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StumblePublished Monday, March 9, 2009 | 7:32 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | 9:50 a.m.
It looks like the No. 2 team is finally starting to turn its organization around. I always thought Kurt Busch should have remained a driver for Jack Roush to capitalize on the successful, championship winning tenure he had driving for the Cat in the Hat. Busch hasn’t been in championship form since he moved to drive for Roger Penske and I would bet that Kurt would consider moving again if the No. 2 car doesn’t start seeing victory lane on a more frequent basis.
Kurt's win
The other major headline from Atlanta was the continually consistent performance of Tony Stewart. When Stewart announced that he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to race for his own team, I expected a large portion of his new team to consist of anger management personnel. I thought, based on the mountain of challenges a new team faces, I’d see a frustrated Stewart riding around in the back of the pack, cursing about a lot more than the quality of Goodyear tires. But so far Stewart is proving me wrong. He has three top-10 finishes and has an average finish of 12.5 this season. I think we will see him win this season and possibly make it to the Chase. He’s currently 6th in points, and although it’s early in the season, his performance would be considered solid even for a more established racing team.
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I realize that Fox needed to do everything it could to keep the Atlanta race from becoming a sleep aid, but did that mean we needed to hear about Martin Truex’s kidney stones 5 million times?
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Reader poll
And last but not least, here are the results of two of the recent polls from this blog. On the question of whether or not NASCAR should use pony cars as the template for the Cup cars, 69 percent said yes, 20 percent said no and 10 percent weren’t sure. And regarding the question of whether NASCAR should use tires from more than one manufacturer, 74 percent said yes and 25 percent said no.
Good for the Vegas Brothers! Good for Stewart! Myself, I am getting very tired of the Hendricks vs. Roush thing, even though Gibbs and Childress are a knockin' on the door. Please, lets have some variety in the winners cicle, even though the majority of 'em should be the Shrub. Big grinnn!
I agree. NASCAR needs different winners in order to spice up the season and to keep the races from becoming predictable. Maybe it's time to loosen up on the rules regarding parity.
I think Kurt did a pretty good job of burning his bridge with Roush when he left...he probably doesn't have a lot of fans with the Phoenix PD either. But I agree with Jimmy Spencer on this point, "Nothing substitutes for winning a race".
Hendricks is supplying chassis and engines to Stewart-Haas, and on-track testing isn't needed (according to M. Waltrip), so it should be no surprise that the two-time champ Tony has started strong, like his Hendricks teammate, er, that driver on the Hendricks team, four time champ Jeff Gordon. One early season story line is: Why aren't the super teams completely dominating?
I predict an unexpected winner at Bristol and/or Martinsville to spice up the still young 2009 season.
Although Goodyear has to wince at your poll's results, they are probably secretly happy that engines are blowing up more often than tires at these early races.
Bring on the pony cars with free market shoes!