though the rule says you can’t push a car beyond the end of pit road, Balash said they need to give those teams who have stalls at the end of pit road, the benefit of the doubt.
Now that is refreshing. Balash said they looked at the penalty and it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, but the sanctioning body admitting it’s not infallible says a lot.
In an age where everyone is a loveseat official and DVRs allow for instant playback (as if the playback the networks do isn’t enough), analyzing penalties, and then disagreeing with them has become a favorite past time of fans and journalists alike (we’re certainly guilty). This was a situation where there really wasn’t much controversy and Balash still admitted the call wasn’t right. You may not respect them all the time, but that you’ve got to respect.
This obviously didn’t get much run this weekend, but I think it’s a story worth repeating. NASCAR has a credibility issue with a portion of its avid fan base and I think moments like these can do a lot to restore that credibility. I personally think they get it right most of the time. Just like you and me though even the most informed people are capable of making a mistake every now and then. The important thing is admitting when those mistakes are made.
I know I’m probably going to get called out for being a “NASCAR homer” on this one, but I see a sanctioning body that’s moving into an era of openness. Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR VP of Racing Operations, is on twitter and we’ve seen him regularly answering questions and interacting with people. Even NASCAR as an entity is doing a fabulous job of talking to people on twitter. Never before have fans had this kind of access – and you certainly don’t get that from other major leagues or sanctioning bodies.
To quote English poet Alexander Pope, “to err is human, to forgive divine.”
You know that old saying, “money doesn’t grow on trees”? Well the same can be said for sponsorships. And in a tough economic environment that’s never been more true.
We get questions around here every now and then about why a team isn’t able to find sponsorship. This question has popped up recently with the difficulty the Wood Brothers have had securing All Star Race sponsorship for Trevor Bayne. People are asking, “he won the Daytona 500, why can’t they find sponsorship?”
There is often a sort of paradox on the business development side of motorsports where competitiveness (or even wins) doesn’t always lead to success in finding sponsorship. Look at RCR and Kevin Harvick – they were closing gaps in their sponsorship right up to the start of the season. Or how about Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Jamie McMurray last season – they closed the gap with sponsorship from McDonalds the week after he won the 500.
The important lesson from the above cases though is that these deals came to fruition through months of effort and relationship building, not a few weeks of fleeting success and/or wishful thinking. Remember Cup Series sponsorships for a whole season run upwards of $20 million and beyond. Single races can run anywhere from $600,000 to $1 million. Neither figure is chump change and spending that kind of money, even for a Fortune 500 company, requires a vetting process that can take a considerable amount of time.
No real sponsorship deal (and I’m talking about those that are actually valuable, not a partnership with the Days Inn Martinsville) is born over night, or even over the course of just a few weeks.
In the case of Trevor Bayne consider that the Wood Brothers entered this season with the intention of running the young driver in just a handful of races. No one would have guessed he would pull a great upset and win the Daytona 500. They just weren’t prepared to find sponsorship to run Bayne in additional races, and didn’t have that nice lead time enjoyed by others doing the same thing.
The Wood Brothers and I would imagine their friends at Roush Fenway Racing are doing all they can to secure funding for Bayne. The fact is though, these things take time. And as much as we like instant gratification, it just doesn’t fit the reality here.