Rev's Top Ten Picks for 'Dega

My Crystal Revelation Ball refuses to work for restricter plate races. I beg it, bribe it, coddle it and threaten it, and it remains blank. The problem is that the races at Talledega and Daytona are not drivers’ races--although a driver does have to keep the car straight and avoid wrecks.
So without thought or adieu, I will submit my top ten picks thusly:
1. #8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Happy Birthday, Daddy)
2. #6 Mark Martin
3. #20 Tony Stewart
4. #99 Carl Edwards
5. #16 Greg Biffle
6. #17 Matt Kenseth
7. #24 Jeff Gordon
8. #5 Kyle Busch
9. #38 Elliott Sadler
10. #88 Dale Jarrett

Okay, maybe I should do some ‘splainin’ here. Co-opetition is the appropriate word coined by Darrell Waltrip, and it works here. Jr can find friends everywhere, and he will not stay in the middle of the pack for long. The starting front row, Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart should stay in the front for a while. They both have teammates close behind them. My picking most of the Roush team for the top ten should be no surprise--I think they will do what they always do in the RP races. Carl Edwards is my dark horse here, but I don’t think his problems have been due to lack of talent. We have yet to see how Edwards works with his new crew chief at an RP race, but I have no doubts that Jack Roush knows what he is doing. Other than that, for finishing order and who is in the top ten, I have no rhyme or reason. Did I mention that my Oracle is on strike?

I have to mention my congratulations to Martin Truex, Jr for his third straight Busch series win at Talledega. It is appropriate that DEI should get a win on Dale Earnhardt’s birthday, and the #8 Busch team, in Earnhardt colors, did a splendid job in an exciting finish.
Also my quote of the week, from Tony Stewart, of course, who fifteen minutes after a horrendous crash, in which his car slid on its top, said, “There sure is a lot of stuff you scoop into your window when you’re sliding upside down.”
Classic Smoke.

More than a Tribute, a Celebration

A little over 5 years ago, I nearly stopped watching races. It was very disconcerting not seeing “my” beloved #3 car on the track. I know I was, at the time, somewhat interested in watching Tony Stewart, but I could not yet call myself a fan. Most of my memories of NASCAR in the 1980’s and 1990’s consist of watching Dale Earnhardt out drive everyone else on the track. I had forgotten about the past glories of Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, and Cale Yarborough. Dale Earnhardt was, in my mind, the greatest driver ever. Then, quite suddenly, he was gone.
I watched races without the levels of excitement and interest I had experienced watching Earnhardt. Often, I just couldn’t get into it, but something inside me told me to keep watching. Gradually, I learned that there are other talented drivers besides ol’ Ironhead.
So, now, on the eve of Dale Earnhardt’s birthday, I thank the Intimidator for all the great memories and all the great racing. I celebrate the hero that he was. I continue to try to be the best race fan I can, and to enjoy racing as much as I can. Happy Birthday, Dale, and, man, we miss you.

Imola Formula 1 Race Worth Watching

Living racing legend Michael Schumacher got to show why he is so great, Sunday. At the San Marino Grand Prix, in Imola, Italy, “Schumie” started at the pole and held off strong contender Fernando Alonso for 62 laps.
It almost sounds boring, having one car lead the entire race around a track many drivers consider boring. The road course style Gran Prix circuit at Imola is made up mostly of right-hand turns and chicaines, and the drivers complain that they can’t get up to the speeds they like. As if going through chicanes at 180 mph would be boring.
It certainly wasn’t boring to watch, though. The Formula One machines are very beautiful, high-tech, and very fast cars, the engines running at 18 thousand rpm. It is probably the most dangerous form of auto racing in the world--even the slightest contact between the light-weight vehicles can throw a car flying out of control for a very long distance. Such is what happened on the very first lap, when Christian Albers’ car was bumped from behind by another car and made several terrifying flips and rolls through the gravel trap. Thank God, Albers walked away from the wreck physically unharmed, but very angry and resentful of Ide (pronounced “ee-day”), the driver who had hit him.
The mastery of these drivers has to be seen to be appreciated, but, considering what they drive and the conditions under which they drive, mastery is the correct description. At age 24, Fernando Alonso is the reigning champion of Formula One, and showed that he deserved it by winning races during a season in which tire changes were not allowed. The teams had to run on the same tires they qualified and practiced on for the entire race, unless a tire was punctured or damaged beyond reasonable use. The handling characteristics of the cars would fall off drastically toward the end of the race. Last year, at Imola, he artfully dodged and blocked the acknowledged master, Michael Schumacher, to take a hard-earned win.
This year, with tire changes now allowed, the situation was reversed. Schumacher, who had mostly been in a slump through last year’s season, took the lead from the pole, and the way he drove was nothing less than awesome. His handling of his Ferrari was flawless, through the chicaines and the hard right turns. Always threatening, and always looking for a move around the leader, the equally masterful Alonso followed closely.
It is really something that has to be seen, and if you missed the race on CBS last Sunday, it will be replayed next Sunday on Speed, at 1:00pm ET.

