Thanks, “Little Jack” Bowyer
Congratulations go out to Clint “Little Jack” Bowyer on his first ever Nextel Cup win, a pretty darn commanding performance at New Hampshire. As my son would say, the Jack Daniels’ #07 Chevy was “crazy fast.” Bowyer let Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch “borrow” the lead for a while, but I’ll be darned if the 07 didn’t have an answer every time. My 9 year old daughter has a theory that starting from pole position is a guaranteed jinx, and most days there is sufficient evidence to back her hypothesis (and you thought NASCAR fans couldn’t use big words). What we saw today bears out that Richard Childress Racing got Bowyer’s car figured out from the get-go. That’s just awesome teamwork. You could tell Clint was freaking out a little bit and hearing footsteps towards the end (I thought the poor guy was losing his marbles), you rarely heard a complaint about the condition of his car.
So much for my idea that the Chase might be a little boring. Bowyer’s first Cup victory proves that just one race can shake the whole picture. If ya didn’t think the 28 year old Emporia, Kansas native was the real deal before, you get it now. The deal is this guy is a pure racer. It’s like the Pettys said back in the day, “Racin’ is all we know.” Like the King, you won’t likely hear Bowyer talking up boating, fishing, golf, scuba diving, or any of the other pastimes of the Cup drivers, Bowyer lists racing (of course) as a hobby as well as……working on classic cars. This dude’s got NASCAR real bad.
Before going further, I want to gloat for a minute. In last night’s post, I predicted at least one victory for the 07 before the year was out. I’m feeling mighty vindicated right now, because I’m guessing I’ll blow a few of my prognostications before the season is out.
Bowyer’s a good guy, driving a good car for a good team. Get used to the camera Clint, and switch to decaff before your next win. There’ll be many more.
Other observations from New Hampshire:
1) The Chase guys represented pretty well. My boy Gordon took 2nd, Smoke pushed for and took the lead at times, Rowdy Busch overcame a ratty car to place top 5, and Jimmie wasn’t too bad either. This group is legit.
2) Carl Edwards showed some skill today. It might not be evident by his finish, but remember, he ran today in a back-up car.
3) Kurt Busch’s standing plummeted today. Word was the #2 Miller Lite Dodge ran on 7 cylinders. He kept it in the race though.
4) A message board buddy astutely pointed out that today was the first time in the Modern Era (1972- ) that all cars that started the race, finished it. I had no idea. There was a lot of swervin’ goin’ on, but David Blaney, Kevin Harvick, and Junior all kept the cars in the race. Is it possible that the spin outs AND the fact the cars avoided debilitating wrecks were in part due to the Car of Tomorrow? I suppose we’ll hear more about that from the Monday morning quarterbacks tomorrow.
5) This was a good chase race. I wasn’t real impressed with the Spring edition of the 2007 race at New Hampshire. There was some pit strategy, a little bit of rubbing, some good, hard driving and a race known more for its actual racing, and not for fist fights, wrecking, and grist for the “mill of bizzare conspiracy theories.” It was kind of refreshing.
That’s all for tonight. This week I’ll be pondering the question of how far is too far when supporting your driver or talking trash about another. Standards seem to be lacking and it sure causes some nasty scuffles.
C U soon.
