Bump-Drafts.com

NASCAR’s largest and most competitive Ford team faces a very interesting 2008. With Roush-Fenway Racing you have a very intriguing and sometimes volatile mix of veterans and fresh faces. In 2009, one of these drivers will be looking for a new ride as NASCAR will mandate a maximum of 4 individual racing teams per organization. Who will it be? This is a deep team, and yet it is one not without question marks.

With his his midwestern charm and trademark victory backflip, Carl Edwards is without a doubt the most recognizable member of the Roush garage. Edwards ran away with the Busch Series title by dominating the early 2007 races, easily outdistancing David Reutimann and Jason Leffler. Edwards also ended a long victory drought with a win at Michigan in June and performed consistently enough to make the Chase, though he seemed to have rough spots. Throw in his presence in the Office Depot and Dish Network ads, and his work in the “Fast Cars and Superstars” series on ABC, and it seemed that the Opie Taylor-ish “Cousin Carl” was everywhere.

In spite of his successes, Edwards’ sunny image took a big hit in his altercation with Roush teammate Matt Kenseth in the wake of the Martinsville race. By now, most serious fans have seen Edwards shoving the soft-spoken and mild-mannered Kenseth and taking a mock swing at him on camera as Kenseth prepared for an interview. Through this incident, details came to light that served to tarnish Edwards’ image. First, we learned that though they’re teammates, Kenseth and Edwards rarely speak to each other. Edwards also made himself look like a whiner when he said he felt no support from his teammates. As people began to wonder about the sudden surly tone, fellow Roush drivers Jamie Mc Murray and Greg Biffle suggested this was the real Carl. Though Edwards has apologized, the damage has been done. Discussions on message boards lead me to believe that some casual fans of the #99 Ford have written him off as a phony.

So- who is the real Carl Edwards? Will the chilly relations within his team make the Columbia, Missouri native a pariah and therefore, expendable? Will better success for this organization cover all this? This is a part of the intrigue of the 2008 season.

Perhaps the driver we should really watch is Matt Kenseth. After a non-descript start, Kenseth rallied at crunch time with a number of great late season finishes. Kenseth fostered his reputation as a conservative driver who airs it out at the end. By the same token, with low-key demeanor, the driver of the Dewalt #17 is one of the more invisible, albeit successful drivers on the circuit. Still, I think the 2003 Nextel Cup champion may have momentum going for him that will pave for a great 2008. Part of what will help is that the solid finishes by all Roush drivers at CoT races leads us to believe that Roush-Fenway has caught up with their Car of Tomorrow programs. With his intelligent handling of the car, I suspect that Kenseth will either be a Sprint Cup champ or top five driver.

Greg Biffle offers another veteran presence in the Roush shop. After a rather quiet stretch dating back to 2005, Biffle visited victory lane with a controversial finish at Kansas in September. Like Kenseth, Biffle is not necessarily one of the more memorable faces on the NASCAR circuit. Given that, one can’t help but feel like the 38 year old needs a strong 2008 to stay off the chopping block. Biffle married during the off-season. Hopefully for him, the Vancouver, Washington native will run a more inspired schedule.

Jamie Mc Murray provided one of the real highlights of 2007 with his photo finish victory over Kyle Busch at the Pepsi 400 at NASCAR’s mecca- Daytona. In addition, “Jamie Mac” ran a strong race on the road course of Infineon, before running out of gas and paving the way for Juan Pablo Montoya’s first NASCAR victory. That Daytona victory ended a protracted spell between wins, but at age 31, and with his “pretty boy” looks, you get the feeling Mc Murray will have to be pretty bad to have to worry about getting his walking papers from “The Cat In The Hat” (team owner Jack Roush).

David Ragan’s 2007 was typical of a young NASCAR driver. The driver of Mark Martin’s former ride finished second in points among rookie drivers and had moments of brilliance. By the same token, Ragan was involved in quite a number of crashes and made his share of rookie mistakes. NASCAR pundits talk a great deal about his potential, but the question this year will be “Is it enough?”

Yes- the Roush-Fenway team will offer storylines galore in 2008. We’ll have to keep watching to see if these story line are positive….or negative.

