Once again we head into another Nascar weekend looking for a win for Dale Earnhardt Junior. After reading a piece from Dave Rodman at Nascar.com I realized that me and Dale Junior have something in common; we both hate road course racing in Nascar. He self proclaimed that he stinks at it in a cup car and I think that it is boring and a waste of a race weekend. Tell me how many road courses Nascar raced on when they were just getting started, I’ll wait. What? You can’t? That is because they didn’t run them back then. Nascar’s roots didn’t come from road courses and contrary to popular belief the vast majority of stock car racers in the beginning were not moon shiners. Oh there were some in there but they were not the majority, so road racing is not where Nascar needs to be, in my opinion there should only be one road course race and it needs to be in the beginning of the season, if they have one at all. What is my point here? Had we not been at a road course Dale Earnhardt Junior would not have lost so many points and dropped this far down in the points.
“I hate road courses,” Earnhardt said. “I wish we never ran on them at all to be honest with you. I mean, I’ll be honest — they’re fun as hell to watch and they are kind of fun to race in — especially Sonoma because it’s getting more crazy and we’re all kind of just crashing and running over each other and that’s kind of fun to do.
“When you’re a little kid running your yard kart around the yard, that’s what you did. When you get done with the race and you look at the points and you look at how it shook everything up and all the hard work you put into nothing… I’m never inspired to drive road courses, I don’t enjoy racing on road courses and that isn’t what I wanted to be when I was a kid.
“It’s part of the sport so I’ll go out there and I’ll do it the best I can. I try to do it as best as I can. I try to be better. My personal opinion, everybody’s got one, is these cars weren’t built for road racing and I never ever once when I was a kid thought, ‘I can’t wait to run them road courses’ — I never, never thought about that.” Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don’t get me wrong though, I would feel the same way for any driver in this situation I just hate road course racing in Nascar. So we try to look ahead at what there is left before the “Chase” begins and hope for a win or two for our driver if they are not in the top ten at the moment. Dale Junior is sitting in 8th at the moment and after seeing what a bad finish at a road course can do to you, he doesn’t need any more bad finishes or he could slide out of the top ten and out of chase contention. The closest driver outside the top ten that has a win is David Ragan who has one win from Daytona, David is 15th at the moment but if no one else outside the top ten wins a race before the chase cutoff Davis will be the 11th chase driver. Tony Stewart is sitting there in 10th place with no wins and if the chase started now he would be the 12th driver in the chase.
The power rankings are out for Loudon and Kyle Busch is at the top of the leader board in that list. Dale Earnhardt Junior dropped out of the top 15 in the power rankings for reasons that I can’t understand. He finished in tenth at the Phoenix race in the spring, which is a flat track not too far different than Loudon, and finished 4th and 8th in the last two races here. I’m not so sure I would take too much stock in these power rankings when they are ignoring these flat track stats. Kurt Busch is up in second. Kurt has won there three years ago in the summer race and finished third in the last two. Looking at his performance in the last three races this season and finishing in the top 20 or better plus his finish at Phoenix this spring, another flat track, coming in 8th, I would not rule Kurt out from winning this race this weekend at Loudon. I have a dark horse here and that is Dale Junior who finished 10th at the spring Phoenix race and 4th and 8th here in the last two races. I think that whoever is working up these power rankings is taking in too much of this three race slide for Junior. I would throw out the road course all together as far as these rankings go.
We will see if I’m close to being right at all starting tomorrow morning around 11:30 a.m. eastern time when the Sprint Cup series takes the track for practice. Then the real truth will be told when they get on track again one at a time for qualifying Friday at 3 p.m. eastern time. I am on vacation next week starting this Sunday and am glad to have a Sunday race again. The nationwide series is at Loudon this weekend doubling up with the cup series and that will be a Saturday afternoon race. All three series are in action with the Camping World truck series running out at the Iowa Speedway this Saturday night. I have been to Iowa and love this track. The trucks will put on a whale of a show there and if you are in the area you can find truck parking there. Newton Iowa is where the track is located and is just about 30 miles east of Des Moines. I went to the inaugural Nationwide race there and had a ball.
I’ll be back tomorrow to report on how they shook out in Sprint Cup qualifying and anything else that hits the wire in the mean time.
Stay Safe
TW
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Man how do you go on as a Dale Junior Fan? A bridesmaid twice in short order! Talk about nerves, I was all nerves Sunday watching the end of the race out in Kansas. There I sat in my easy chair, well on the edge of my easy chair hoping and praying that Denny Hamlin would run out of gas. Then praying that Brad Keselowski would run out of gas as well! I know, Sorry Brad fans but I was ready for Junior to win even if it was with fuel mileage. They are running great this season and I know that it is just a matter of time before they get a win but I am so ready to see Dale Earnhardt Junior to get this monkey off his back. This season there are plenty of things to be happy about, I mean Steve LeTart is a great crew chief and cheerleader, he and Junior are great friends and I see Dale Junior getting more involved in the race team as far as hanging around their garage stall and being more involved in the team. It is truly a team effort and that is something that I don’t think Junior has had before at this level. Everything is clicking along and he has had some great finishes but there needs to be a win so “Junior Nation” can settle down and enjoy the lead up to the chase. I don’t see Pocono as being the place where Junior breaks the streak but I have been wrong plenty of times before. Jeff Gordon has three top tens in the last four races at Pocono so LeTart has some success there just not wins. This is a different driver though so you never know. I hope for a win here for the fans sake.
In and around all this turmoil Brad keselowski got his first Cup win at the Kansas Speedway Sunday out lasting Dale Earnhardt Junior in a fuel mileage battle. Kurt Busch led the most laps and was the dominant car to beat but with a hand full of laps left he had to pit for fuel. His team Mate Brad keselowski pitted a few laps after Kurt on the last run and he was saving fuel like a mad man trying to make it to the finish line before Dale Junior. You could hear Brad pushing in the clutch in the turns ans letting it out on the straights. I think he even shut it off a couple of times as well. I congratulate him on a well run race and it was nice to see him in victory lane. Even if he did relegate Junior to second place again.