Would be best explained by who exactly is driving what for whom. Silly season had it's season and then it had an off season. Here is a partial rundown by team to be completed by Daytona which runs 22 days away. RCR Same top lineup with an addition of Casey Mears to the 7 car. Boyer moves to the new 33 car but leaves his points from last year with the 7 along with crew. Boyer, in the General Mills car will have to earn his way through the first 5 races. RCR has been missing just a lil sumpin over the last few seasons and inevitably, it has been horsepower. With the new Chevy engine out the crate and an equal playing field (No Sanctioned Testing) this should bring them closer to the front. Jeff Burton in the 31 will be flashing his new CAT colors, long time sponsor for his brother Ward. Nothing will change for the 29 Harvick team. HMS Power Daddy has added some old flavor and you will find Sir Mark Martin flying the 5 car for this and next year. His deal is looking for an immediate, if not soon there after championship. Deal is there are 7 championships right in front of him and they know how to get them. I would put a few bucks on the old man cause he has shown he can jump in just about any ride and make them a contender. Jimmy Johnson, Vonderboy, has the last three consecutive with all the looks of getting four in a row. Only thing stopping the 48 crew is themselves. My early season Championship prediction for sure. Serious though, NOBODY adjust through a race better. NOBODY unloads on Thursday any better. NOBODY runs better through the Chase. I phuckin hate him...Gordon has been WTF last couple of years. Highly unpredictable cars that like to start well but finish mid pack. Gotta wonder if there will be a change for the 24 crew... ...More Later
Roush Fenway Racing The man that wants everything still wants all five teams intact at the end of this season. He states why, in these economic times would NASCAR allow a sponsor to leave the garage? NASCAR said tough sh!t back to Jack and that is that! Just goes to show, Jack doesn't like to share as it was my impression that the fifth car would go to Yates and there would come greater share technology between the two. So for this year there are no changes at RFR cept David Regan will fly the UPS colors and Carl Edwards will have some Subway pimping to do. Same drivers with the same crew chiefs with the exception of Larry Carter from the 26 moving over to Yates. A very new Ford engine is being unveiled this year. I see a few hick ups adjusting but certainly an improvement from last year. Carl and Matt will improve equally as they have shown that they are adjusting very well to the new car throughout the end of the 2008 season. Biffle is always a WTF, but it is not his fault! Simply put, he has bad luck. Seems he had a problem with tires and someone putting the bumper on him throughout last year. He just finished a tire test in Atlanta and he was smoking the joint. A phenomenal tire is being brought to Atlanta this year and look out, they say it behaves like the track was just repaved. Atlanta of old has returned... If I had tp put money on it, Jamie Mac will be looking for a new ride next season. Just sayin
I will need some kind flow chart to figure out who is drive for what team this year. How do you think Smoke is going to this year with his own team?
Smoke and Newman miss the chase but so does Lagono in the 20! Zippy is signed through 010 and would not be shocked if Tony has growing pains with his new chief, Zippy and Smoke could remarry in 011. Newman will take a while to develop as he has less natural talent and more of a technical approach. Too many people running around that organization and they need a year to make the mistakes necessary to learn from. I say minimally, Smoke runs a top 15ish while Newman will be a top 20 car this year. Tony has become very good at putting the right people in the right places and building success. His ARCA and world of outlaws teams win. His track in El Dora is huge with success, now a flagship for a local dirt tracks. With dedicated sponsorship I believe inside 4 years he is a championship contender. Next year he should be a chase contender.
I think Nascar has some economic issues that may result in point qualifying being moot. I was listening to the big press conference on Sirius the other day with all the Nascar brass and they seemed to indicate fielding 43 cars a week wasnt a given. They talked about technology restrictions in order for small teams to compete cost wise. They also talked about reducing ticket prices for the fans. They admitted some races last year where poorly attended and some normal sellouts didnt happen. They tried to be upbeat but the underlying tone was a little glum.
I didn't hear this press conference but I did notice that on the daytona 500 webpage there were tickets left when in past years this race is sold out by now, additionally they were offering discounted tickets. We go to the Bud Shoot Out every year and the 400 but for some reason never have gone to 500. We are planning the tailgate tomorrow for the Shoot Out, I am getting excited!
I saw a theory of why things went down (namely, attendance and TV ratings) over the last 2 years. I think its dead-on and NASCAR doesn't see it. The race start times are too late! Races used to always start about 1-2 ET, 12-1 CST. Two years ago they backed everything up to where races typically start around 3:00 ET, trying to increase the West Coast TV audience. It not only failed (too much else to do in Cali, I guess) but they are losing the East Coast audiences because the races end up pushing into the dinner hour and prime time. I can relate....many's the Sunday over the last 2 years when darkness has been falling, my wife's getting supper on the table, and these guys are crawling through yellow after yellow after yellow. They need to move the races back up into the early hours and finish in the daytime. Other than the 600, NASCAR was not meant to start in daylight and finish at night.
I have to agree with this but I think its only partially responsible for Nascar's downward trend. I think the COT has resulted in BORING races. Just look at tracks like Bristol where you were guaranteed some good bumping, spinning out and a few wrecks to shake up the leaderboard. This car sticks to the track like glue and results in boring lap after boring lap. On the higher speed tracks these cars are so evenly matched that passing has become the exception, not the rule. Many races are won on track position and pit stops only.
I think the COT is in it's learning patterns for how it is going to race these old features. Although I agree the mile and a halfs are just kind of one after the other leaving the racing in the turns, small tracks now having been visited 3 are stacking notes for better racing. Bristol last summer was three times better since the COT's debut in Bristol. A lot of tracks have made upgrades and that by itself creats a waiting period for better racing. The sport is experiencing a lot of change and now the changes just need to catch up with each other. Last year was the first full season of notes and for some, that is better, bad for the rest. I agree. I have been in California for 9 years and the start time has increased by an hour and a half since. I think the season needs to be shorten and remove some of these repeat stops to increase the economy of the first stop. Some tracks deserve a second date where some will just suck altogether. Disposable income for entertainment affects all sports but this sport cost more on the R&D which is the greatest cost for calculating unknown results. Tracks hold anywhere from 90,000 to 200,000+ fans which NASCAR is used to selling out. There is gonna be leaks in that size of a crowd. Some pretty creative ways to attract fans to drop a buck are developed every day. As I pointed out though, sh!t holes like Fontana with 150,000 (est) seats have a hard time filling the majority where TV or the beach is a better option. Watch Fontana the week after Daytona and see how many empty seats will be there. What does all this mean? Jeff Gordon with have to fly commercial OR ride share with 20 others.