Did you react the same way I did? I learned of the YouTube footage of the Carl Edwards- Matt Kenseth shoving match after last Sunday’s race in Martinsville and I was more than a little schocked. I’m thinking “What in the name of Richard Petty is this all about?” Well, unless you’re a casual fan or cave dweller, you know by now that this storm has been brewing for quite a while, and the portrayal of Team Roush, as seen in the Dish Network commercials, is not as realistic as we all thought.

My how a week changes things. Until now, Carl Edwards has been largely perceived as this classy, upbeat, generous racer who also happens to be a fairly successful Nextel Cup driver, sitting squarely in the middle of the Chase standings. I mean, who doesn’t like his celebratory backflips? His homespun demeanor has earned him the nickname “Cousin Carl.” Who wouldn’t like this Wally Cleaver type for a cousin? Yes, until now, “The King of Concrete” (he has a knack for running masterfully on concrete tracks) has received a pass for his display of temper with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a couple of other blow-ups on the track. Now suddenly the leader of the “Young Guns” has a reputation tarnished, and suddenly he’s showing up on “drivers I don’t like” lists on places like Yahoo Answers! alongside the usual suspects- Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and the like. Hey ya know, given the level of success those guys have had, maybe I wouldn’t mind being that list after all. What gives?

It is my opinion that the concept of teamwork is pretty tenuous to begin with. Let’s face it, auto racing is fundamentally an individual sport. Yes, there is the crew, but they are support for the man who gets the spotlight. On the track, it’s 43 men for themselves. Every race, especially lately where you have Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon running up front, a discussion will come up at a magic moment where commentators will tell you the team concept will go out the window from here on out, and if one teammate has to rub out another, so be it. As it is, we’ve seen the nature of competition test the mettle of the friendship between Gordon and Johnson, as they’ve battled hard against each other for wins. Apparently, the two didn’t speak to each other for two days after the spring race in Martinsville, but obviously they got over it. It begs the question: What are you supposed to do when racing a teammate? Do you give up track position because your teammate is higher in the standings or has more at stake? That seems to go against the grain of good old fashioned competition!

Realistically, all you can expect in my opinion is for your teammate to show you enough consideration not to put you in the fence. The concept of teamwork may also come into play when “drafting” on a Super Speedway like Daytona or Talladega. Otherwise, the only other place I expect to see the comeraderie you see in team sports is in the garage, where information will be shared among drivers, crews and engineers on what’s working out on the track. It also pays dividends with sponsors. Roush Racing (of which Edwards and Kenseth are a part), is a classic example of a team where you see a sponsor like Aflac or Dish Network on multiple cars. The team concept does also have that ancillary benefit getting multiple drivers together in commercials. Otherwise, I don’t think you can expect much more from a teammate. They have their own interests, and rightly so.

I never thought I’d see the day- I have to disagree with Carl on his complaint about team support. I honestly don’t think they OWE him a pat on the back when he wins. It would be a show of class if they did- but frankly I think you’re not going to get that from this personnel group. Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jamie Mc Murray, and David Ragan are not cut from the same cloth as the guys at Hendrick or Childress. Heck, for that matter, I see better teamwork at DEI. Kenseth and Biffle are lone wolves, and the younger guys in the Roush group are preocuppied with trying to make their own mark in the sport. It’s been said by others that a lot of leadership was lost when Mark Martin left Roush Racing at the end of the 2006 season. This season seems to provide evidence of that.

If ANYONE was poised to be a leader in this group, it was Edwards. Unfortunately, this episode says a lot about what his oldest teammates think of him, and I’m not expecting we’ll hear from Mc Murray or Ragan on this. Instead of being put in a class with the aforementioned racing teams, we see with “Team Roush” a level of dysfunction we expect from Joe Gibbs Racing- home to NASCAR’s “resident rebel” Tony Stewart, and his strong-headed protege Denny Hamlin. It will take a long time for Concrete Carl to regain credibility with his team. To some, it wouldn’t matter.

It does to Carl. For him, this is going to hurt a while.

