Ever since David vs. Goliath, people have been rooting for the underdog. It’s one more reason people love sports. Every once a great while, the Marlins beat the Yankees, the Giants stun the Patriots, and Appalachian State cold cocks mighty Michigan.
Even in NASCAR, we get surprised once in a while. Alan Kulwicki and some raggy-taggy 2nd year driver named Dale Earnhardt come to mind as unlikely champions.
It’s probably a reach to think that what we saw today was evidence of a trend, but it was mighty cool to see “the little guy” get in a triumph or two at the Duels.
Take Scott Riggs of Tommy Baldwin Racing, for example. With super glue and
loads of duct tape, they’ve put an unsponsored car in the Daytona 500. Nearby will be the once-forgotten Jeremy Mayfield,who scraped his own money together to field his own team. It’s also cool to see DEI cast-off Regan Smith in the race, as well as NASCAR pinball A.J. Allmendinger.
If you ask me, these cars didn’t look too dang bad. There’s a lot of weird stuff that happens in these funky restrictor plate races, and until the very end, Mayfield was hanging pretty well with the Kyle Shrubs and the Dale Jr’s of the world. Over the last couple of years, Riggs has impressed me as a guy who could finish-even with mediocre equipment- and now he’s got pretty savvy dude like Tommy Baldwin in his corner- a guy who helped Ward Burton to a Daytona 500 win not so many years ago.
There are other things I saw that I thought were pretty cool. Jeff Gordon may have quieted the Letarte-haters for at least a couple of days, and his performance seems to indicate you can hold off on the “career defibrillator”. He’s not quite ready to go the way of Brett Favre just yet. Then there’s the kid, that sliced bread guy. A lot of people have been questioning Joey Logano’s readiness for Sprint Cup racing, and by golly he picked up a 4th place in the first duel.
Aric Almirola has to be jazzed with his work in the duels.That- coupled with Juan Pablo Montoya’s- once again suggests this Earnhardt- Ganassi merger may have been what the doctor ordered.
Yeah, I know….Gordon’s win could hardly be described
as an upset, and Kyle Busch has experienced life as a NASCAR Goliath, but still…anything’s possible.
Just ask Kevin Harvick, master of the “Daytona Sneak.” A lot of it just showing up and being around at the end.
Hmmm….maybe an upset at Daytona isn’t so outrageous.
OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS
I’m just guessing here, but the Reutimann’s won’t be getting a Christmas card from the Newman’s this year…it wasn’t exactly the pass in the grass, but Greg Biffle did a good job of hanging on to his car in the infield…I’m just wondering, do you really think there’s just the slightest possibility that if we have a replay of Busch and Martin racing for the win on the final lap Sunday that Martin might put a fender on Wild Thing? My gut says “No.”….don’t worry Junior fans, the “88″ will be there Sunday to make a showing. A win? I wouldn’t rule it out.
TOMORROW
How fitting it is I do a driver profile on defending champion Jimmie Johnson the day before the first points race of 2009. I may also be getting a report from Bump Drafts contributor Jeremy Sellers of Jerm’s Joint Racing Pub, too.
PHOTO CREDITS- Scott Riggs by plstt. Jeremy Mayfield “back in the day” by nascar20guy. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch photos by TotalPhoto (Leon). For more of their work, visit flickr.com.
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