Bump-Drafts.com

(A special edition of bump-drafts.com prepared for letsgoracingfans.com- a really cool place for NASCAR fans to hang out.)

It’s like the country singer Jerry Reed used to sing "When you’re hot, you’re hot." NASCAR fans haven’t seen a streak like this since 1998 when Jeff Gordon reeled off four consecutive wins en route to his 3rd Cup title and 2nd in a row. Jimmie Johnson picked up his 4th victory in a row today and a Nextel Cup high 10th for 2007 in the the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Speedway.

For a while, it looked like pole-sitter Carl Edwards had something for the #48. Edwards ticked off 87 laps before becoming afflicted with a little bad luck I sadly call"Junior-itis." With a little hiccup of the engine, Edwards goes from hero to zero.

Edward’s teammate Matt Kenseth once again looked like a potential winner. He was at or near the front all day. But if Edwards caught "Junior-itis," then Kenseth has "Mark Martin-itis." This syndrome is also known as "always a bridesmaid, but never a bride." Sadly Kenseth ran another near perfect race, but unfortunately, near perfect is not perfect enough when up against the Johnson juggernaut.

It’s pure and simple. Johnson is in a zone. I would liken it to the night when Joe Montana completed 21 passes in a row, or when Kobe Bryant scored 81 points. If you’ve experienced "the zone" then you know what I’m talking about. If you’re an auto racer, the events on the track are frozen in time, but you’re still going 200 miles an hour. Nothing can touch you. It’s as if destiny has called your number.

Johnson was at the front or near it all day. Every pit stop ran with surgical precision. Chad Knaus seems incapable of making a bad call. Short runs, long runs, it’s all going Jimmie’s way. Making more smooth the path to victory are the declining fortunes of 2nd place chaser Jeff Gordon.

Gordon just didn’t have it today. Gordon never captured the lead. His car never handled quite right. The #24 Chevy just didn’t have the juice, and compounding his frustration was trading paint late in the race with Kevin Harvick. Gordon was quick to point out in his post race interview that he was fading before the incident, so in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t affect the outcome.

Other drivers looked promising to push Johnson. Tony Stewart made a great late run, as did Ryan Newman. Unfortunately, Newman looked wimpy on the restarts. For Stewart, it was a case of being good, but not quite good enough. Greg Biffle looked great late, but ran out of laps. The same can also be said for Kyle Busch, who was unable to pull a series sweep at Phoenix. 

The open wheel defectors were a topic of much conversation going into today’s action, but they were relatively quiet today. Jacques Villanueve showed us that racing NASCAR isn’t as easy as it looks. A loose car led to a minor collision, but the impact was enough to crash him out. Patrick Carpentier was nearly invisible, running quietly in the back, and Sam Hornish had an inauspicious Cup debut. For these guys, success is measured by finishing the race and not causing trouble. Hornish and Carpentier acquitted themselves nicely today.

The way this season is playing out is disappointing to many observers, but you have to give J.J. credit. He can do no wrong right now. What else can you say? To put in perspective remember that Johnson has won four in a row- Bobby Labonte won a Cup title in 2000 having won four ALL season.

It’s like watching the Patriots or the Yankees win. You may not like it, but you have to respect that they do all the things all things needed to do to win.

Jimmie Johnson is carving out a little piece of history for himself, and we’re all eye witnesses to it.

A Special Post-Race report prepared for letsgoracingfans.com.

It’s getting kind of like that scene from the movie Forrest Gump, where an honor is getting mundane. "So I became a hero…AGAIN, and I got invited to the White House…AGAIN." Jimmie Johnson wins a race….AGAIN, capturing his 9th win of the season and his 3rd visit to Victory Lane in a row by taking the checkered flag at Texas Motor Speedway in the Dickie’s 500. Johnson can now add a gun and a cowboy hat to his burgeoning trophy case.

A couple of promising young drivers who looked great in qualifying, Martin Truex and A.J. Allmendinger, quickly fell back after the flag went green. Allmendinger kissed the wall early in the race, and Truex promptly fell off the lead earned by his first 2007 pole. While Truex ran a pretty good race, was no real threat for the win.

Kyle Busch seized early control and led much of the race. As usual, Busch the Younger was lightening fast, and as usual, there were some problems with one of his later pit stops.  Busch’s car, for the most part, cooperated with him, but he complained of "turnability" problems in one of his mid-race pit stops. Juan Pablo Montoya looked good early, taking a few turns in the clean air.

Not to be outdone, Kyle’s older brother Kurt also looked strong in the daylight, and fell back as day turned to night. Kurt ran into some real problems near the middle of the race with tires and some front end damage, but in many ways Kurt did well to hang around until the end.

