NASCAR News | May 11, 2010

Johnson’s struggles firing up fans

By Jay Hart
May 11, 2010


The NASCAR Hall of Fame officially opened its doors Tuesday. I’m still trying to figure out how David Pearson isn’t in the inaugural class.

Now, let’s get to the mailbag:

Challenging J.J.

Right now , all twelve racers in points are legitimate contenders to win the championship. Also, even though Roush/Fenway doesn’t have any wins, the drivers are in the top 12. Hendricks has all four in top 12. Although JJ and Chad seem to be struggling with the spoiler, my money will still be on them.
William Brown
Georgetown, Texas

Looking at the top 12, I count eight legit title contenders, and that’s being liberal. Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and Mark Martin are, in my opinion, the contenders, and of those Kurt Busch, Burton and Martin still have some proving to do.

I have faith that Matt Kenseth can wheel a mediocre race car into the Chase, but that’s as far as it goes with him or any of the Roush Fenway drivers. They simply don’t have the speed to match the eight listed above.

Can they find it? Maybe, but 11 races in, you pretty much are what you are.

Oh, and one more thing – don’t count out the Colombian-born driver who sits 17th in the standings. Juan Pablo Montoya is coming.

When it all comes down to it, whoever wants to win the Cup, still has to go through Jimmie, Chad and those last 10 races that they’ve owned for the past four years.
Dave Garnett
Lufkin, Texas

You’re exactly right, Dave. Remember, in the run up to Johnson’s four titles, rarely was he the points leader during the first 26 races. Their sole focus is on the Chase, which means they’ll sacrifice winning consistently now in order to win consistently later.

The wreck Johnson was involved in at Darlington is a direct result of this. If he’s running in the front, he’s nowhere near AJ Allmendinger when his brakes fail. But when you’re searching for something that might make you better, sometimes you’re going to miss, which means you’re going to find yourself in the middle of the pack.

Come Chase time, Johnson and Chad Knaus won’t be searching anymore and, as we’ve seen in each of the last four years, they will be on top of their game.

Busch bashing

Kyle Busch … Why does the media seem to love this guy so much? DW thinks he’s the next best thing to God. The kid is a good driver no doubt, but remember he has the best equipment around. Where does he run when his equipment isn’t up to par? Mid pack.

He wins his first race of the year last week and the media has him crowned as champion. They talk about how he’s matured. Let him lose a race the same way Gordon lost this last week and watch how mature he is.

Sure he wins a lot of Busch and truck races. Mike Wallace said it best – you can take the 18 and 20 car and put a monkey behind the wheel and it would win!

I look at a great driver as someone who can put a RCR, RPM, MWR or DEI car up front. These guys don’t have the HMS or JGR equipment. He is leaps and bounds above the rest. Let Kyle get in one of the other 90 percent of the cars and see how mature he is?

This is just what I think of Kyle and the media that adores him. I would not expect it to make your print.
Steve Jackson
Gardnerville, Nev.

There are two reasons why the media is high on Kyle Busch. One, he’s interesting, which makes for a good story, and we are, after all, in the business of telling stories. And two, he’s flat out good.

This equipment argument carries only so much water. Scott Riggs had one top-10 finish driving for Gene Haas in 2008 despite being in what was essentially Hendrick equipment. A year later, with Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman behind the wheels, that team qualified two drivers for the Chase.

Sure equipment makes a difference, but it doesn’t make the driver. There are any number of examples of this. Jimmie Johnson wins a lot for Hendrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t. J.J. Yeley had three top-10 finishes in two seasons driving the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs. Kyle Busch has one more than that in just the last month.

This isn’t to knock Riggs or Yeley. Both are good in their own right. They’re just not as good as Tony Stewart or Kyle Busch.

And Steve, this is the Internet where we save money on print.

Throw a caution at the GWC

Jay, I could not disagree with you more about the way NASCAR is finishing out these races. When I go to a race I want to see the best driver with the fastest car win (I understand this doesn’t always happen).

This thing that has cost Jeff Gordon a couple of wins lately is a reminder of the NBA Finals a couple of years ago when the refs decided to get in the way of the best team, and sent Dwyane Wade to the free-throw line 24 times, multiple times when the replay showed no Mavs were within 3-to-4 feet of him.

As a sports fan we want to see the best guys win. Seeing the refs/sanctioning body contrive these close games/races is false drama with false race winners. And when Gordon loses the championship by 20 points this year because of Kyle’s and Ryan’s stolen wins, I wonder how much of the media is going to say Gordon lost because of the rules back in April.

I think writers are more likely to write Gordon just can’t do it anymore. (See articles written for the last decade about Gordon due to the Chase format, not Jimmie Johnson)
David
Denton, Texas

I hear ya barking, David, but here’s the thing I’ve learned in interacting on a daily basis with fans – you guys always want a close finish. Every week during our live race chat, if one driver is running away with the race, fan after fan is screaming for a caution flag to tighten things up.

Believe me, I’m not a fan of contrived finishes. But if I were a paying customer, who’d taken time off work, driven a few hundreds miles and shelled out $350 a night to stay at a Motel 6, I’d want to see a race to the checkered flag, not a parade under caution. So I get what NASCAR is trying to accomplish.

Believe me when I say I’ve gone back and forth on this issue. I’m certainly not a fan of contrived finishes and, like you, I want to see the best car/driver win, not the one that got lucky in the end. But as I said in last week’s mailbag, sometimes there are no perfect solutions, and this is one of those times.

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