Got Fuel?

I like Phoenix International Raceway. I like the shorter tracks in general, because, in NASCAR Cup racing, at least, that is where the real oval racing happens. Forget Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Chicago--those tracks are redundant. Dover, Darlington, Bristol, Martinsville, Louden, and Phoenix are all shorter than 1.5 miles and are all unique.
Okay, so my top ten picks were messed up, but it did look pretty good at the start--most of my picks had qualified to start in the top ten. There will be those who want to call the #20 team “cheaters,” but the team paid the penalty, with Smoke’s blessing, and it is still unclear how Goodyear got the team’s qualifying tires and destroyed them. “It was fair,” said Stewart in a post-race interview, “we didn’t have the right tires on the car, and NASCAR sent us to the back, as they should have.”
There were some who doubted that Stewart could make his way to the front, after starting at the very tail end of the field. In fact, in a Cingular “Virtual Crew Chief” poll (telephone poll?), 75% of the respondents voted “no,” that he would not make it to the front. Sheesh! Somebody hasn’t been watching. I had no doubts that Tony would make it to the front. He has been pretty consistent during his entire career in showing his ability to come up through the field. That is one of the reasons I am a Stewart fan; he is the best. Even those who hate Stewart should be able to see that.
I was every bit as thrilled by Bobby Labonte’s performance as I was about Stewart’s march to the front. Petty Enterprises and Labonte indeed made a mutually effective move this year. Bobby Labonte is a winner, and his performance at Phoenix is a harbinger that he will show what a winner he is. I am happy that Bobby seems to be back.
On the other hand, another driver I hope to see do well seems to have his worst luck come at the most inopportune times. Robby Gordon experienced engine failure and was out of the race before it was a third of the way done. He had hoped to remedy the same problem that had plagued him seven times last year by switching from Menard engines to DEI engines, but bad luck is bad luck.
There will be plenty of other writers picking on the Shrub for behavior that should be expected of him. I won’t do that; he did receive a five lap penalty for running into another car during the red flag, but I will express my admiration and respect for the way his crew chief, Alan Gustafason, stepped in and made a statement on behalf of the team. I will also state my agreement with Speed TV’s Robin Miller, whom I rarely agree with, that the Busch brothers should play out their chosen roles to the fullest--they should start wearing black, use dark visors, maybe wear an eye patch, and flip off the fans while they are getting booed. Bad guys always help NASCAR.
Once again, NASCAR’s infamous inconsistency confused the crew chiefs near the end of the race. I’m being somewhat facetious here, but I really think the teams were expecting the usual “debris” caution with ten or fewer laps left. As a result, nearly every team gambled on fuel mileage, and the race ended with everybody low on fuel. Mark Martin had the car to beat at the end, buy ran dry with one lap to go.
Actually, the question of fuel mileage helped make the finish quite exciting--it wasn’t a matter of one or two cars being out of sequence on pit stops and refueling, but fuel conservation effected the driving style of every driver in the front of the field.
Congratulations to Kevin Harvick and RCR. It is good to see him back in his winning ways, and, perhaps, RCR on its way to return to its old glory.
On a final note, there is something about watching the race at Phoenix that saddens me. I can’t help but to remember another 1 mile d-shaped oval, Pike’s Peak International Raceway. Since 1998, that excellent circuit had been a large part of my life. The Busch Series race there was something for me to look forward to every year. I believe ISC was very short sighted and ignorant when they decided to buy the track and tear it down.The money for seat expansion, parking expansion, and better access and egress was already in place, and approved by both the county and city governments. Apparently, ISC had planned to build a track near Denver, at the site of the old Stapleton International Airport in Aurora. Of course that plan was turned down, and Colorado is without a major NASCAR track. I really miss PPIR.

