This Week in Auto Racing November 16 - November 18
November 13th, 2007
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The Nextel Cup championship has come down to the final race with the title still up for grabs, but the best race of the weekend will likely be the Craftsman Truck Series battle between Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday Jr.
Nextel Cup : Ford 400 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
Although the "Chase for the Nextel Cup" winner is still in doubt entering this week's event in Florida, it is not a close race. By winning the last four events, 2006 Nextel Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is on the verge of successfully defending his title.
When Jeff Gordon won the Bank of America 500 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, he held a 68-point led over Johnson. It was his second consecutive win and he looked like a pretty sure bet to win his fifth series title. Gordon had just won in "Jimmie's house" and had just posted his fourth top-five in five "Chase" races.
But then Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus went on a roll that was even better than the one that won them the 2006 championship. In that year they put together a string of five straight top-two finishes (four seconds and one win). This time around he began his charge with a win at Martinsville, normally Gordon's bailiwick. He followed that win with triumphs at Atlanta, Fort Worth and Phoenix. The wins in Texas and Arizona were the first ever for Johnson at both tracks.
Now Johnson heads to the final event with a commanding 86-point lead and his competition already thinking that it is all over.
"Those guys are on an unbelievable roll...and we're just coming up short at a crucial time," said Gordon after the race in Phoenix. "It's over. It's over. Even if we win it, it's because they have problems. While we'll accept it, we don't want to do it that way."
"They're as good as any group I've seen, including Jeff in his heyday when he was winning 10 races a year and the championship by over a hundred points," said 2003 Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth.
Before we crown Johnson for the second time there is the little matter of the Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. As good as Johnson is running, there is always the possibility of an engine failure or a mental error by Johnson or those around him.
This last race has become a particularly dangerous situation because many of those in the race with the "Chase" drivers are on different agendas. There are a number of drivers trying to save their own jobs that need a good finish. There are drivers who are trying to keep or get their teams in the top-35 to guarantee a starting position in next year's opening races. And there are still others making their first few appearances in a Nextel Cup cars that aren't quite used to the performance and handling of a "Cup" car. Any of these drivers could take Johnson out of the race with an ill-timed move.
Which is why Johnson will probably try to drive somewhere near the front or at least with Nextel Cup regulars where he knows what they are likely to do at any given moment.
Johnson needs to finish 18th or better to clinch the title, but don't be surprised if he runs near or at the lead for most of the day. And don't be surprised if Greg Biffle is up near the front as well. The No.16 Roush Fenway Racing driver has won the last three Homestead races.
But this race is all about Johnson and his ability to stay out of trouble and finish with clean fenders. For the No.48 Hendrick Motorsports team, that shouldn't be a problem and look for him to win a second consecutive championship.
Busch : Ford 300 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
It's the final race of the 2007 Busch Series season and in fact the final race under the Busch banner as the series will become the Nationwide Series in 2008.
The drivers championship has been locked up for a couple of months by Carl Edwards and the No.60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford team and the owner's championship will be clinched by Richard Childress Racing and the No.29 Chevrolet team when the car starts the final race. It was Edwards' first Busch Series championship and the fourth Busch owner's title for Richard Childress. It is the 11th overall title for RCR which includes six Nextel Cup wins and one Craftsman Truck Series championship. RCR drivers have won 12 times this season - six by Kevin Harvick, two from Clint Bowyer and four by Jeff Burton.
This is just the second time that the driver and owner titles have been split. In 2003 RCR with drivers Harvick and Johnny Sauter won the owner title while Brian Vickers won the driver's crown.
Matt Kenseth won last year's season ending race beating Edwards to the checkered flag. On the final stop, Kenseth's crew had a little problem on the right side and he came out fourth behind Edwards, Paul Menard and Denny Hamlin. Kenseth moved into second place with 21 laps to go having only Edwards in front of him.
Kenseth was the fastest car on the track and trailed Edwards by about half-a- second with 15 laps to go. They were side-by-side with 12 remaining and on the next lap the No.17 Ford made the clean pass underneath Edwards.
Edwards refused to go away, but staying with Kenseth was a lot different than passing him. He couldn't do it and Kenseth took his second consecutive Busch Series victory.
Craftsman : Ford 200 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
While the Busch Series title has already been determined and Jimmie Johnson holding a commanding lead in the Nextel Cup Series, the most exciting race of the final weekend will be in the truck series. Of course, on most weekends the most exciting race is usually in the Craftsman Truck Series.
The races are short enough that as a driver you can't wait around for the final 50 laps and it creates a great event.
Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday Jr. have put on a great show in 2007 and have one more performance on the schedule. After an eighth-place finish at PIR Skinner will bring a small 29-point lead to the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The margin is the fourth-closest in series history and is the 12th time in 13 seasons that the championship has gone down to the final race. Interestingly, only twice has the leader failed to maintain his margin and win the championship (1999, 2003).
In 1999 Jack Sprague came from 13 points down to edge Greg Biffle and in 2003 Travis Kvapil took advantage of a Brendan Gaughan problem to come from 34 points off the pace to win the title.
Skinner can clinch the championship by finishing second (or third and leading one lap).
But Skinner would have a bigger lead if he had not been passed by his teammate Johnny Benson late in last week's race.
"I'm not the boss, I guess we're not a team," said Skinner about Benson. "I thought he was taking care of me. I don't know. I don't want to comment on it."
The move cost Skinner four points.
"All we can do is keep doing what we are doing and racing hard," said Hornaday Jr. "I've got a team that says, 'Never say die' and we're bringing a pretty good piece to the race. We'll just do everything we can."
It should make for an exciting race, probably the best of the weekend.
Chase turned potential snooze-fest into something worth watching
By Terry Blount
ESPN.com
The right man is going to win the 2007 Nextel Cup championship, and you can thank the Chase format for making it happen.
All you Chase haters can complain from now until the sun implodes about how the playoff has cost Jeff Gordon another title.
Pure horse hockey. Jimmie Johnson is the driver who deserves the crown.
If you win 10 races in one season, including four in a row down the stretch, you earned it. Of Johnson's 20 top-5s this year, six have come in the past seven races.
He's going to win this title because he went for it at the end. Johnson didn't play it safe.
Gordon would have won by more than 300 points in the pre-Chase years. Talk about boring. And think how that would have looked.
Johnson is going to Victory Lane every week while the guy who has the title sewed up is posting decent results, but finishing behind him.
Is there any doubt which of these two teams is better heading to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway?
Johnson has outclassed the entire Cup field. The No. 48 Chevy crew is the New England Patriots of NASCAR. Johnson is Tom Brady and crew chief Chad Knaus is Bill Belichick. (Hey, both are brilliant strategists and both were caught bending the rules.)
Gordon has had a fantastic season. He won six times and will total the most points for 36 races. He also won twice in the Chase.
Most years, that would have been enough. Not this year.
Johnson has put on a phenomenal show over the past month. The championship is within his grasp because he won races when he had to.
Without the Chase, Johnson would have been just a guy who got hot at the end and outraced the champion. This playoff didn't produce the close finish at the end, but it will enable the right man to win the title.
Loophole, anyone?
The rule for a four-car limit in NASCAR has a gray area about as wide as the backstretch at Talladega.
The "partnership" between Yates Racing and Roush Fenway Racing may not officially break the rule of the four-car limit, but it certainly violates the intent.
RFR will build all the Yates Cup cars next season. Yates will lease its Mooresville, N.C., shop to Petty Enterprises and move its operation to Concord, N.C., next to Roush Fenway's shops.
Jack Roush said they have entered a service agreement with Doug Yates to provide them with technology and engineering support.
Robert and Doug Yates have to do this to survive. The team doesn't have a sponsor for either car heading into 2008. They have laid off more than 40 employees.
Roush Fenway already is one car over the limit with five. Roush probably will sell one car to Yates at some point. But for the time being, isn't this really nothing more than a seven-car operation?
Man in black
Did anyone else notice last weekend that Kasey Kahne has died his hair black?
What gives? Is he playing Elvis in a movie role we don't know about?
Take a bow, Sebastien
Sebastien Bourdais deserves recognition as one of the best drivers in the long and storied history of American open-wheel racing.
Some people won't see it that way as the Frenchman moves on to Formula One. Unfortunately for Bourdais, the state of American open-wheel racing today leaves doubts about his amazing accomplishments.
Bourdais won his last Champ Car event Sunday at Mexico City, overcoming a questionable pit-road penalty and a late caution that bunched up the field and eliminated his sizeable lead.
Bourdais is the only driver to win four consecutive championships in an Indy-car type series. And no NASCAR Nextel Cup driver has done it.
He won 31 of 73 starts for a remarkable .424 winning percentage. Even better, he won 28 of his last 54 starts for a .518 winning percentage. His eight victories this season tied the record set by Michael Andretti in 1991 and Al Unser Jr. in 1994.
But the open-wheel split meant Bourdais didn't get to test himself against the best of the best.
A win at the Brickyard would have helped. Bourdais raced in only one Indy 500, finishing 12th in 2005 after a late-race crash. If he had raced at Indy in all five of his Champ Car seasons, maybe a victory would have come his way.
