Lose Some, Win Some

I enjoyed watching Jeff Gordon lose last weekends NASCAR Sprint Cup race from New Hampshire.

I also enjoyed watching Clint Bowyer lose the race.

This is not because I have some weird adversion to the drvers of the 24 or 33 cars, far from it. I may be a fan of the 14 car and its driver but this is not about the individual drivers, or a sudden fondness for fuel mileage races. What I enjoyed was the thinking behind the way in which they lost the race and Stewart won it.

The 24 and 33 cars lost the race by desperately trying to win it! The 24 car, with a sizeable lead remember, went one lap too far on a tank of gas, one lap, and it cost him the win! In the same way, Clint Bowyer lost the race, handing the win to a currently on form Tony Stewart.

The Cup drivers are doing everything they can to win, not finish high up, but win! For a fan of the sport this is great. By pushing the fuel window, not at the end of the race, but on the way to his final pit stop, Jeff Gordon showed us that the 2011 race for the Chase is win or nothing for these guys.

So we have a Chase race in which the "favourites" are not doing so well and others find themseves a position to win it... or loose it, we will see. Factor in a 'Dega race with a different plate and cooling package and who knows what will happen.

Is it too early to join the "Anybody but Jimmie" camp?

Keep it up Smoke!!

Zero to Hero

Zero to hero with one with one win, but don't get too comfortable as one bad race can put you back down the standings again...

Tony Stewart really did Smoke'em at Chicagoland, one of only two drivers to make it into the Chase with no wins in the regular season, Stewart addressed that with a win in the first Chase race of 2011!

However this season is still wide open, and one bad weekend can turn the points standings on its head. The good news for Stewart is that the next race is New Hampshire, and we all know what happened there earlier in the year!

If the latest chase points system has done one thing it has put more of an emphasis on race wins. The old points system, along with the long race season put an emphasis on consistancy. Despite the changes I think the emphasis is still on consistancy, only now instead of being consistantly in, say, the top 15, now you have to be consistantly winning or very, very close.

You can not afford to have a bad weekend in the Chase if you want to be in the top 3, and in with a chance, at the end.

What is it with the mile-and-a-half races this year? They should produce some great racing, and some close finishes with the smooth wide surfaces giving the drivers lots of racing room and various grooves to choose from. However many races this year have ended as fuel mileage races. Before you say it, yes fuel strategy is part of NASCAR racing and so it should be, however I would shorten some of the race lengths to put the emphasis on racing not fuel economy.

One point has to be made though... while Tony Stewart might have won the race because of his fuel strategy, he got to the front by out racing the opposition!

The question is... who can be the most consistant in the run to the Championship?

85 Wins... and... NGTC Podiums

85, that’s 85 Wins!!

Jeff Gordon is now third on the all time NASCAR win list!

I find it easy to forget, in the era of the 48, just how much the 24 has achieved. Remember Jeff Gordon started racing against the black 3 in Luminas, and you were either a 3 fan or a 24 fan. Yes I was a 3 fan, but I can now look back and appreciate what an achievement those Championships and all those wins add up to.

Watching Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon slipping and sliding their way round Atlanta at the end of the race was great. How sideways was the 48 coming off of the last turn??

And how about Tony Stewart, where did he come from. In the last 100 laps he worked his way from about 20th into the top 10, and with about 10 to go looked like an 8th place finish was as far as he was going to get. However as we watched the leaders go at it, he stormed his way up to third!

So with one race to go the 48 is leading the points standings... am I supposed to be surprised by this? He does not, however, look as dominant as he has in the past. Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon among others can race with and beat the 48. I think the title race will be between those three.

Knock Knock Knockhill at the door...

If you look in a racing encyclopaedia under the topic “bad day”, it will say see the 2011 BTCC Knockhill round and refer to Matt Jackson. He went in to the meeting leading the Championship and came out with three DNF’s. Oops...

It was good to hear that next years new Honda Civic race car will be a NGTC spec car. Following the first two podiums for the new spec car, (well done Frank Wrathall) next year needs to see the series moving forward, and not have another year like this one. Don’t slow the NGTC cars too much. If they are to be the future, encourage them, I want an NGTC car to win a race!

In one way I feel sorry for Plato... but no by much. Even after playing with the turbo boost levels the old naturally aspirated cars cannot keep up with the newer turbo cars on the straights. My answer to that, get a turbo! However... Plato has been known to drive aggressively and when he is on the receiving end of that kind of driving it is hard not to think, “what goes around...”

I find it hard to believe the MSA will not ask Tom Boardman to write a cheque for the restart accident he caused on his way to the win. The leader can dictate the pace and can decide when to accelerate, but stopping in the middle of the track is just plain stupid, and he was lucky not to be taken out himself. Slow the field down, yes, stop, er... no!

There is one thing the drivers need to get their collective heads around. It appears the new spec cars are prone to terminal damage when making contact with another car. This means they will have to give each other room and race cleanly if they want to finish races! That would make a change!

I still say the organisers should ban the old naturally aspirated engines from next year and then just allow the NGTC spec cars from 2013! Firstly it would stop Platos whinging, create a more level playing field, and move the series a step closer to the future!