Phoenix: A Peek Into The Rev's Crystal Revelation Ball

Note: I wrote this before the qualifying, but have decided to keep my predictions as is.

I am doing everything I can to ward away the jinx that seems to come upon the driver I pick to be a winner. I am not reading any of the NASCAR news I usually subscribe to, or web surfing to see what anyone else has to say. My picks this week are based solely on what I see in my Crystal Revelation Ball. So I will not mention the name of the winner until I post my top ten picks at the end of this post.
My favorite driver has the best potential to win at Phoenix, more than any of the other drivers. He no doubt has the will, and his performance so far this year has been exemplary. His team has come up with some excellent cars this year, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for PIR, which happens to be one of my favorite tracks.
It is also a favorite track for Greg Biffle. He always seems to do well here, and, if his luck changes, just a little bit, he’ll be in the race for the checkers in the final laps. Team mate Matt Kenseth should have, at least, a top five finish. In fact, I see Ford doing well in the top five, and not necessarily all Roush cars. Elliott Sadler, who may very well bring Yates Racing its first Cup Championship in a while, is a very competent and competitive driver. He will give my favorite driver a run for his money at Phoenix.
Denny Hamlin will continue to raise eyebrows with his ability, and PIR is definitely his kind of track. As difficult as it is to pick only five drivers for the top five in Phoenix, I feel that Hamlin will round out that prestigious list, and make it look easy in doing so.
Formerly Not So Strong:
Okay, maybe my vision for the top five is a no brainer. PIR has often been a turn-around point for teams that have it, but do not quite get it. That being said, the remainder of my top ten list is made of drivers and teams that are on the radar, but barely.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s luck at PIR has been fickle. But, his attitude, and I’m not so sure if it’s really a new attitude, towards racing and winning this year will prevail, and, already in the top ten in points, the #8 team will begin its real march toward the chase at PIR this year.
Carl Edwards is due for one, and we all know how much he likes Phoenix. I’m not saying we’ll see a backflip at this race, but it could be close. Besides, how long can a slump last for a driver like Edwards? One of my top seven favorite drivers, Scott Riggs, is constantly improving. Everham has been a good fit for him, and I see his third consecutive top ten at this race. Remember, he missed the Daytona 500 in qualifying, but is now on his way to the top ten in points. His string will continue.
Robby Gordon, with his DEI powered machine, will see his hard work come to fruition as he takes a top ten finish at a track that, theoretically, should be engineered for his style of driving. He only needs to watch his temper, and to remember to lift when he is against another driver’s rear bumper, and not to pinch off another driver when he is side drafting. Though he is my dark horse pick for this race, his horse isn’t really all that dark.
I’ll cut right down to the nitty-gritty and pick Ryan “Smart-Ass” Newman to fill out the top ten. I had a feeling that he might even win this one, but the feeling for my favorite driver came out stronger. He has everything it takes to do very well at Phoenix, but he may get caught up in a situation “not of his making,” which always seems to happen to smart-asses.
Almost There:

The view in The Rev’s Crystal Revelation Ball is always somewhat fuzzy, and I don’t claim that my top ten picks are perfect, or even close. Here are some other drivers who may make the top ten, in my unfocused view:

It isn’t that Jeff Gordon isn’t trying. I still think of him as one of NASCAR’s all time great drivers, and his record vouches for that. Will he get it together for this race? Either Good Jeffy or Bad Jeffy can do well at Phoenix. If he finishes in the top ten, it could be in the lead. I hope not, I still don’t like the guy.
Kurt “Boo Bait” Busch is another driver who could do well at Phoenix. However, he is also another driver who could get into a situation not of his doing. I don’t think he has made many friends among the other drivers this season. His brother, the Shrub, could be a winner, but he is just as likely to wreck himself at PIR as he is to wreck someone else.
I really would like to see Kevin Harvick do well here, but it doesn’t seem to be his turn, yet. He could win it, but the #29 team seems to be missing something that just barely separates them from excellence.

Without any further adieu, here are my top ten picks for Phoenix:
1. #20 Tony Stewart to win.
2. #16 Greg Biffle
3. #17 Matt Kenseth
4. #38 Elliott Sadler
5. #11 Denny Hamlin
6. #12 Ryan Newman
7. #10 Scott Riggs
8. #8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
9. #99 Carl Edwards
10. #7 Robby Gordon

Good luck to all the fans and their drivers, and may the racing continue to be as entertaining as it has been so far this year.

