My Two Cents Worth for 9/14/04

By Todd Berger, LGR Staff Correspondent

Before I start this week, I must issue a correction relating to a column I wrote back in April of this year after Talladega.  The column contained the following paragraphs:

After the race, Tony Stewart hung a u-turn to his left to head back down pit road the wrong way, but he cut across the front of Terry Labonte and absolutely destroyed the front of the 5 car and the rear end of his own. He then drove down pit road the wrong way, prompting at least one media member to say they feared for their own safety. Stewart pulled the wrong way into the inspection line, got cleared, and rushed to the truck. NBC saw this and assured us that they would have an interview with Stewart.

Then, instead of an interview about the incident, Matt Yocum's spent two minutes kissing Tony Stewart's hind quarters as Stewart repeated over and over how the wreck with Busch and nine other guys was "a racing deal" and it was the same as him getting turned by the 48, and he wasn't mad so no one else should be either. Yocum never mentioned the post-race incident. Not once. That is unforgivable, regardless of whether the two guys are friends.

Sunday, September 12th, I received the following email:

Todd,

I stumbled across your article on the Internet.  Actually, it was Steve Byrnes who interviewed Tony Stewart in the Talladega post-race not me.  I was in victory lane with Jeff Gordon.

Matt Yocum

Matt, I apologize for the error.  I should not make mistakes like that when mentioning people by name (or at all really).  It is Steve Byrnes that should have been named and criticized for that professional gaffe.

Now, on with this week’s column.

After all of the hemming and hawing, guessing and predicting, your field for NASCAR’s contrived chase for the championship is set.  Here are the participants in order:

Jeff Gordon

Jimmie Johnson

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Tony Stewart

Matt Kenseth

Elliott Sadler

Kurt Busch

Mark Martin

Jeremy Mayfield

Ryan Newman

(By the way, isn’t it funny that if NASCAR had left things alone, we’d actually be sitting here talking about five drivers with a chance and three drivers with a very real chance to compete for this year’s title?  This year had all the makings of a season that’s ending could have rivaled the 1992 ending at Atlanta between Bill and Alan and Davey.  Think about it for a second.  Jeff Gordon, seeking his fifth title, locking horns with his teammate and employee Jimmie Johnson, while both try to beat the heir to the NASCAR throne and the son of one of the sport’s two greatest champions.  I mean, how great would that have been?   Instead, we get the chase.  Thanks NASCAR).

One thing that is good is that every member of this elite group has won a race this year.  It would be even more of a fraud if the driver that won NASCAR’s first fake Nextel Cup had not won a race the entire season.   After all, except for Matt Kenseth’s runaway points total last year (that ended up only being a whopping 90 points), the other reason for this hootenanny was to reward the driver who has won the most races and make sure that he’s at least competing for the title.  Of course, the guy with the most wins is leading the points this year, so that sort of worked itself out…huh?

I must say that I am more than a little disappointed that there wasn’t more side-action and actual action involving the Chase contenders on Saturday night.  I guess the fact that a couple of the contenders ran so badly they couldn’t find anyone to spin out was part of the problem.  When Kurt Busch swearing (with no audio) is the most controversial thing you see during a short track race, you know something just isn’t right.

My first big congratulations this week have to go to Jeremy Mayfield.  He was on the cut line and hadn’t won in about four years, but he needed a big finish, most likely a win, to assure himself a shot at the top ten.  How big of a battle was this?  Let’s look at a couple of interesting stats:

Mayfield starts at Richmond:  22

Average finish before Saturday:  22.33

Top five finishes at Richmond before Saturday:  two

Top ten finishes at Richmond before Saturday:  five

Not exactly a favorite, now was he?  When Kyle Petty and Ken Schrader have better stats at a track than you do, that calls for something extra, and that’s just what the 19 team gave Saturday night, much like Elliott Sadler’s effort at California the week before.

Mark Martin completed a task that almost no one thought he could.  He finished 43rd in the Daytona 500 and came back to make the top ten and will vie for his first NASCAR title after finishing second or third an amazing eight times. 

Ryan Newman finished 20th and barely got into the chase, but he should be a factor in the final ten races.

