Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Is Back
After two years of miserable races, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing (EGR) has finally returned back to its old form. Although they haven’t quite gotten rid of all the bad luck that seems to haunt the two car organization, the cars seem fast again and have made monumental progress in their overall performance. McMurray sits a solid 12th in the standings with three top 10’s in 2013 which already equals his total from 2012. Juan Pablo Montoya has been snake bit by wrecks and mechanical failures that have kept him deep in the points but he proved at Richmond what is possible for that No.42 should he stay out of trouble.
Montoya ran up front all night and not many people could say after an event that saw more comers and goers than any race in recent memory. He led 67 laps and finished 4th after a late race caution thwarted his chances of a victory. His last top five was way back in March of 2011 when he finished 4th at Martinsville and he hasn’t led that many laps since his win at Watkins Glen nearly three years ago. It would be ignorant to say that Montoya doesn’t have the talent but it would be acceptable to say that the poor man has no luck at all. Even though he came home with a 4th place finish Saturday and seemed pretty happy about it, the Colombian was all but guaranteed a win as he pulled away from Kevin Harvick until a caution with four laps remaining jumbled up the running order. He restarted 6th while eventual race winner Kevin Harvick restarted 7th and starting on the inside is what won him the race. Had the roles been reversed, Montoya would have most likely been the one passing Jeff Burton with one lap to go.
McMurray restarted the race 2nd but the field basically ran him over with how old his tires were finishing a disappointing 26th. Even with the unsatisfactory result, the 2010 Daytona 500 winner finds himself just 26pts out of the top 10 and ahead of champions such as Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. In 2009 and 2010, EGR asserted themselves as one of the better teams winning four races including the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. They also put Montoya in the 2009 chase and had the Wild-Card existed in 2010, McMurray would have been in it with his three wins. It looks like they are steadily turning things around and I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of their drivers make the chase this year. At the very least, I see both McMurray and Montoya winning a race before the year is over.
Is it the switch Hendrick engines that has helped this team or is it something else? People were shocked when team owner Chip Ganassi didn’t make any major personal changes following their dismal 2012 which saw Jamie finish 21st in points and Juan 22nd. I have to give major props to Chip for not overreacting to what seemed to be a hopeless situation in the eyes of most. Kevin Manion and Chris Heroy are still the crew chiefs and the combinations seem to be working well. All this team lacked was speed and I believe Hendrick power has given them that missing piece they needed to run up front again. Chip felt it would be imprudent to turn the team inside out after all their struggles saying this during the off season; “We’re not afraid to make changes, but we’re not going to make change for the sake of making change.”
That risky ideology looks like it was the right call after all. Between McMurray and Montoya there are 8 NASCAR Sprint Cup wins, 9 Nationwide wins, 3 in Grand-Am, 10 in open-wheel and 7 F1 victories that include races such as the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. There is certainly no lack of talent there and now they have the cars to back their fully capable drivers up. The travails of the past two years has finally ended and EGR has 27 more races to parlay these great results into race wins and they can do it. Watch out for these two because they could easily become two of the biggest upsets in 2013 and if the bad luck ceases, they will become threats to win almost every single week.
Fixing the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule
I may only be 19 but I’m sure a lot of you older fans out there remember the “golden age” of NASCAR. Remember when Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt spun at North Wilkesboro on the final lap battling for the win in 1989? How about when Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth crossed the line in nearly a dead heat at Rockingham back in 2004? Then there are the infamous Bristol battles between Earnhardt and Terry Labonte during the 90’s boom.