Speaking of racers with troubles, Jeff Gordon looked all out of sorts as the race got underway. He gave up track position early, and Gordon teamed with Crew Chief Steve Letarte for some interesting pit strategy. Their pit stops were way out sync early on, but at times it looked like it would work. Gordon conceded that the car that ran 31st in Happy Hour just wasn’t good enough to threaten his HMS teammate.

There were a number of cautions early in the race, but things generally smoothed out as the race went on. A couple of old school drivers tangled fenders when Kyle Petty and Bill Elliott got together, and the fates played havoc with the efforts of Reed Sorenson, David Stremme, Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin and David Gilliland. Mechanical problems befell Carl Edwards and David Reutimann.

Once again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had several good moments, but faded late. Chasers Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, and Kevin Harvick saw plenty of time in the top 10, but couldn’t close the deal. Mathematically-  Burton, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Martin Truex have been eliminated from title contention. It’s a real bummer for Kenseth, because he ran one heck of a race.

Kenseth was on his game today. He took a late lead and ran in typical Kensethian fashion, laying in the weeds and coming on strong at the end. He led many of the last 20 laps, before succumbing to Johnson. Any lesser man may resorted to dirty tactics to take Jimmie out, but everybody knows that’s not the Wisconsin native’s style. Ultimately, Chad Knaus’ decision to change 4 tires at the end trumped the decision of Kenseth and Crew Chief Robbie Reiser to go with 2, and the #48 Kobalt Chevy would not be denied.

Sure enough, the race result was a bit too familiar. Johnson wins, and Junior and Ryan Newman run solid races but can’t end their winless streaks.  One refreshing difference was that this race did not end with a green/ white/ checkered finish- and for that, I am grateful.

It’s true that Jimmie Johnson is vanilla in a world of rocky road. It’s also true that watching one guy dominate can be a little anti-climatic. But you have to say this, that with Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and crew, and the Hendrick Motor Sports organization, you have an unbeatable combination.

That kind of trifecta is NOT something you see every year. If I dare say so, that kind of run is almost historic- though Jimmie Johnson would still have to win another 7 to match the insane streak Richard Petty racked up in the "Summer of Love"- when he reeled off 10 wins in a row, and 27 for the year in 1967.

Now that’s domination!

(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.

I had this headline picked out two days ago. The boys at NASCAR didn’t disappoint with a track pounding war at Martinsville. A record setting 20 caution flags tell you all you need to know about what happens when you stack up 43 cars on a half-mile track with a championship and pride on the line.

For all intents and purposes, it’s a two horse race to the finish to Nextel glory with teammates and buddies Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon running neck and neck. Gordon led the way early on, but once again, regardless of some good short runs by Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and even a few moments for Juan Pablo Montoya- one had the feeling that eventually the Lowe’s #48 Chevy would sieze a lead and wouldn’t let go of it. Jimmie and Jeff traded leads and paint, but it was Jimmie Johnson prevailing for win number seven (making J.J. number one in the series for wins in 2007) at Martinsville.

The wrestling match for the 2007 Nextel Cup will continue next week at Atlanta, where Gordon has four wins, Johnson two (including a March 18 this year).

Other observations:

The Pinball Wizards. If this were football, Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex Jr. would be doing serious time in the whirlpool tomorrow. These guys collected more bruises on their cars than a train wreck. If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn I heard a collective cheer when Junior gave Montoya a little “love tap” to take the lead. I’d also swear that nearly every wreck in the second half of the race had Truex in the middle of it. If rubbin’s racin’, then Truex and Montoya were racin’ hard.

The Race For Pride. Give credit to Ryan Newman. He’s got nothing to lose, and he’s driving like it. It would be real easy for Rocket to mail it in, but now he has two consecutive top fives to his credit. Junior gave it all he had too. Once again, Lil “E” battled bad equipment, but still put himself in a position to finish well. A tip of the cap also goes to chasers whose title hopes have faded away. I thought Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, among others, raced hard and raced like professionals- though it was less than ideal day. Happy qualified well for this race, and Kenseth had the best finish he’s had in over a month.

Green, white, checkered. Now I am a little tired on this. today was the 6th finish of this type in 2007. I am going wonder out loud if one unintended consequence of the more durable Car of Tomorrow is that perhaps cars that would have been parked in the old days are still out limping along cluttering up the the track at the end. At times- I honestly think there are a few too many guys out there at the end that shouldn’t be. It’s be nice to see a cleaner finish- Pepsi 400 style.

To fans who dislike Jimmie and Jeff, I kinda feel for ya. Yet, let us not forget Clint Bowyer still has a slim shot, and anything can happen.