There were several drivers left out in the cold when they didn’t make the chase.  In all likelihood, some of these sponsors will be asking serious questions.  Those guys include Jarrett (UPS), Harvick (GM Goodwrench), Jamie McMurray (Texaco-Havoline), Kasey Kahne (Dodge), Rusty Wallace (Miller Brewing) and Bobby Labonte (Interstate Batteries).  I truly believe that these ridiculously cost prohibitive sponsorships will start to include performance clauses related to making the chase, and you could very well see sponsors dropping and moving during the last quarter of the season. 

Speaking of Jarrett, you know there’s a lot of pressure from all direction when you see a guy as classy and professional as Jarrett usually is hunting and chasing Casey Mears like he did.  Jimmy Spencer finally finished the job, but that was only because Jarrett’s car was so bad, he couldn’t catch Mr. Mears.

Kudos to Mike Bliss for avoiding trouble and getting a Cup career-best fourth place finish.  That’s not easy at any track, and certainly not at Richmond. 

Carl Edwards continues to impress, this week finishing sixth.  That gives Carl three top-ten finishes in his first four Cup races. 

Conversely, the 9 team was awful.  Despite starting 11th, they were never in contention and it was clear early that the chase was not to be for rookie Kasey Kahne. 

I found it interesting reading last week when Jayski reported that the Wood Brothers and Roush Racing have split, ending their (for lack of a better word) partnership.  According to the Woods, they’ve been doing their own engineering work (without Roush’s help) for some time now.  It seems that Roush’s crew chiefs were hesitant to share too many secrets with Rudd’s new crew chief, Michael “Fatback” McSwain.  I am guessing no one signed anything relating to this “partnership,” or I’d figure the Woods would have some cause for litigation or other compensation. 

I also need to issue an attaboy or two for Friday night’s Busch race.  I remember the day that Casey Atwood won his first Busch race at Milwaukee in 1999, when he employed a rather assertive bump and run to Jeff Green late in the going.  I remember thinking that I enjoyed his “drive it like you stole it” attitude as well as his amazing talent for a driver so young. 

Then, as the first “young gun” the sport really knew, he was eaten alive by NASCAR, his sponsor and his owner Ray Evernham.  Left professionally for dead, he dusted himself off and hooked up with Armando Fitz (son in law of Ganassi co-owner Felix Sabates) in 2003 and came back to where he is today.  Sitting there, I saw the same talent and drive that I saw five years ago, and I found myself cheering for him out loud. 

Then, in a move he later apologized for, Martin Truex Jr. nudged Casey and they both slid up the track, opening the door for Robby Gordon.  Robby deftly dove inside of the two and took the lead, and eventually won.  Casey went on to finish second by about a car length.  It was still Casey’s best finish of the year and hopefully will be a building block to his second chance of a career in a Cup ride.

Robby Gordon also deserves congratulations.  He drove as hard as a driver can with an admittedly tight and ill-handling car; he fought off numerous charges from Atwood, and wound up winning his first ever Busch Series race.  To know what an accomplishment this was, you must also consider these facts:

Robby’s Busch team is a single car operation in its first year of existence.  They have not tested once…anywhere.  While they use Richard Childress engines, this operation is a Robby Gordon Racing only enterprise.  It is not under the umbrella of a Cup team like some Busch operations are.  If not for ridiculously bad luck, he’d have, in all likelihood, won at least three races this year already.

Robby has now won in Cup, Busch, IRL, Indy cars, Baja and on a motorcycle.  He’s won more races in the past three years than Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield combined.  He’s great to his fans, loyal to his team members and committed to winning and, short of that, races as hard as he can for every lap in every race.  How anyone cannot find that enthusiasm contagious and also not be a fan of Gordon’s is beyond me.

Since I didn’t mention it in last week’s submission, this past Saturday was the third anniversary of the attacks upon our nation by Muslim extremists.  I like to think that everyone stops from time to time and takes a moment to silently (or publicly) thank the men and women of our armed forces as well as our public servants for all that they do to keep us safe, secure, healthy and happy. 

God Bless America.