Bump-Drafts.com

I’ve got to hand it to this team, it takes a lot to become more unpopular as a team than Hendrick Motorsports, but Teresa Earnhardt achieved this dubious distinction by letting her step- son, Dale Earnhardt Junior leave the organization that her late husband built for his son.

The good news is that time will be kind to both parties on Junior’s departure. DEI is one of several race teams enduring a competitive down turn. It is my opinion that it will take some time for DEI to get their chops up. This makes for a good place for promising young drivers to grow, and for veteran drivers to lend their experience to help groom the youngsters.

That chemistry is in place with the current line up. 49 year old Mark Martin is in his second year of running a reduced schedule. DEI was the beneficiary of the veteran’s racing prowess when Bobby Ginn could o longer keep up competitively with the NASCAR powerhouses and merged with DEI. Running 26 of 36 race, Martin won’t be able to capture the Cup title that has eluded him during his illustrious career that has included 47 Busch series wins and 35 victories at the NASCAR’s top level. When Martin isn’t running, Joe Gibbs cast-off Aric Almirola will take over the #8 ride. Many feel the youngster of Cuban descent has a great career ahead of him and will be a good fit on a team that features other such young studs as Martin Truex Junior and Paul Menard.

Truex put himself on the map with his first career Cup win in 2007 and successful run to make the Chase. During the Chase, Truex got lost in the brightening glow of fellow newbie Clint Bowyer, but considering all the many mechanical problems DEI had, it’s really amazing that Truex made it at all. The New Jersey native looks like the real deal and one who will greatly benefit from Martin’s low key and calm demeanor.

The same is true for Paul Menard. He’s still seeking his first Cup win, but has had enough strong runs to lead one to believe he’s not far away. Like Truex, Menard tends to make the mistakes typical of a fledgling driver and again, this is where Martin’s leadership will help.

Because of Dale Jr.’s popularity, many NASCAR fans will never see the forest for the trees and they will likely hate her as long as she lives. But you know what? She can’t help Junior win right now. The move to HMS is a win for him, and a win for DEI as they will now have the opportunity to build a quality organization apart from the pressure of trying to further the career of NASCAR’s most popular driver.

The key will be capitalizing on the racing brains that exist in the organization. Teresa’s not a racer or engineer or crew chief. She’s a shrewd business woman.

The late, great Dale knew that….that’s why she’s here. After she moves on to further success and so does Junior, this will just be footnote in NASCAR history.

Time will prove me right.

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.

What’s what’s buzzin’ today……

DEI Sabotage. It’s really pathetic that this rumor even has traction. Mark my words, if Teresa Earnhardt undercut and sabotaged Dale Jr.’s chase for the Chase, the I’m an NBA point guard. Humorous when you remember that I’m 5′7 (and 43). That would have been a hugely bad business move. The Intimidator’s wife is a smarter woman than that.

Driver Movement. Kenny Wallace will substitute for the injured Ricky Rudd this week in the #88 Snicker’s Ford. Travis Kvapil returns to Nextel (oh, make that Sprint) after having last drove the Tide machine. No word on where David Stremme will be next. I’ve gotta be thinking there may be room at DEI/Ginn.

Spurned Drivers Sue.I really thought Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin got a raw deal when they were let go by Ginn Racing, but it looks like from everything I’ve seen the contracts were honored. It would have been nice to have them finmish the year better than that.

Gotta go. NASCAR in Prime Time is on now. Tune in to that……I’ve enjoyed it.