A final, personal note: Get well, soon, Antionette, our prayers are with you.

I Really Want To Like Brian Vickers

Brian Vickers has talent. Of course he does, he’s a Nextel Cup driver. In what has become a very difficult field, Vickers has managed to rack up 5 top tens in his three year Cup career. Aggressive and crafty, he has shown skills consistant with those of Greg Biffle, Jimmy Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon. In short, he is the type of driver who can be expected to be among the best of the top drivers.

But I don’t like him because:
He has a penchant for getting other drivers angry at him, but that has mostly been due to his own inexperience. He does not have a strong first part of the season--it usually takes him somewhere around ten races to get things going. He does not seem to have the level of natural talent of the Busch brothers or Denny Hamlin, so he tends to overdrive a good car and to be somewhat over-aggressive in execution of the Hendrick Motorsports trademark blocking tactics. In spite of his excellent commentary as a panalist on SpeedTV’s Inside Nextel Cup, he does not seem to be a popular subject of interviews, unless he causes a wreck.

Each season, Vickers seems to forget what he learned the previous season. In 2004, at Infineon, his actions on the road course angered Tony Stewart. After that race, Stewart approached Vickers’ car to explain to Vickers what he had been doing wrong. Brian laughed at him, and it was the wrong time to laugh at Smoke, resulting in an incident which netted Tony a large fine and probation. Brian should have listened to Tony, because for most of the 2004 season he aroused the ire of nearly every other Nextel Cup driver. It was only near the end of that season, after an ultimatum from HMS to perform or else, that he settled down and even netted a win. It may have been because of emotion associated with the untimely death of his friend and mentor, Ricky Hendrick, but we hope it doesn’t take that kind of tragedy to inspire any driver.

Then, at the beginning of 2005, he regressed, again being the target of anger from many drivers, including Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, and his own team mate, Jeff Gordon. (Comment from a poster on a forum: "Gordon needs a message on his car that says, 'Caution, team mates in mirror may be more aggressive than they appear.'") But, Vickers began to remember, and by the end of the season even had Tony Stewart apologizing to him, on an occasion in which Smoke accidently retaliated against Brian after the checkered flag.On another occasion, I believe it was at Talledega, Smoke patted him on the head, telling him "good job."

Could I be a fan?
I like Brian Vickers on Inside Nextel Cup. He seems to know what he is talking about, and he takes responsibility for his driving errors. He could be a great driver, if he learns from his mistakes. He should have learned a lot by now, because he has made plenty of mistakes. All good drivers are always in development, from Dale Jarrett to Reid Sorenson, and Vickers should remember that he is always developing. I don't know if Vickers has a long future with HMS, but I think he is too good a driver to be relegated back to the Busch series, unless he wants to do double duty to learn more, as Kevin Harvick is doing this year. At any rate, the HMS style of aggressive racing does not seem to suit Vickers well.

I would like to see what Brian Vickers could do on a different team. Perhaps he could try his luck with another team sometime in the future. I would nominate him for the Team Toyota, or maybe even to take the seat in the #88 car in 2009, after Dale Jarrett's planned retirement. If he gets away from HMS, and shows what he is capable of, I may become a fan.

Stewart Comments on Gibbs Drivers

This is from the NASCAR Midweek Notebook by Tom Jensen on SpeedTV.com:

NEW ATTITUDE Tony Stewart said Tuesday that while he misses former teammate Bobby Labonte, the energy brought to Joe Gibbs Racing by rookie drivers Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley has re-energized the entire organization. “I miss Bobby (Labonte) as a teammate,” Stewart said Tuesday. “Bobby was a huge, huge, huge leader in our organization the whole time I was there. You know, it just shows a lot of times chemistry-wise it's amazing what happens when you change the chemistry a little bit. Having two young guys come in that have fresh ideas, that have fresh attitudes, see what we've been able to do so far this year, how well we work together, it's really an exciting time for us at the shop. I feel like we've really taken our program to another level. It's not been because of me; it's been because of the two young guys coming in, the attitude — their attitude has kind of spread through the shop. It's really just kind of given everybody a new fresh attitude and approach to what we're doing this year.”