2009 NASCAR running thread

Kyle's the No.1 seed in the NIT.

 

2MC,

You and I are on a similar bent. In order to compare drivers over different eras for a Daytona 500 Top 10 series this February, I modified Bob Latford's points, but tried to add positive bias for wins, top fives and top 10s, and take away negative bias for DNFs. And I still don't understand his decision to start with the totally arbitrary 175 points, or to credit lap leaders with a bonus. They drank a few too many beers at the Boot Hill that winter, I think.

I also like 100 points for the race winner. Then it's a 10-point spread between the top five (second is worth 90, third 80, etc.), five points between sixth and 11th, and then one point down to 40th position. No points for finishing worse than 40th. No lap bonuses.

So here are the top 25 in the modified Latford standings, after Richmond:

POS PTS DRIVER
1 1485 Stewart, Tony
2 1385 Gordon, Jeff
3 1240 Johnson, Jimmie
4 1191 Hamlin, Denny
5 1162 Martin, Mark
6 1058 Busch, Kurt
7 1018 Busch, Kyle
8 1010 Edwards, Carl
9 992 Biffle, Greg
10 986 Kahne, Kasey
11 984 Newman, Ryan
12 931 Vickers, Brian
13 924 Montoya, Juan
14 880 Bowyer, Clint
15 871 Kenseth, Matt
16 867 Reutimann, David
17 787 Ambrose, Marcus
18 670 Harvick, Kevin
19 667 Burton, Jeff
20 637 Logano, Joey
21 628 Earnhardt Jr., Dale
22 566 Hornish Jr., Sam
23 561 Mears, Casey
24 533 McMurray, Jamie
25 532 Allmendinger, A.J.

For the most part, the standings don't appear that different. However, there were a few notable exceptions. With four wins, Kyle Busch was solidly in the top 10 (despite his lack of top-10 finishes), while no-win Juan (with only two top-fives all year) got bumped out by Vickers last weekend.

 

My money is on somebody out of the Hendrick stable (Big risk I know) winning the championship.
My money is on Mark Martin.
If Jimmy Johnson wins two races I think he'll win it.
Gordon, I think, only has a shot if the other two shit the bed in three races. I don't think he'll win a single race over the next 10 events, though he'll be a consistent top 5 car. Without a win, I can't seem pulling it out.
Stewart has not raced too well of late and I just don't like his chances.

 

lono,

I can't remember if you were ever privy to my bitch sessions with Martin in the Army car. I wanted him to fail just so I wouldn't have to listen to his "oh, gosh golly, I'm just so blessed to be racing for the Army..." stuff.

But I want him to win every week next year so I can hear Mark Martin (the Walnut) say "the GoDaddy.com Chevrolet."

 

Reed Sorenson ... racing for free rather than taking a buyout and going home so he can keep his name out in front of team owners and sponsors.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=smith_marty&page=DoorToDoor



Speaking of RPM, Kasey Kahne doesn't really have any idea who's in charge.<blockquote>"There are not a lot of answers out there right now. I don't know if it's because we're in the middle of a lot of things, we just don't have a person in that position. I think Robbie Loomis is supposedly going to be that guy, but I don't think that he is yet. Is it Foster? You can't get anything out of Foster. So it's hard to say who that is, and I think that's because we're in a lot of different things right now. But when you're in things, you still need to keep your team and your guys, your company behind you knowing what's going on, and we don't have that. Hopefully, we'll get it soon. The sooner we get that, the better everybody will be."</blockquote>http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=nascar_com-preview.kkahne.uncertainity.rpm-20090918&prov=nascar_com&type=lgns

 

There are 5 or 6 competitive cars in IndyCar? When did Roger & Chip each add a third car? .

In all seriousness, the 1970s points system was set up when there were a couple of good cars (e.g., Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Allison), a few medicore ones and a lot of bad ones, and it gave the guys in bad equipment a chance to compete by not necessarily rewarding winning, but finishing (rewarding driving skill regardless of the performance of the car). Now that NASCAR is the well-funded behemoth that it is, with a very deep field separated only by a few tenths of a second, that points system makes little sense, as it doesn't reward good performances, but only punishes poor ones, which are often due (today) to bad luck. It essentially rewards drivers for taking it easy and riding around in the middle of the pack and not taking risks and trying to win (see Kenseth, Matt).

 

Dale Coyne and Justin Wilson demand their props for Watkins Glen.

 

Jack is taking his bourbon and going home, following Jim Beam's decision to ditch Robby Gordon a few weeks ago.

http://tinyurl.com/nfstez
http://www.rcrracing.com/messageboards/trans/displayShortMsgRpt.asp?type=1&id=3798

Casey Mears needs some other beverage to wash away his sorrows.

 

You gotta be pretty bad to lose a booze sponsor. Damn.

 

With the 1, 26, 07 and one Petty team either disappearing or in danger of disappearing due to lack of funding, how many full-time legit teams will there be?

The answer might be the fewest in two decades. It's sad.

 

Casey? What about ol' RC? He's the one that threw a two-time top-five finisher to a brand new team to make room for a guy who couldn't get the job done in Hendrick equipment but had to have the team's best ride because of cereal conflicts. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Jack Daniels is leaving because of the driver they got stuck with.

 

Dover rain chances:<blockquote><b># Saturday:</b> 50 percent
<b># Sunday:</b> 70 percent
<b># Monday:</b> 10 percent in the morning, 30 percent in the afternoon</blockquote>See ya Monday?

Anybody know the record for most races delayed by rain in a single season?

About a month ago, Dover picked up AAA to sponsor Sunday's Cup race ... hey, that's about when I predicted they'd find a sponsor!