I walk away from today’s race in Kansas with the same reaction I frequently had with a former co-worker who just tended to babble on in unrelated cliches: Huh?
I should have known something was up when the answering machine at home featured a cryptic message from my brother-in-law Brad. He with an evil Beavis-n-Butthead laugh and a “watch what happens around lap 30″ remark. I’ll let you in on a little secret: we frequently have to TiVo the races because we’re usually in church when a race starts 10 am PST. Given the fact he returns home earlier than we do, we often get such messages when something good, interesting or downright bizarre happens. In today’s case, the latter occurred on cue.
In my mind, it ranks up there with the Busch race in Montreal as the weirdest race we’ve had all year. Everything started out the way you’d expect with all the usual suspects (Kenseth, the Busch boys) running up front and all the usual suspects (Michael Waltrip, Scott Riggs) fading back after qualifying well. Then, as promised, Junior inexplicably whacks Kyle Busch on lap 28 for no apparent reason. Now I am no real fan of the #5 Kellogg’s Chevy, but it looks fishy. Junior apologized later and took responsibility, but you really have to wonder if the guy who had nothing to lose felt like messing with the guy he replaces at HMS next year. It makes me wonder.
Then there was the 2nd red flag of the day, and the ensuing drama of Tony Stewart’s fuel supply. In my mind, you could have made an argument for finishing the race here. I knew that a resumption of the race would result in circus following it, but since Tony’s no favorite of mine, I didn’t fuss much about it. I got to watch my beloved Broncos get pummeled by the Colts and would get to see the finish in real time. Like I said, it was shaping up to be a weird day.
I can’t forget the Jeff Burton “I wasn’t messin’ with my car” flap. He got sent to the back because he was working on his car during a red flag- a NASCAR no-no. I like J.B., but he’s gotta be the worst actor in NASCAR. I’m not a big fan of Rusty Wallace as a commentator, but I got a laugh as Wallace shared about having one of his crew on sentry duty when he would do the same. Seriously Jeff, with all those cameras around, you need to plan your skullduggery better than that.
Sure enough, though the race would be shortened, we weren’t shortchanged on drama. Throughout the race we watched the lead get tossed around like the old baseball game of “Flip.” We had Matt Kenseth running hard and running well, Dave Blaney making some noise, Kurt Busch representing Penske and Dodge well in this race, Jimmie Johnson charging hard from the back, and Kansas’ favorite son Clint Bowyer looking like he could be a man of destiny. Let us also not forget that Tony Stewart was looking pretty good for a while there too.
The Tony and a whole gaggle of other participants set off a chain of events that greatly altered the outcome. Chasers Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton were already having a bad day. Smoke already had a bent up fender and there were questions about how the fender on the Home Depot Chevy would “travel.” Crew Chief turned commentator Andy Petree questioned the move by the #20 team to stay out, and by golly, Greg Zipandelli and Tony Stewart made the former Earnhardt pit boss look like a prophet. Sure enough, Tony seemed to slow down a bit, got hit by his old buddy (NOT) Kurt Busch and got taken out of the game, while collecting Carl Edwards in the process. Unlike yesterday, Tony wisely took a look around and declined comment. The picture of him throwing his steering wheel said quite enough.
Oh, but only if the drama ended there! You remember how things got nasty between Denny Hamlin and Paul Menard yesterday. It was followed with more drama between the 26-year-olds. On one of the restarts, we had 3-wide action between Menard, Hamlin and Jamie Mc Murray. Mc Murray on the inside, brushed Menard in the middle, who in turn, rammed Hamlin. Of course Hamlin’s people blamed Menard. It was his fault right? Sure (cough,cough- Nextel’s next nasty rivalry).
So, as the race nears the finish we have Kevin Harvick gutting out a tough day and yet running towards the front with company from fellow chasers Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. As the laps click away, it sure looks like Bowyer may have a shot at catching Mr. Hard Luck himself- Greg Biffle. Just as it looks like we’re gonna have a Dayonta style dogfight at the end, Juan Pablo Montoya brushes the wall. Caution comes out, darkness prevails, and Greg Biffle finishes under yellow. Or did he?
Of course there has to be more drama. For reasons unclear to me and a lot of other people, the #16 Aflac Ford cruises onto the infield grass. Some say Biffle was running out of gas and couldn’t finish under his own power. Others would say that the “frozen field” rule was in effect and this whole flap is immaterial. I’m not sure myself (after all, I am a fan and not an expert), but it gives those unhappy with the NASCAR governing body one more reason to complain about how such matters are handled.
Me? I was just glad to have it over, glad to see a face in Victory Lane we had not seen in a while, and glad to see the leaderboard shuffled just a little bit more.
Man, I need a nap.