That’s why we keep watchin’.

I won’t say I am a genius or clairvoyant by any measure, but last Saturday’s race sure turned into Seperation Saturday in the Chase for the 2007 Nextel Cup Championship. To hear everyone tell it, barring a last minute “Hail Mary” by Clint Bowyer, this race has come down to two competitors: Defending Champ Jimmie Johnson and 4-time champ Jeff Gordon.

This is the funniest looking rivalry I’ve ever seen! I mean, you used to have polar opposites going toe to toe: Waltrip vs. Earnhardt, Earnhardt vs. Gordon, Yarborough vs. Pearson, Petty vs. the whole Alabama Gang, or Gordon vs. Stewart, but Gordon vs. Johnson? That’s like David vs. Jonathan, Magic vs. Isaiah, or the Labonte brothers vs……each other! These guys are best friends, and in many ways, have the same fan base.

Even when Junior comes over to Hendrick next year, many Junior fans will still despise Gordon and vice versa. Different drivers with different lifestyles and different fan bases. I mean this showdown is like Chevy vs. Pontiac! Gordo and JJ are both Californians, well-spoken, married, they’ve both won titles, so there’s no “underdog” factor here, and both are accused of being corporate robots by their detractors. It just feels weird.

Now I’m not saying we have fans up in arms over who to root for. As a Gordon fan, I’ll tell you I have no feelings for Jimmie, though I find him likable and respect his talents. By the same token, I definitely know Jimmie fans who’ll never root for the Dupont Chevy. It’s kind of odd, but the two really don’t cross over, so the fan rivalry is still there.

Yes, there’s still Clint Bowyer- champion of the underdog class, and new golden boy for the RCR crowd (who generally loathe HMS).

But “De- nile ain’t just a river in Egypt.” I’ll catch Haides for this one!

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.

I’m not all that inspired tonight, but I was reminded of the guts NASCAR drivers have when a guy on Yahoo Answers! invited us to take a look at some crash footage he found on YouTube.

Naturally, I took the bait and looked, and once again (as I have done more than once), I looked at some other famous NASCAR crashes. There was Elliott Sadler doing the “Talladega Flip” on the final lap of the 2003 race, and lo and behold, the former driver of what is now David Gilliland’s car did it again in 2004, only this time “Rabbit Release” landed on his wheels after flipping and finished!

Have you ever seen the crash of Richard Petty where all the parts came flying off his car? What about the big wreck Dale Earnhardt got in back in his days behind the wheel of the #15 Wranglers Chevy? Then there’s the grandaddy of them all- a 37 car pile-up at Daytona back in 1960. Can you imagine running 61 cars at once? What were these guys thinking?

What amazes me is to think these drivers will get back in a car and race again. I am also reminded of safety innovations that have made racing safer. Earnhardt was the last guy we lost, over six years ago. I remember hearing about Kyle Petty breaking his leg, Earnhardt’s separated shoulder, Rudd doing the same thing this year. You no longer have a guy like Bobby Allison getting all messed up physically anymore.

I know there are fans out there that bemoan the Car of Tomorrow, restrictor plates, HANS devices and caution flags for what amounts to hankies flying across the track. But at least now, we have the nervous thrill of a crash, and the guy can still walk away from it.

Some notable 2007 crashes:

Bowyer at Daytona. I’ll never forget the #07 crossing the finish line on his roof. I know Clint had ol’ DW worried.

Mikey’s Fireworks Show. Ol’ Mike had a good scare there, and that HANS device sure makes it hard for a big guy to get out his car.

Jimmie’s Eye Brow Job. Jimmie Johnson put on quite a fireworks show himself. It was the 2nd Pocono race wasn’t it? JJ if you’re concerned about your eyebrows, may I suggest a waxing next time.

Robby Gordon’s plow job in the Busch Series. Looking back, Marcos Ambrose probably deserved a good tap, but “Trash” Gordon sure looked like a 4 year old on that brain fart.

Gordon crashing his pretty car in Charlotte. You remember the Coca-Cola 600? Gordon gets this special paint job with the Department of Defense on the hood, and he gets it mangled about 1/3 of the way through the race. He really hit that wall too.

Check out YouTube. There’s a ton of footage there. There are also some other good NASCAR clips.

Good night, everybody.

Now that was a race! I’m not sure I’d grade it as the best of 2007, but it was certainly a change of pace from the dominating performances we’ve recently seen.