One of his most remarkable wins was a surprising victory in the IROC race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2005, beating the NASCAR boys at their own game on a high-speed oval.
If Bourdais has success in F1, more people will give him credit for what he achieved on this side of the pond. That won't be easy driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, one of the back-marker teams in the series.
Champ Car in Bourdais' era isn't the CART series of the past, but Bourdais did all he could do to prove he is one of the best race car drivers in the world.
Auto Racing Glance
Nextel Cup : Ford 400 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
Schedule: Friday, qualifying (ESPN2, 3 p.m.); Sunday, race (ABC, 3 p.m.).
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 18-20 degrees banking in turns).
Race distance: 400 miles, 267 laps.
Last race: Jimmie Johnson took command of the Nextel Cup championship by winning at Phoenix International Raceway to open a daunting lead over teammate Jeff Gordon in the race to the title. Johnson, the defending champion, heads to this week's season finale with a comfortable 86-point lead over Gordon.
Last year: Johnson cruised over every speed bump in his path, overcoming debris in his grill, a missing roll of tape, a loose lug nut, treacherous traffic and his own nerves to finally win the NASCAR championship. Johnson wrapped up the title with a ninth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He finished 56 points better than Matt Kenseth. Greg Biffle won the Ford 400 for the third straight season, beating rookies Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin to the finish line. Kenseth was sixth.
Fast facts: Johnson became the first driver to win four straight in a season since Gordon did in 1998, and his season victory total is the most since Gordon won 13 races that year. He is trying to become the first driver to win consecutive titles since Gordon did it in 1997 and 1998. ... Last week's race mathematically eliminated everyone but Johnson and Gordon from title contention, so regardless of what happens in Homestead, Hendrick Motorsports will win its seventh Cup title. ... Dale Earnhardt Jr. has failed to finish a race in three of his last six starts and nine times in 35 events this season. He has won at least one race every year since 2000 but hasn't won this year. ... Juan Pablo Montoya has a 21-point lead over David Ragan in the Rookie of the Year standings.
Busch : Ford 300 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
Schedule: Saturday, qualifying (Noon, Speed Channel), race (ESPN2, 4 p.m.).
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 18-20 degrees banking in turns).
Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.
Last race: Kyle Busch followed his truck series win the previous day with a victory in the Busch event at Phoenix. It was the final Busch Series race of Busch's career at Hendrick. He's leaving the team at the end of the season as it makes room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and isn't scheduled to race in this weekend's finale.
Last year: Matt Kenseth passed teammate Carl Edwards for the lead with 11 laps to go, then pulled away to win the Ford 300 at Homestead, Fla., for his second consecutive Busch victory. Kenseth led 90 laps, lost the lead on a poor pit stop and had to chase down Edwards to reclaim it.
Fast facts: This will be the 804th and final event run under Busch beer sponsorship. The series, which began in 1982, will be sponsored by Nationwide Insurance next year. ... Drew Blickensderfer, Kenseth's crew chief, was fined $10,000 by NASCAR for failing last week's postrace inspection. NASCAR said the right rear was too high on the second-place car. Kenseth was docked 25 championship points, while team owner Jack Roush forfeited 25 owner points. ... Mark Martin has six top-five finishes in seven Busch starts at Homestead. ... David Ragan has a 30-point lead over Marcos Ambrose in the Rookie of the Year chase.
Craftsman : Ford 200 - Homestead-Miami Speedway - Homestead, FL
Schedule: Friday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 5 p.m.), race (Speed Channel, 7:30 p.m.).
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 18-20 degrees banking in turns).
Race distance: 201 miles, 134 laps.
Last race: Kyle Busch lead the final 42 laps to win at Phoenix International Raceway. Championship contender Ron Hornaday finished second, and series points leader Mike Skinner was eighth. Skinner started the race with a 57-point lead over Hornaday, but the margin was trimmed to 29 heading into this week's finale.
Last year: Mark Martin made his last race in a Roush Racing truck a memorable one, pulling away for a hard-earned victory at the Ford 200, while Todd Bodine wrapped up the series championship with a 21st-place finish.
Fast facts: Skinner can clinch the title by finishing second or third with at least one lap led. Hornaday will win if leads the most laps and Skinner finishes third with zero laps led. ... The championship will be decided in the final race for the 12th time in 13 seasons. Only Jack Sprague (1999) and Travis Kvapil (2003) failed to win the title after carrying the lead into the season finale. ... There has not been a repeat winner in 11 truck races at Homestead. Hornaday won in 2002. ... Willie Allen has a seven-point lead over Tim Sauter and a nine-point advantage over Joey Clanton in the Rookie of the Year standings.