Bump-Drafts.com

(A Special Weekly Edition of bump-drafts prepared for NASCAR_Nation)

Up Next: The Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The green flag will drop at 2:25 p.m. Eastern, 11:25 a.m. for those of you in Rio Linda and points elsewhere in the Pacific time zone. Broadcast on FOX.

Track Trivia Atltanta Motor Speedway is 1.5 mile oval track with 24-degree banking in the turns. Geoff Bodine owns the fastest all-time qualifying speed on the “Peach Tree State” track at 197.478 m.p.h. back in 1997. Ryan Newman and Buddy Baker have the most
poles with 7 each. Greg Biffle was the last pole sitter here in October, 2007. Geoff Bodine ran the fastest qualifying time of 197.478 m.p.h. in 1997.

In 1997, Bobby Labonte set the race pace with an average speed of 159.904 m.p.h. in a Joe Gibbs Pontiac (the #18).

Labonte’s 6 AMS victories ar most among active drivers. Dale Earnhardt Sr. has the most victories overall at Atlanta with 9.

NASCAR racing began here in 1960, with Glenn “Fireball” Roberts clocking in the first victory.

Other Atlanta Trivia. One of the most famous races at A.M.S. occurred on March 11, 2001, when rookie Kevin Harvick went to Victory Lane, taking over the Mr. Goodwrench ride from Dale Earnhardt, who died on the final lap at Daytona just weeks earlier. It was an emotional win for mourners in Earnhardt Nation. Fittingly enough, Harvick just edged out Earnhardt’s last arch-rival, Jeff Gordon. The margin of victory? A mere .006 seconds.

“The Silver Fox”, David Pearson, famous for going easy on his car through much of the race so he could pounce at the end, won in Atlanta on September 17, 1961, having only led one lap! Once again, we’re reminded that the only lap where it really matters you lead is the final one. The November 7, 1982 event saw 45 lead changes- Bobby Allison took the checkered flag that day.

You won’t see this with the “new” car…..just 10 cars finished the first race in Atlanta in 1964. 41 finished the second race here in 2005.

Hopefully, we can expect fewer cautions this week…The track record for Atlanta in terms of cautions is 14 at the Fall, 2007 race. Twice Atlanta has had a race with just one caution flag- most recently in 1970.

The Craftsman Truck Series will run here Friday night, the Nationwide Series on Saturday afternoon.

What’s Up: The question right now is whether or not Carl Edwards can keep up his winning ways. During his great 2005 season, Cousin Carl swept the events here, just as Jimmie Johnson did last year.

You can be sure Johnson will look to rebound from his disappointing performance at Las Vegas last week. Johnson’s 14th place standing on the points chart is not a place he’s accustomed to being. We’ll also be looking for Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman to keep up their solid running, and I’m sure Tony Stewart will look to shake off the nasty crashes of last Sunday.

Atlanta is a fat track with the possibility of three lines to run. It will be pedal to the metal here with cars attempting to run wide open all day long.

NASCAR Speak Your chance to impress the uninitiated by dropping these terms.

“Main Switch Panel”- You ever wonder what that group of toggle switches were for to the left of the steering wheel? Those contain the switches for the starter, ignition, and cooling fans.

“Engine Guage Cluster”- While cluster may be a description of what happened in California, what we’re really talking about here is a group of gauges engine oil pressure, water temperature, oil temperature, voltage and fuel pressure.

“Master Switch”- This shuts down the electrical system in an emergency situation.

Special Thanks: There’s a lot that goes into making this little report happen. I want to thank Linda at NASCAR_Nation for providing the platform to share this post. It plays a big part in getting the word out. Thanks also to Kyle at FanZone for his role in making me a member of NASCAR media, opening up a world of up-to-date information for this and my radio gig. Thanks to people such as Linda, Kyle, Bob, and RevJim for the links, plus anybody else I don’t know about. Thanks to my friends at letsgoracingfans.com and NASCAR_Nation- two message boards I HIGHLY recommend for congregating with fellow NASCAR nuts.

Most of all, I want to thank my family- Lynnae, Hannah and Jonathan for their love and patience.

Thanks to God for all of this.

Enjoy the race.

(A Weekly Edition of bump-drafts.com prepared specially for NASCAR_Nation and NASCAR For Dummies)

What’s Going On Out There? Like many of you, I while away the time in anticipation of the 2008 by checking in from time to time about what’s going on off the track. There’s no shortage of news and grist for the rumor mill. Like:

Mendeering Moves On- That’s today’s big news. You may remember Jeff Mendeering as the guy who filled in as Crew Chief for Jeff Gordon while Steve Letarte was serving his suspension. Former Team Gordon guy Robbie Loomis has been making moves for Petty Enterprises these days, and has brought Mendeering on board to be Crew Chief for Petty driver Bobby Labonte.

