Kasey Kahne

The next driver in our series is Kasey Kahne. Kasey had an up and down year. He started off fairly strong with three top tens. Then the up and down started. After a twenty-eighth at Atlanta, a seventh at Bristol, then came a string of six races with only one top ten. At the all-star race, Kasey was voted in and then proceeded to go on to win. Then the speculation started that this was the turning point in his season. And it seemed to be true.
The next race was the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the year. Kasey survived all the mechanical and physical problems associated with the race to come away with the win. The next week he stumbled to a thirty-first place finish. But then at Pocono he won the pole and the race. He followed this up with a runner up finish at Michigan, where it looked as though he pushed Jr across the finish line.
Over the next eleven races Kasey only managed 4 top tens, and a fortieth at Bristol dropped him out of the top 12 for good.
For the ten chase races, only 2 were even decent. A second at Lowe's and a sixth at Homestead were the only highlights to finish off what looked to be a promising season.

Review

OK, now that Thanksgiving is over, I thought I would do a little year in review. Each week(hopefully) I will take one driver and review his entire year. That should take us all the way to Daytona in February.

First up, who else but Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jr's year started off as good as it could. In his new ride with Hendrick Motor Sports, everyone expected him to come out of the box winning. Well, he did. He won the Bud Shoot out and then turned around and won his Gatorade Duel 150. And with that folks started making predictions about how many wins Jr would have during the year. Darrell Waltrip said Jr would win at least 6 races. That's a pretty tough number for anyone, but for a new team? Sometimes I think people expect TOO much from Jr. But if anyone could do it Jr could, right?
Wrong. For the first half of the year, Jr was the carrier of the Hendrick banner. He finished ninth in the Daytona 500, then had a miserable fortieth place finish at the rain soaked California Speedway. But he rallied to a second at Vegas, third at Atlanta, fifth at Bristol, and sixth at Martinsville.
Then we get to Texas. After winning the pole, everyone thought this would be where the winless streak ended. Nope. Twelfth, one lap down. After a seventh at Phoenix and a decent tenth at Talladega, it was on to Richmond, the site of Jr's last win 2 years ago. Fans were on their feet with just a few laps to go and Jr leading the race. Then the unthinkable happened. Denny Hamlin, who is a moron by the way, decides not to pit even though he has a flat tire. Well, said tire blows out and causes a caution to come out. That erases the huge lead Jr had on Kyle Busch. When the green came out, Jr takes off with Busch in tow, and I knew it was gonna be bad. Busch tried to pass Jr but couldn't hold his car and slid up the track, wrecking Jr in the process. Jr ended up fifteenth, in a race that should have been his. Oh well, that's just good hard racing.
Then a fourth at Darlington, fifth in the Coke 600, and a wrecked car and thirty-fifth at Dover. After a fourth at Pocono, we headed to Michigan. Dale Jr wins the LifeLock.com 400 with no fuel in the tank. The crew had to push him to victory lane, but they didn't care. The winless streak was finally over.
But the abysmalness was about to begin. The only bright spots for the rest of the year were few and far between. As a matter of fact there were four, yes four, over the next twenty-one weeks. Fourth at Richmond, fifth at New Hampshire, a wonderful second at Martinsville, and sixth at Phoenix. Now, that doesn't mean he didn't run well. He led laps, and a lot of them, The team just could not finish off races. They would start off blistering the field, then somewhere around the half-way point, things would fall apart. An adjustment would take the car the wrong way, or a set of tires would be bad, or even a call to pit(or not) at all.
My point is, as a team they are not ready to win a championship. They will be, but as a whole they are gonna have to work on communication to make sure the problems get fixed. Maybe this off season they can get better.
Who knows, next year at this time I may be saying "Dale Jr is the new Sprint Cup Series Champion!"

We can all hope!

Whew!

Well, its official. What everyone knew would happen has finally come about. Jimmie Johnson is the 2008 Sprint Cup Series Champion. Carl did everything he could do, short of using Jedi mind tricks to make Jimmie's car blow up. He led laps, he led the most laps, and he even squeezed every last drop of fuel out of the tank to win the race. But it wasn't enough. Not when Johnson has been on the top of his game the last half of the season. Even with more wins, more top five and top tens, Edwards just didn't have enough. Jimmie has just been too consistent for everyone. Chad Knaus is the best crew chief in the business right now. He kinda reminds me of a fella by the name of Ray Evernham who was the amazing crew chief for some kid named Gordon back in the 90s. Maybe that's because Evernham hired Knaus back then and trained him. At any rate no one is better right now. Can Johnson come back next year and win a fourth title? Time will only tell. But you better watch out for Edwards next year. And Earnhardt. And Gordon. And Stewart. And on and on.
I cant wait for Daytona!!

