It’s time to put a nice little bow on everything that went down in the Valley of the Sun.
I’ll start off by saying that while it sucks that we didn’t run the full distance, let’s not continue crying over spilled milk. Rain is unpredictable and doesn’t care if it’s a race that has huge implications on the Chase. I know a lot of people were saying NASCAR should’ve put off the race until today. According to Weather.com, it’s just as dicey today as it was yesterday.
If we did run it today, that’s an extra day team members (some of whom are there just for the race), television crews, radio crews and fans have to be put up in a hotel and an extra day where the television network has to preempt its regularly scheduled programming to run the delayed race. It also puts an extra load on the hauler crews that have to drive cross-country from Avondale, Ariz. to Homestead, Fla. with little if any time to switch out cars in Charlotte.
To those who say it’s not fair to the drivers who were fighting for a spot in the championship race, they had 219 laps to get their hindquarters to the front and waited too long. As the late David Poole used to say, “fair is where you go to get funnel cakes.”
Regardless, I don’t envy the people in charge whenever a situation like this occurs like it does once or twice every season. They’re damned if they start it and can’t finish it and damned if they don’t start it. So while I hate it when a race doesn’t run to its advertised conclusion, NASCAR had no choice.
Next, I’ll touch on Kurt Busch getting black-flagged on the initial start. If you missed it last night, the driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was posted for beating the control car (Jimmie Johnson) to the line on the initial start.
NASCAR’s reasoning for this rule is that they believe the pole sitter has earned the right to be the first to the line. On restarts, it doesn’t matter who gets to the line first. It only matters that the leader restarts the race. I’m going on record saying I think think it’s a stupid rule that should be done away with in the offseason so that whomever get to the line first on the initial start is no different than who gets to the line first on restarts.
Now with that said, I didn’t have a problem with it being called. As NBC showed last night, NASCAR Sprint Cup Competition Director Richard Buck said – after being asked by Jeff Gordon – in the drivers meeting that the control car must be the first car to the line. Even Kurt Busch tweeted that he accepted what happened.
Bottom line: it’s a stupid rule, but a rule none the less. Unless NASCAR changes this in the offseason, as they should, I won’t say anything on it being enforced.
Finally, there’s the four drivers that’ll drive for the championship. Joining Gordon at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. Each one of them would make a great, compelling story for winning the championship.
Truex – 2004 and 2005 Xfinity Series champion – has overcome being ceremoniously dumped by Michael Waltrip Racing following the fustercluck at Richmond two years ago, his business partner and girlfriend Sherry Pollex being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014 and injected new life into the Denver-based Furniture Row Racing.
This season alone, he’s gone from journeyman to serious championship contender. I would be happy to see him and Barney Visser hoisting the Sprint Cup championship trophy on Sunday.
Harvick is the defending series champion and has had one of the more dominant seasons I’ve seen in a long time.
He’s won three races, finished runner-up 12 times (tying a NASCAR record), 22 top-fives, 27 top-10’s, led over two-thousand laps in back to back seasons (first to do so since Jeff Gordon in 1995 and 1996), and led no less than a lap in 29 of the 35 races this season.
Given he’s also the defending Ford EcoBoost 400 winner, I have no doubt that he’ll be a force to reckon Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Busch’s season began 11 races after the other three after breaking both his legs in the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway in February. He made a rather speedy recovery – being back to walking on his own power by Easter – and returned to the seat of his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the All-Star Race, followed by the Coca-Cola 600. He went onto win four races in the summer, including being the first driver to win three consecutive races in seven years in Kentucky, Loudon and the Brickyard.
Now him winning the title will probably be the most controversial because many in NASCAR nation and members of the NASCAR media, most notably Pete Pistone, feel that he shouldn’t have been granted a waiver by NASCAR that requires all drivers to attempt to qualify for every Sprint Cup Series race to be eligible for the Chase. I would have absolutely no issue with Busch being champion because he satisfied the top-30 requirement and won a race (or four) to get himself in position to make the Chase. So if destiny is meant to be for the younger Busch brother this Sunday, I would be perfectly okay with it.
Finally, we have the first-ballot hall of fame legend who’s not only making his 797th and final career start of his 23-year career, but will do so with a chance to go out with that long overdue fifth championship.
You couldn’t write this swan song any more perfectly. Athletes in any sport want to retire as not just champions, but champions in their final go-round. John Elway, the fourth-winningest quarterback in the history of the National Football League, went out as Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl XXXIII with the Denver Broncos. Ray Bourque, one of the best defencemen in the history of the National Hockey League, went out as a Stanley Cup champion with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. Ray Lewis, whom I consider to be the best linebacker in the history of the NFL, retired as a Super Bowl champion in Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens.
Now, Gordon could depart a sport he took from the South to a national mainstream sport from the day he arrived on the scene in the 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway as champion. Combined with the fact he hasn’t won a title in 14 years, there’s no doubt that Gordon winning the title Sunday would be arguably the greatest moment in the history of NASCAR.
I’ve had the great privilege of watching almost his entire career and honestly really want to see him drive off into the Florida sunset as champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
That should just about sum up the events of Phoenix. Next up is the 2015 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where we’ll crown our champion and begin counting down the days until the 58th Daytona 500 (it’s now 97 days).