You can tell that the King’s men are working feverishly to reclaim Petty glory. They brought Labonte in to pilot Papa Petty’s famed #43 Dodge. Last season, they made yet another Crew Chief change when they brought in Doug Randolph to replace Paul Andrews.  Now we have this move.

As a Labonte fan, I hope it works. I still think Petty still needs to invest in the future by bringing on a promising young driver to groom for NASCAR glory, perhaps to drive Kyle’s car (c’mon Kyle, you know it’s time to go to the booth already).

One thing for sure, Mendeering has learned a thing or two about success in all his years in the Hendrick Motor Sports garage.

 

The State of The Sport- There’s a lot of banter in the media about fan unrest concerning the sport about which they are so passionate. Some would have you believe that the unrest is so great that the sport is in trouble.

I will need to post very soon as to my own take on the numerous changes that have occurred over the last 4 years or so. I will say no more today than to say that the rumors of NASCAR’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Right now, marketers only rank the NFL ahead of NASCAR as a vehicle to reach upscale (so much for this being a “redneck” sport) males. It’s easy to see that even from an anecdotal perspective, NASCAR is gaining new fans all the time.

Yes, there’s plenty of room for improvement, but the good news (no matter who you are), is that the sport we love so much is very much alive and well. At least the powers that be in NASCAR are for more fan responsive than Major League Baseball, where they live in continual denial about the realities of the viewing public.

Face it folks, no matter how angry you are at Brian France and Mike Helton, you’ll still be there for 2008. Admit it.

 

Questions About Moves for 2008 Abound- Thank goodness we have a short off-season. There is much water cooler talk about how changes made at the end of the 2007 season will affect 2008. Among other questions:

How will Junior fare at HMS? Was his disastrous 2007 season due to his team, or his driving? Is he really a great driver experiencing bad luck, or is he overrated, thanks to his famous last name?

How will former HMS driver Kyle Busch get along at JGR? The combination of Busch with other strong personalities such as Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin could make for sparks of a good kind or sparks of a bad kind. How will that work? That may depend on…..

How will Toyota fare now that they are affiliated with a major racing team? Toyota haters hate this move, as there are still many that feel a “foreign” (don’t get me started on this now) manufacturer has no business in an American sport. I have to think this move will pan out (The JGR-Toyota marriage). There’s too much at stake for the JGR organization and the Toyota Corporation for this to fail. Still, they have to make it work on the track. If not…..

What will become of Tony Stewart? It’s contract renewal time for Smoke. It’s no secret that struggles at JGR with Toyota would no doubt signal the end of Smoke’s run with Gibbs. Other factors that will play into this is Smoke’s market value (which is very high- who wouldn’t want this successful yet colorful character. Arguably, only Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are better among veteran drivers). Stewart will want his due. Also, you can’t around GM’s love of Tony and Smoke’s long standing association with Chevrolet. Hmm. Well, let’s just say that winning trumps everything, so we’ll just have to see how this will play out.

How much effect will having open wheelers have at NASCAR’s highest level? If you believe Jerry Bonkowski from yahoo.com, not much. The struggles of Sam Hornish and Dario Franchitti among others demonstrate that even a talented driver can’t just jump into a “stock” car and win. Will Villanueve, Carpentier, and company master the learning curve, or will they become discouraged at return to whence they came? I anticipate a more mixed result- but then, I’m just a fan.

I’m also wondering with great interest where David Stremme, Tony Raines and Jeff Green will land in 2008. I’m also wondering when Brad Coleman, Landon Cassil, Stephen Leicht and Jeffrey Earnhardt will get their Cup break. 

But perhaps the biggest question of them all is: How will we the fans survive until “Speed Week”? I’m working on it, I’m working on it.

Until next week…hang in there. Let me know if you hear anything.

(A special post-race edition prepared for letsgoracingfans.com. Also known as shameless cross-promotion).

In preparing for the Pep Boys’ 500, I think Jimmie Johnson and Crew Chief Chad Knauss stole a page from General George Sherman. The driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet showed tactical brilliance down the stretch to collect his eighth victory of the 2007 campaign, narrowing his defecit to Jeff Gordon down to nine points.

Admit, like me, you had your doubts at times. Kurt Busch looked “scary fast” early on, and after he faded, Martin Truex looked like the guy to beat. For quite some time, it just looked like Johnson and his buddy Jeff Gordon had a lackluster day going. Heck, it looked Junior had a good run going. It says a lot for the Budweiser Chevy driver that he overcame a commitment cone penalty and an unscheduled pit stop to fix bum tire to be in top five position at the end. The DEI boys had GREAT engines today. Once again, Roush- Fenway was well-represented with Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards getting in the mix and playing nice today. But 99% of the race it was the Truex- Busch Show.