Clint Bowyer.........Champion!

Well, Clint Bowyer did it. He held on in the final laps to take the Nationwide Series Championship. You gotta give Carl Edwards credit. He did all he could, he won the race after all, but it was just not enough. Twenty-one points not enough to be exact. These two teams have been the class of the field this year. Although Kyle Busch won more races( he did it with three different teams), and the number 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team won the owners title( they did it with 4 different drivers), Bowyer and Edwards have raced the same cars for the same teams all year long. That's what makes champions. Not swapping driver just to get wins, but having one guy on one team fighting for consistency, fighting for points, fighting for everything. I understand some teams need to swap drivers around to get seat time because they can't afford multiple cars. But the racing season is just that, a season. Ten months of clawing and digging and racing. That's what Bowyer and Edwards did. That's why they were the top of the field. That's what makes this sport great.
I can't wait for February!!

Craftsman's Final Champion

What a race! Hats off to Johnny Benson, the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion. It very literally came down to the last turn of the last lap. It's Benson's first championship in the Truck Series, second overall( he won the Busch Series in 1995). Craftsman is leaving as sponsor of the series after thirteen years. Camping World will take over next year as series sponsor.
I really hoped Ron Hornaday could win the championship, but pit strategy and quick thinking by Benson's crew chief gave the trophy to Benson. Coming into the race Benson had a 3 point lead. Whichever driver finished in front of the other would be the victor. Thats exactly what Benson did. He finished just in front of Hornaday, by .4 seconds.
Thats why the Truck Series is so awesome. Its always down to the wire. Its always hard racing. Its always fun.

Sprint Cup

Or the Jimmie Johnson series if you like.
I am not a big J.J. fan, but you gotta give props to a team that peaks at the right time every year. Carl Edwards did all he could, he finished fourth after fighting his way through the field. Mathmatically it is still possible. But with Chad Knauss on the pit box, I think they should just go ahead and engrave his name on the trophy. At least he drives for Hendrick Motorsports, the same team as Dale Jr. Jr finished sixth, by the way moving him up to tenth in points.
Next week we head to Homestead for the season finale. Carl should pray for a miracle. All Johnson needs to do is finish higher than 36.

I know this blog is about NASCAR, but since I am a guitar player I thought this was funny enough to share.

Nationwide Series

Well, Carl Edwards could very well make history. No driver has ever won two national series championships in the same year. Carl Edwards is trying hard to do just that. Going into today's Nationwide race, Edwards trailed Clint Bowyer by 91 points. In order to gain points, Edwards needed to lead laps, lead a lot of laps, and win the race. He did just that. Bowyer finished a respectable fourth, but Edwards still cut into his points lead by 35 points. Bowyer now leads by 56. Any mistake by Bowyer next week at Homestead and the championship will belong to Edwards.
As for the history, Edwards is only 106 behind Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint cup points. If he has the kind of race tomorrow that he had today, Carl Edwards can very well make NASCAR history.
I love this sport!

Truck Racing

Under the lights in Phoenix the Craftsman Truck Series is definitely the best points battle in all of NASCAR. The start of the race saw Ron Hornaday on the pole. It didn't last long, as Hornaday got loose on lap one and tore his truck up pretty bad. At that point everyone thought that Johnny Benson would take a large points lead into the season finale at Homestead next week. But the truck series is hardly predictable. Johnny Benson was involved in a couple of incidents during the race, one finally taking him out of the race for several laps. Enough, actually for Hornaday to actually pass him! That tightened the points up to a mere 3 points between Benson and Hornaday.
Congratulations to Kevin Harvick driving the number 2 Chevy. It was overall a good night for him, as he won the race, but he also owns the numbers 2 and 33(Hornaday).
Next up tomorrow is Nationwide Series racing from Phoenix.

Under The Lights

If any of you know me at all, you know I am a BIG NASCAR fan. So, having said that, my blog is going to be about NASCAR. I will try to post several times a week to keep everyone up to date on the latest rumors and news. Now, don't be surprised when you start to notice a little bias. I am a Dale Jr fan. I am a Tony Stewart fan. I am a Chevy fan. I will try to not bad mouth Kyle Busch (much).
Anyway, the truck race is about to start from Phoenix. Ron Hornaday is my driver in the truck series. He is 6 points behind Johnny Benson in the points right now. With two races to go, the championship is up for grabs.