I agree with the aspect that oversight on set up is...OVER regulated and the crew chiefs are gonna find the ways but my question is about the restarts and that aspect being placed into the drivers hands. With drivers screaming for position on restarts, do you, the viewer find this to be entertaining or a deal breaker considering the potential results? Case in point: Jeff Burton WAS solidly in the top 12 leading into the chase, now after 4 weeks in a row fixin fenders, he clearly will not make the chase unless he wins the next 5 which we all know ain't gonna... Whatcha think?
I like the double file restarts, and am already (its only been 4 weeks) sick of hearing drivers complain about it. DF makes for better racing for the fans, and at the end of the day, if the fans have not been entertained, what's the point? Now I agree that NASCAR has to do something to make the COT more racy. As difficult as the drivers say it is to pass in those things, its understandable that they get a little out of their heads trying to get to the front in the closing laps. But having said that, the drivers also have to realize that its in their best interest to calm down, take care of their equipment and get to the finish in one piece. That 2nd to last restart at Chicago looked like Saturday night at your local dirt track. And its becoming a foregone conclusion that plate races are going to end in twisted metal and pointed fingers (and it was Shrub's fault, not Smoke's).
You have hit the nail squarely on the head about the COT cars. Now that I think about it I think that Junior's biggest problem is that he hasn't adapted to the COT cars as well as some of the other top drivers. When he drove the Monte Carlo he was always either coming from the middle of the pack up to the top 5 very quickly and he was usually making some great move to make a pass. Thats something I haven't seen from him this year.
Exactly what I have always thought, Jr. was a much better Busch driver then he is now in a COT. I say send him back to the Nationwide series and Jr. nation can finally rejoice! Course, till that series begins running the COT... Right now, Jr's performance is so unrecognizable that even shrub has stopped picking on him. :shock:
I was talking about the way he used to drive in the Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup races. Especially the plate races. After all he does have 19 wins in the Cup series. I don't thin he has suddenly lost his talents. With the superior equipment he has with Hendricks Motorsports I can really think of no explanation other than his failure to adapt th the COT cars. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin are all racing well and even with it being Smoke's first year as a team owner both he and Ryan Newman are doing great with engines provided by Hendricks.
We are sayin the same thing B. Up till Jr. got himself a COT, he was all Earnhardt, and he still is but till the COT came along he was a threat everywhere, every time. Dude has the talent, just that he, in some time, has severely lacked performance. Ain't all his fault neither. You have a great point on the fact that near everything Hendrick supplies is in the top 12 in points right now and this next weekend favors the Hendrick stuff. Cept maybe Jr...
This whole Mayfield pissing fire thing is really hitting a head. What you have here is NASCAR and it's dream team of lawyers and then you have Mayfield with a pretty damn good team of attorneys himself. Kind of hard to pick sides here so why bother but what remains is the questioning of how piss, hair, and cup-farts are tested. Here we have the technology in marking drugs of abuse in test. Then there is the technology of how to beat the test. Beating drug test has become a science all on it's own. Chain of custody is even more important the the freaking sample is yet still, you can geaux from lab to lab and find different results. Put that notion in the hands of a bunch of attorneys and this thing may never end. I have a feeling this matter is bigger then who is actually using and who is not, it is more about who is conducting the test. It is more about how athletes are going to be tested for banned substances. With a world of sports and the multitude of biological augmentations, it is clear that this case may set precedence in the courts with how sample results may be challenged here on. I believe it is completely plausible that Mayfield can be dirty and still remain in the sport. I do not believe even then he will ever drive at the cup level again. Dude leaves a trail of hate everywhere he leaves. For that alone, owners will keep a long stick between them. All he is really fighting for here is to recoup what he has lost as a result there of.
