Can we hold off for a few weeks please?

First of all I want to congratulate Denny Hamlin on his win in the Gatorade Duel yesterday, winning the first event for Toyota is a great accomplishment. However, most media sources have been proclaiming for the past 2 months that Joe Gibbs Racing has saved Toyota, and that they will win, and be in contention for the championship. I can’t say I disagree with that statement, however I wouldn’t slam the other Toyota teams by saying they ’saved’ Toyota, or that ONLY Gibbs will win. I had a little discussion about this with David Caraviello of NASCAR.com, he insists Gibbs did in fact save Toyota from the pits of hell, whereas I don’t see that as the case. Think about it briefly, would Joe Gibbs be racing Camry’s right now if it was the first season they we’re in NASCAR? No. That’s why he waited until 2008, he knew 2007 would be hard for all the Toyota teams, figuring out how to make it work. It was a brilliant strategy, but soming in the year after they figure it out doesn’t mean he deserves the credit. Don’t get me wrong here, yes, JGR did big things in engineering to help the Toyota package, but without the year of experiences and work of Michael Waltrip Racing, Team Red Bull and Bill Davis Racing it wouldn’t mean a thing.

So here’s what I ask. Just stop telling us that Joe Gibbs is God’s gift to Toyota, and all the other teams will tremble at thier feet. For 5 weeks, just hold off on the crazy statements. I really hate all this pre-season speculation, it means nothing and holds no water. I’m a no nonsense kind of girl, and basing a whole season on what we have seen so far in speed weeks is foolish. Daytona is one track that we hit 2 times. Talladega is comparable of course, but can we really say because Gibbs won a Duel and has done decent, that they will own the whole season? It seems insane to me. Not to mention the fact that all the Toyota teams, not just JGR have been doing outstanding through speedweeks, so the assumption they will sink while JGR swims is pretty outlandish.

I won’t say that the predicitons are wrong, it’s totally possible JGR will dominate and the other Toyota teams will fail, but looking at what I have seen so far I can’t say that. I say wait until the 6th race. Why the 6th? Think about it, a lot of these Toyota teams are still locked out of points, they need to race thier way in every week for the first 5 races. MWR has all 3 cars in the Daytona 500, Team Red Bull has the 83 in the field, while the 84 missed it. Dave Blaney worked his way into the top 35 last season, so he is locked in. So out of the 5 Toyota teams running last year that weren’t locked in to the 500, 4 made it, and yet people think they are going to fail? Michael Waltrip is starting 2nd this Sunday, so why are they writing him off? Brian Vickers got spun out on lap 2 of his Duel, had a tire problem that made him pit out of sequence and took a late race gamble in the pits and still managed to race his way in to the 500. Yet, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin are the Toyota heroes? Sorry, but I beg to differ. I say the teams that have overcome adversity this week are the real heroes, and I tip my hat to them. So wait until we go to this years points, we will see where Joe Gibbs stands against the other Toyota teams. I don’t expect Gibbs to do poorly, I expect them to succeed, but I also expect other Toyota teams to be right there with them.

-Katie

Another season of excitement ahead for NASCAR fans

Yes fans, it’s mid-February…and it’s the time when football season is just about done, when pitchers and catchers report to Florida and Arizona for the start of spring training, and oh yeah, when forty-three stock cars traverse around the 2.5 mile tri-oval superspeedway that is the Daytona International Speedway for 200 laps at 190 mph or more.  Mere inches and mili-seconds can mean the difference between first place and a night of celebrating a win in one of the most prestigious racing events of the year.

But for forty-two other teams, their driver will deliver the pat-in-the-back but truly disappointed runner-up-on-back-talk that they’ll have to perform in their post-race interview obligations. What February means to fans and competitors alike is that another season of racing is just looming around the distance, and it means our Sunday afternoons (or Monday mornings for us 12/13 hours ahead of the race location) will be spent listening to radio communication between driver and team, the tv, or our computers tracking the live scoring and raceview of the field. 

What does this time of the year mean to fans? Perhaps the word tight won’t refer to your relationship with your best friend, but a word you may wince at if your driver’s car is struggling to keep up with the cars running fast laps in their loose to neutral-handling steel chariots.  Sixteen seconds will seem like a minute, as you’ll closely pay attention to the pit stops that are performed like a choreographed routine for some dance show. You’ll actually cheer for a car whose product is one you would never use, for you like 7Up over Amp’D, but you’re a Dale Jr fan.  The kids (actually, you) will probably head to your local die-cast/collectible store and buy the latest gear and cars to add to your already huge (but growing) collection of memorobilla in the house.  We’ll talk to our friends who’ll talk trash to us or inform us like they’re Mike Joy or Dr. Jerry Punch with a bit of ol’ DW and the late Benny Parsons in them.  You’ll probably do a ton of praying and hoping that a Bodine won’t enter a Cup race, cause that might mean a guarantee wreck for your driver.  You might even line your cars up in order on your living room table, superstitious that if you don’t, well, it’s a certain 34th place finish at Texas for Matt Kenseth.

Perhaps persumptious and not even accurate to what you do on racedays this year or in year’s past (although I may have given a self-confession of how I spent race days in the States), however you enjoy races, be excited and ready for the 60th edition of NASCAR’s top series going at it again in this year’s 50th running of the Daytona 500 and those other 35 point races that truly matter (or do they?) to the championship chase. The once dubbed Car of Tomorrow is now the Car of Today or just the car, racing uniforms have truly evolved to look space-age looking, and tv coverage has reached a new zenith in presentation that can only hope to be an indication of the tv coverage of this year (which looks promising for ESPN).  So get ready race fans, we at Checkers or Wreckers look forward to discussing and looking at NASCAR 2008 will deliver, and Katie and I hope your race days will truly be a flag-to-flag experience!

 - Rob