Jimmie faded fast. To make matters worse, he came up lame with a flat tire. Then it looked like Denny Hamlin might break out the broom for a Dover sweep. He fell back and then he and Kype Petty offered up our daily dose of fireworks. A little more intense than the near mishap between Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon in the pits. It sure looked like Matt Kenseth was going to pull away with the win, then he ran into uncharacteristic engine trouble. Rusty Wallace of ABC/ESPN pointed out this was the first DNF due to engine failure that M.K. had in over 2 years. Then the King of Concrete- Carl Edwards overtook the lead and mastered the Monster Mile for the win.

He had plenty of familiar company near the top. One gets the feeling that Roush/Fenway Racing has a handle on the Car of Tomorrow. we expect Carl to be good. It was nice to see teammates Kenseth and Greg Biffle running up front with him.

We had a little something for everybody- not only did Roush fans have something to cheer about- there was good news for HMS fans too. In spite of finishing outside the Top 10, Jeff Gordon is now the leader in the Chase standings, followed by teammate and defending champ Jimmie Johnson.

Old schoolers had to love that Mark Martin ran well today. He had the staying power to run up front, just not enough juice to overtake the Office Depot 99. It sounds like the furthering progression of the merge between DEI and Ginn Racing is enabling Mark to get better information.

Junior fans had a top 5 finish to cheer about. He couldn’t quite reach the very front, but seemed to run a very smart efficient race.

Fight fans had to get a kick out of the Denny Hamlin- Kyle Petty confrontation. Kyle said something about Denny hallucinating on whatever he was taking for his “flu.” If you ask me, when referencing my post from yesterday- Denny won the batte and lost the war.

Wreck fans weren’t cheated either. We got a mini-version of “The Big One” at Dover. Seems Kurt Busch blew a tire and collected about 11 other cars with him.

Looking back, it’s still early yet, but it looks like a pecking order is coming into view. It is my opinion that Hamlin and Harvick will finish outside the top 10, with Gordon, Johnson, Edwards, Stewart and I’m gonna say…….Matt Kenseth making the top 5.

Shout Out For The Boards- Kodiak 621 at “NASCAR for Dummies” has a great set of files on NASCAR families, and “Women of NASCAR” (I suspect his wife Amanda is carrying some ‘o’ the water on that one). You can see a great love of auto racing history and stats there. The kind of stuff I like.

I get a lot of good laughs out of ‘NASCAR Drivers Rule”. lots of good humor here. Somebody decided yesterday to re-cast “Star Wars” with NASCAR celebs. Imagine Junior as “Luke Skywalker” or Kenny Wallace as “C3PO”? I loved it!

See ya later,

Jimmy Mac

If you’ve come here looking for great revelations, I have none. I do this more for the purpose of record-keeping than anything else. There will be things that seem like big deals today that won’t be tomorrow. It will also measure on some level my prognosticating skills. Ahem, I warn you that my track record is VERY spotty on a good day. I subscribe to the “hand grenade theory” of predictions: if I throw enough of them up there, I’ll hit something sooner or later. Here’s what’s making noise today:

1) We can stop asking questions about Jr.’s number and sponsor. He’s driving the #88 car with Mt. Dew/Amp and the National Guard. I like the green car.

2) Silly Season For Sponsors. Word has it that the #18 car that Kyle Busch will be driving in 2008 will be sponsored by M&Ms. No idea what this means for David Gilliland who currently drives the #38 M&Ms car, or Interstate Batteries for that matter. The Budweiser logo will now go to a guy who doesn’t look old enough to drink the stuff- Kasey Kahne.

3) David Reutimann. There’s word going around that Reutimann could be leaving Michael Waltrip Racing to take on a 4th car at Richard Childress. Officially, Michael Waltrip is committed to keeping “Beak.” Rumor has it that Reutimann is seeing who ponies up the best offer. Prediction: IF RCR takes on a 4th team, Scott Wimmer will be driving it. #00 is staying put.

4) Mighty Mo is with Jimmie Johnson. JJ won the pole today at Dover. This guy can’t seem to do anything wrong right now. I still say this is the most underrated driver in NASCAR. I think he’s a victim of being an HMS driver (which makes him unpopular in some circles), his crew chief has been in trouble (Chad Knauss)- so some label Jimmie a cheater. Soome hate him because they fancy him a “Gordon lite.” I say the man’s a winner. Prediction: His late charge will steal Jeff Gordon’s thunder, and he’ll win a 2nd consecutive cup.

5) A NASCAR invasion.It looks like open-wheelers Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villanueve will be joining the ranks next year, as well as Sam Hornisch Jr. I spoke with a fellow fan today who’s concerned we may see more Juan Pablo Montoya types in the sport. Hopefully, they have learned from JPM’s experience and have a smoother transition.