2009 NASCAR running thread

Of course he does. :

... and then ...

That was six minutes ago. Five minutes ago, Earnhardt Jr. caused a huge wreck.

 

Three-Straight just clinched the bonus for leading the most laps.

Reminding you all that the Daytona Cup garage will probably open for business Feb. 4. Have a good winter.



1stADD ...

??? Um, look here, Phoenix Airport ... I can see why the first three items would be verboten but the bottom half of the sign makes no sense: http://twitpic.com/ps4bq



Yeah, I'll send another writethru to this post ...

Rick Hendrick will not be at HMS because his niece is undergoing an emergency liver transplant back in North Carolina.

 

AP News Alert:

Jimmie Johnson has won the 2009 Sprint Cup.

 

Jimmie Johnson: mirthlessly representing excellence through sheer boredom four years running.

 

Fixed. Might as well save some time.

 

I ask this as a serious question, not to belittle what Jimmie Johnson has accomplished -- how much of his championship success is based on the Chase format?
Seems like a big part of their strategy is to just be really, really good at these last 10 Chase tracks. As long as they're good enough to get in the Chase (not too hard to do with Hendrick's money), the 48 team can run in the top 10 at the last 10 races, pick up a couple wins, and cakewalk to championship after championship.

 

If you want to be the man, you gotta beat the man.

And none of the other guys can do it.

 

That is true. Whatever formula works, Johnson has clearly figured it out better than anyone.

 

It's a tremendous feat no doubt, but NASCAR is a different sport than what it was back then. Teams, the Chase format, etc. etc. I wonder if they'll tweak the format at some point because I don't see Johnson going anywhere for the next 15 years. Hard to imagine his cars getting slower or JJ losing his nerve. The guy is just a smart driver.

 

Boy, expanding the field to 12 drivers really made it more competitive. Right, Bryan Vickers? :

 

It's much more competitive at the top than it was back in the day.



Litke (!) writes about Jimmie Johnson. Great column.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-jimlitke-112309&prov=ap&type=lgns