NASCAR was built on tracks like those and some of the best races in history took place at tracks 1 mile in length or shorter. Okay, I know that 1 mile tracks aren’t technically considered short tracks but they race just like them.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the big tracks. I love watching four wide battles at speeds exceeding 200mph when we visit Atlanta, Texas, Charlotte and Kansas but the problem is that we’ve diluted the schedule with these types of venues. Check out this statistic regarding the amount of short tracks that have been on the schedule at the start of every decade:
1950-13/19 races, 68.4%
1960-30/44 races, 68.2%
1970-28/48 races, 58.3%
1980-10/31 races, 32.3%
1990-7/29 races, 24.1%
2000-6/34 races, 17.6%
2010-6/36 races, 16.6%
You’ve fixed the cars, improved safety and bumped up ratings NASCAR and now it’s time to fill these tracks back up with 100,000+ screaming fans! That Richmond race left me begging for more and now I’ve got short track fever. The track promoters say the bigger tracks are where it’s at because you can hold more people. I’m no businessman but if you ask me, a jammed pack half mile is a lot better than a half full cookie cutter track. A stand-alone truck race at Eldora was sold out 6 months before the race and if that doesn’t give NASCAR and these track owners a wake-up call, I don’t know what will.
More road courses would also be awesome; I don’t think I have to remind anyone about the last two races at Watkins Glen. They are big like Michigan and Cali but they race like Bristol and Marty and every road course is unique in its own right. Short tracks, dirt tracks, 1 milers and road courses is direction NASCAR needs to head if they want to bring back disgruntled old fans and attract curious new ones. With that being said, here is my ideal 36 race schedule without changing too much of what is already there.
1.) Daytona 500
2.) Rockingham
3.) Phoenix
4.) Bristol
5.) Kansas
6.) Martinsville
7.) Texas
8.) Salem
9.) Talladega
10.) Richmond
11.) Darlington
12.) Coke 600
13.) Dover
14.) Road America
15.) Sonoma
16.) Irwindale
17.) Duquoin
18.) Daytona Road Course
19.) Michigan
20.) Indy Road Course
21.) Pocono
22.) Watkins Glen
23.) Iowa
24.) Bowman Gray Stadium
25.) Atlanta
26.) Bristol
27.) Talladega
28.) Road Atlanta
29.) Loudon
30.) Auto Club
31.) Dover
32.) Charlotte
33.) Martinsville
34.) Eldora
35.) Circuit of the Americas
36.) Las Vegas
When making this list, I tried to keep a balance between the tracks already on the schedule and tracks I’d like to see on the schedule while still maintaining the 36 race season. If you broke my schedule down, it goes like this:
1 Mile Or Less Paved Oval-15/36, 41.7%
1.5 Mile or Larger Oval-12/36, 33.3%
Road Courses-7/36, 19.4%
Dirt Tracks-2/36, 5.6%
Now I’d like to take a closer look at a few of the adjustments/additions that I listed above…
Daytona, Talladega & Indianapolis
The Daytona 500 is without a doubt one of the biggest races on the planet and I think when we return to Daytona in July, it shouldn’t be on the high banks. Even with the long history of the 4th of July event, I don’t think there should be another race like the 500 and that’s why I said NASCAR should run the road course like Grand-Am does every January. I put Talladega as the first chase race for one reason and that is the track’s unpredictability. When we go there, it’s all about survival, not who has the best car and that’s why I want it early in the chase so that the true title contenders have time to recover. The Indy 500 is another sacred event and the oval wasn’t made for NASCAR’s. When stock cars show up there, it is almost always a snooze fest and with little on track action. That’s why we should shake it up and run the road course to add a little excitement to this usually lackluster event. Continue the tradition of kissing the bricks but instead of 160 laps of follow the leader, let’s have some intense road course action tearing through the infield of this historic facility.
Las Vegas
The reason I put Las Vegas as the season finale is simply and that’s because the banquet is in Vegas so why not have the last race of the year be there too? Homestead is an okay track but I think we can live without it.
The Road Courses
I firmly believe that NASCAR needs to put at least one road course in the chase. Road courses are the ultimate test of a driver’s skill, physical fitness and mental acuity. With 20 unique turns and long, fast straightaways where the draft comes into play, the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) would be the perfect penultimate event. Formula 1, MotoGP and even V8 Supercars go there and it’s about time NASCAR does too. I had a tough time deciding between what road course I should select for Race #28 on my schedule. I was going back and forth between Mid-Ohio, VIR and Road Atlanta and even though I went with the latter, any of those three would be great additions. As for Road America, I have no clue why that isn’t on the Cup schedule yet but it certainly should be. I considered Montreal but with its recent debacle where the track promoter basically demanded a Cup date, I decided to leave it out.
