2009 NASCAR running thread

Well done ... and that should surprise absolutely no one.

 

Brad Keselowski wins Buschwide Sportsman Series' Most Popular Driver award.

Denny Hamlin has no idea why he just killed a hobo.

 

I more or less gave up on NASCAR a couple of years ago but I read something recently that gave me pause.

It said Johnson is the David Pearson of his generation in that he's the best driver out there but will never receive the proper recognition, either inside or outside the sport, because of his lack of "flash."

So I ask - is the lesser Double J the best driver, or is he just the guy who's always in the right place at the right time, and wins races and championships because of that?

And was that true about David Pearson, that he was the best of his generation but was overshadowed by Richard Petty? In this bit that I read, even Petty said he never minded losing to Pearson because he recognized how good he was......thoughts, anyone?

 

Johnson is a great driver, he would make the Chase for whatever team he raced for. But racing for Hendrick makes him better.
Didn't realize the guy hasn't finished lower than fifth in the Cup since he debuted.

 

IMO, Pearson isn't just the greatest stock car driver of his generation, he is the greatest period (although I'm usually the first to say it's hard to have an all-time greatest because you can only really compare generations because of the evolution of sports).

He only ran the full schedule three times and won the championship three times. He has more than 100 victories and the highest winning percentage in NASCAR history. He regularly waxed Petty with fewer team/factory resources.

He was called the Silver Fox because of his driving style. Back in the day before loop data and TV telling you where people are running each lap, Pearson would seem to be a non factor riding around in 10-11 place all day until the final 20 laps when he'd just drive up and win the race.

 

I grew up on Pearson, Yarborough and Petty swapping paint on ABC.

Pearson was Chauncey Billups in an equivalent world of Shaq and Duncan.

(There, I think I finally got the NBA-parallel balance right.)

 

Anybody know how much Knaus makes? He and Johnson are a hell of a team - I don't think its a coincidence that Gordon and Evernham haven't had the same success they had together since Evernham left.

 

Jimmy Johnson wears David Pearson underwear.

 

That's the challenge for Johnson, IMO. Gordon pretty much started the trend of giving an unproven (in Cup) kid top-notch equipment and a great crew chief. It was a brilliant pairing on Hendrick's part, and now it's the model many follow but few duplicate. Lightning struck twice for Hendrick with Knaus and Johnson. As long as Hendrick stays a top team, and Knaus plus Johnson stay strong, the sky is the limit.
But the problem is you don't know how truly good a driver like Johnson is if he's only driven the best equipment. If Johnson was paired with someone like Eury Jr., would the results be the same? Or if Johnson and Kahne swapped rides, would Johnson be winning titles? Did Johnson adopt to the COT quicker than other drivers, or did Knaus figure it out faster than other crew chiefs? We'll probably never know. Johnson would be smart to stay right where he's at, but by doing so we'll never know how much of his success was truly due to him.

 

Don't worry, next year they'll make it 13 by giving a lucky dog Chase spot to anyone driving a car with a number higher than 87 but lower than 89.

 

So Danica announced her Indy car deal today.

If you go to her web site right now, the "page-loading" image is this:



Hey, why isn't there a cat in this bag?

 

Hey, I found that cat that got out of the bag last week.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4723006&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_4723006



Oh, my ...