You hear a lot from fans about racers getting lucky. Racing is no different than any other sport- if you prepare well, play smart, and put some good weapons in your corner, you’ll get some luck. Plenty of it.

I know a lot fans are bored with HMS dominating the Chase, but what can you do? If you happen to be lucky enough to race against them, learn what they do and imitate it. To me, it’s interesting to see how the top two guys in this year’s chase lay back for about three-quarters of the race, in a middle-of-the-pack but competitive position, and then strike at the end. The only real risk to this strategy is that you might get collected in a slobberknocker with an also-ran. That’s where the luck comes in. Is that what Johnson doing? If he is, he’s not telling. I’ve said it before, I think there’s a little David Pearson influence on HMS.

You need it with all these green-white-checkered finishes. What a mess! I don’t know how you remedy that, but it’s ridiculous how many we’ve had this year.

Call dominance boring if you want. I’m sure said the same thing about the Cowboys, the Celtics, and the Yankees.

Other observations:

Tough Day For The Old School- It was a real bummer to see Mark Martin go down early. He handled his mishap with David Gilliland with his signature class. I was also looking for good things from 6-time AMS winner Bobby Labonte, but he was one of many drivers today with tire troubles.

Juan Pablo Montoya “Bonehead Manuever of The Day” Award- It stinks to run out of gas at the moment Denny Hamlin did. They HAD to be thinking about it. Everybody else was. It’s got to be a bummer when you know your mistake collected a potential winner. This was not a good day for the Gibbs family. Papa Joe’s Redskins got mauled by the Patriots 52-7 (ouch!) and then Smoke has a crap day, to go with this little foible by Hamlin.

The Ryan Newman “Creative Way To Lose” Award- Can somebody explain to me how in the name of Junior Johnson that a wheel comes off a race car in a NASCAR event? What did Junior do in a previous life to end up with this kind of luck? Some of Newmans’ mojo must have rubbed off on him. Poor guy- he had a car quite capable of winning.

Now it’s off to Texas. I don’t know if the Fat Lady has sung yet for the Chasers not named Johnson or Gordon, but I do believe I heard her warming up. Certainly she’s singing a sad swan song over the ruins of Atlanta.

Like a snake in the grass, Jeff Gordon snuck up and slithered through the field for the 80th win of his career at Talladega. Knowing how much fans hate him down there, I thought it was fitting he swept the ‘Dega stop in 2007. That man can win anywhere! Super Speedways, road courses, short tracks, you name it. And to think he did it leading only the last 1/3 lap of the 188 lap race. I was sure Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman or Jimmie Johnson would take the checkered flag. Heck, I thought Dave Blaney had a chance. Did you see Gordon slip between Johnson and Stewart? Classy move by Smoke not to rub the Rainbow Warrior off the track.

Some observations:

Can we all now say that Jacques Villanueve deserves a little credit? After qualifying 6th, the driver of the #27 Unicef Toyota put himself in the back of the field. He and his crew chief mutually concluded that with the car in qualifying and not racing trim, it would be best to let the first time Cup driver slip to the back. I thought that showed humility for the former open wheel champ will do a lot to earn him respect. Oh- the 21st place finish wasn’t bad either.

Drafting, drafting, and more drafting. Today’s winner admitted to yawning during the race. Junior complained of a boring race, though he did a nice job of leading for several laps. They all looked like a flock of flightless geese! It was nuts. Kind of interesting to see who would partner with who. You can definitely see that there’s more work in store for the Car of Tomorrow.

The not-so “Big One.” That 10 car pile-up triggered by Bobby Labonte fell well short of some of the Talladega wrecks we’ve seen. Not even “43″ himself has any idea what happened. Still, between crashes and engine failure, there was a lot of field missing at the end.

Speaking of engine failure…… Teresa haters are in full force tonight. As we know, DEI and RCR share an engine program, and one by one, we lost Martin Truex, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and on and on…….

The Chase Has A New Leader. He’s baaaack. Jeffrey Michael Gordon is now your new Nextel Cup standings leader. He leads HMS teammate Jimmie Johnson by four, with Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer not that far behind. Kyle Busch sure has a hang dog look and seems to be ready to mail it in, Burton and Kenseth’s chase chances have been greatly injured. Besides the top four mentioned, I still think Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, and Martin Truex will make noise. Poor Kevin Harvick may be stuck in the lower division with RCR teammate Burton.

All in all, it was a good race. There were some long, boring stretches, but we had a little bit of everything- including a final lap steal by the guy I think is the best racer in the business today.

Now it’s off to NASCAR’s home turf.