Dirt Tracks
There are so many worthy dirt tracks out there but in the end, I went with two well-known venues that already feature stock car racing and attract a lot of fans. Duquoin and Eldora are awesome facilities and I’m sure the truck race at the Tony Stewart owned track later this year will be one of the greatest ever. ARCA races are held at Duquoin and their evens always seem to be wild and action packed proving the venue can handle 30 or 40 stock cars very well.
In the end, I don’t see most of that schedule ever coming to fruition but its okay to dream, right? A few possibilities that could happen in the future would be the addition of the COTA’s, Eldora, Rockingham and some kind of road course in the chase. NASCAR fixed something that wasn’t broken but it seems like they are finally taking action with the return of Rockingham and the first dirt race in 40 years coming up in a few months. It’s a work in process and it will be tough to manipulate the schedule while keeping everybody involved happy but it’s doable. The manufacturers and NASCAR have done an awesome job with this new car and it seems to put on a hell of a show almost everywhere we take it but you can’t deny that there’s nothing that can put on a better race than a Saturday night short track event.
Rating the race – Tired tires fail to make Juan as happy as Happy at Richmond
Why I watched…
Hey, it was Saturday night racing! Well, it was, but I am not one of those old school short track kind of fans. Hell, growing up Saturday night was reserved for Hockey Night in Canada. I tuned in Friday night to Richmond seeking a preview of what might be expected. To be honest, the short time I viewed the Nationwide race did not exactly leave me enthralled. At least no one tried to kick me in the berries and haul my arse off to jail, so it was better for me than it was for some others.
The real reason I watched was to see if those in need of some good news might get some. The penalties in Kansas had dropped Matt Kenseth to 14th in the standings, yet he was still ahead of Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Burton. If any of those boys wanted to stay relevant this season, a positive result at Richmond would have gone a long ways in doing so. A stumble, and a long season would just get a bunch longer.
The race…
Ye…or rather…me of little faith. In a season thus far filled with good to great races, this one was pretty entertaining. There were surprises, such as Juan Pablo Montoya seeking just his third Cup win with just a handful of laps remaining. Too bad about Brian Vickers, who lost tire, found a wall, brought out a caution, and so ended the Columbian’s hopes. He would finish fourth.
The restart had Jeff Burton on point, but his tires were ancient. Low and behold, the guy trying to chase down Montoya earlier comes flying up from seventh place as Kevin Harvick claims the checkers. It marked his 20th career victory. Having rubber about 60 laps fresher than some sure helped his cause. Having a car that came alive at the right time didn’t hurt either.
Some needing a good finish got it, including Logano, Burton, the elder Busch, and Gordon. Dale Earnhardt Jr was on the lead lap all night, but proved a non-factor until he somehow managed to finish 10th. Some who have been hot lately continued to be very warm, including Carl Edwards and Aric Almirola. As for points leader Jimmie Johnson, he actually extended his lead by finishing 12th.
Tony Stewart was hot, at least with Kurt. After the green-white-checkers restart, Busch bumped Stewart out of the way, and way, way back went Tony. 18th is not what he was hoping for as he drops now to 22nd in points. Busch did not do anything wrong, he just did it to Stewart, who could not afford it.
Rating the race…
8.5/10 — Yes, I’m surprised, too. Even as Kenseth dominated the first three-quarters of the Richmond contest, before fading to 13th, the rest of the field positions seemed to be continually in play. We had an exciting finish, in two parts, we had a hard wreck that took out Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne, and we even had a pair of drivers jawing as to who did what to whom when it was all said and done. Danica Patrick had a less than stellar day, but at 29th the record shows her doing better than Brad Keselowski, Vickers, Greg Biffle, Martin, and Marcos Ambrose. Now, if you think that was exciting, we have Talladega coming up on Sunday. Me thinks that anything less than a 9 next weekend would be disappointing afternoon.
