Bump-Drafts.com

(A Special Weekly Edition Prepared for NASCAR_Nation)

I should take the week off……but I won’t. I’ll keep it a little more brief, but the occasion gives me opportunity to weigh in on trends as we make our way into Turn One of the 2008 season.

Biggest surprise- For me, it’s not Junior, I expected improvement. It’s not Toyota’s performance, you may remember I predicted that. It’s Richard Childress Racing. I had been dissing on them after their late 2007 collapse in the Chase. Kevin Harvick has been remarkably consistent, Jeff Burton is our most recent winner (plus he’s posting an average finish of 8.2), and Clint Bowyer has flashes of true racing brilliance. The tire strategy at Bristol was a HUGE gamble- and they made it work.

Biggest disappointment- It’s not Jeff or Jimmie. I’m predicting no 3-peat for J.J., and I stand my forecast that Gordon will not make the Chase. For me, the biggest disappointment has to be…..The Open Wheel Invasion. I support their presence in NASCAR, but man I didn’t think we’d see Jacques Villenueve and A.J. Allmendinger without rides, or Dario Franchitti as a “go or go homer.” Sam Hornish is hanging on, and Patrick Carpentier can’t get in a race. Reed Sorenson isn’t fulfilling his potential either.

In my opinion, things are better in NASCAR in 2008. Our first 5 races have produced 4 different winners from 4 different makes from 4 different teams. In doesn’t get much more even than that.

Did anyone really think (outside his legion of fans) that Junior would be Hendrick’s Top Driver statistically?
Rock Solid Shops- Joe Gibbs has brought respectability to Toyota. Richard Childress is solid to to bottom (imagine Bowyer being your #3 driver). Roush-Fenway has three drivers running solid, with a 4th showing signs of promise. Penske and Gillett Evernham are getting their money’s worth from Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.

Hanging On- Richard Petty Enterprises looks to be in rough shape. Yates Racing can’t get a sponsor for Travis Kvapil. Bill Davis and the Wood Brothers appear to be on life support.

Did anyone really believe that DEI would be doing as well as they are? Martin Truex is looking pretty good and so is the Martin/Almirola Show in the #8.
T.V. Ratings Are Up
Crashing Out Is DownI’m not ready to say that this is a great year, but NASCAR seems to have something for 2008.

Now get out there and enjoy some spring air. Oh yeah, enjoy the Nationwide race in Nashville.

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.