Hey everyone! It’s about time right? Well since your dutiful reporter was last here, I have made my way to a different state and a new home etc…. So please forgive the lack of offseason coverage. After all, I ain’t gettin’ paid. Hehe. So here we are at The 2010 Daytona 500!! This of course means new beginnings for everyone not named Jimmie Johnson. Can Denny Hamlin or Juan Pablo Montoya take that next step to become a legitimate threat every week? Are Jeff Gordon’s best days behind him? Can Dale Earnhardt Jr. justify the hype? Lots of questions to be answered. Of course, I already know all the answers but telling you now would ruin a whole years worth of blog posts.We’ll have the Predictions and Mojo rankings and Trivia and Polls just like last year starting after the first race, and there may be some new features in the hopper. RaceMonkey isn’t even a whole year old yet and its off to a pretty good start. So WELCOME BACK!!!!

You know, Nascar has taken a lot of heat lately for the quality of its product. Some of it deserved, some of it not. I was thinking that since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, as well as the the last race of the season, that I might list some of the things about Nascar that I’m thankful for, and in the process remind us all why we’re fans in the first place. I might have forgotten a few, so if there’s something missing feel free to let me know!

1. Cool paint schemes – Nascar has lots of really cool paint schemes and when compared to most retro uniforms for other sports, the paint schemes win hands down every time.

2. Mother’s Day – I love that Nascar always has the moms of the drivers giving the command to start engines on Mother’s Day. It’s a nice touch.

3. Access – Where else can you tune a radio, and these days a phone, and hear exactly what a driver is saying live during a race! I mean seriously, how cool is that? Cursing and all! Complete unfiltered access.

4. Driver commercials – Although they’ve fallen off a little bit this year, the commercials featuring drivers tend to be the funniest ones on during a race. Who can forget Mark Martin, “Fernando, you’re on”. That spot was hilarious! Or when Dale Jr was backseat driving and his Dad said, “I can’t hear you, those 7 Winston Cup Championships are clogging my ears? Or Dale Jarret racing the truck? Great stuff.

5. Talent – It took Juan Pablo Montoya three years to catch up to what these guys are doing day in and day out. Sam Hornish Jr. still isn’t there. Say what you will, but these guys are some of the most talented drivers in the world.

6. Robbie Gordon – Here’s a dude that owns his own car and brings it to the track and qualifies it. Every weekend. Sure he’s not that competitive, but to be able to do that at this level is pretty amazing. I like that.

7. Mark Martin – I like that Nascar is a sport where you’re not done by the time you’re 35. Everyone making a big deal out of Favre should look at what Mark has done this year. You don’t see that in any other sport. Jimmy Conners isn’t gonna come out and whip up on Roger Federer, but Martin is showing kids how it’s done.

8. Unpredictability – I love that every race has the potential for about 25 different winners. Sure it would be nice if all 43 had a realistic chance, but reality has to step in somewhere. Keselowski, Reutimann, Vickers and Logano are all unlikely race winners, but win they did in 2009.

Twelve wins in two seasons. Kyle Petty only had eight in his entire career. Sterling Marlin had ten. And it’s not good enough. When Kyle Busch missed The Chase this year after winning four races, it wasn’t long before the rumors started that Steve Addington would be out. And so it is. Expectations are high for this team because they know how talented Kyle is. They also know that unless you’re winning and running up front pretty much every race, Jimmie Johnson is gonna win the NEXT three championships in a row. So I understand the thought process behind it. My only concern is that crew chief swaps rarely work in the long run. To use Hendrick as an example, Jimmie Johnson has only had 1 crew chief his entire career. Jeff Gordon has not changed a crew chief unless the previous one left crew chiefing altogether. A true rapport does not develop overnight. Will Dave Rogers be the answer? Will the lag time in communication be short enough to overcome in one season? Joe Gibbs Racing is making this move to help with that lag time, but it’s still only a few races before Daytona. Maybe JGR is realizing what the rest of us don’t, that no one can beat the 48 team being merely excellent. You have to be legendary. And that is how high the stakes are these days.

Ok, so now it’s known that I don’t think that JJ is going to win the Chase. So this week is where the downfall begins. Now don’t get me wrong, he won’t fall far. He’ll get into some trouble and fight back valiantly, but he’ll still only finish 13th. Mark Martin, who hates Martinsville will none the less finish with a solid 4th place finish. Juan Pablo will do OK at 9th, but that won’t be enough to really make up any ground. Now as for Jeff Gordon, winning will be a huge step towards getting back in the thick of things, with Kurt Busch right behind him. Michael Waltrip will at some point cause a 4 car wreck that will bring out the red flag. I’m guessing around lap 206. If you checked this site yesterday, I had predictions up for the Talladega race. Duh. I’m just not with it lately. I’ve been distracted.

Not so fast.

Anyone remember the 2007 New England Patriots? 19-0? Or do you remember them the way I do? 19-1? The biggest “1″ in NFL history. Or how about Davey Allison in 1992? or Mark Martin in 1990? It’s not over folks. And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that not only is it not over, but that Jimmie Johnson will NOT be your 2009 Nascar Champion. I’m not going to say who it is, because the whole point here is that we are only halfway through the chase. I don’t know who it will be, but my money is not on Jimmie Johnson. So the 48 has a lead after 5 races of 90 points. That can be erased in one bad race. And not even a bad race – a David Stremme blown tire while accidentally driving next to you race. So while I’m guilty in some regards of wanting to just hand the trophy over (after all the 48 is scary good, and in the chase – legendary good) , we can’t do that. And we shouldn’t. Let the chase play out until the last race. After all, the whole point of the chase is to build excitement. So if your driver is within striking distance of 2nd or 3rd, don’t give up hope. If you’re a Brian Vickers fan, well, hey! You made The Chase!

Back to Nascar’s central hub and I never thought I’d be saying that it’s not only possible for Jimmie Johnson to win his fourth straight championship, but it now seems likely. After all, Lowe’s Motor Speedway is Jimmie’s house. Literally. I think he has an apartment in one of the suites. Who else can I pick to win here? I mean, who would you pick other than Jimmie? So here’s the other predictions for Charlotte. Mark Martin will come in 3rd and Juan Pablo Montoya loses his consistency and finishes outside the top 5 for the first time in the chase. Tony Stewart will come in second place and Ryan Newman will have a good run as well and finish 6th. Biffle will not fare well, nor will Carl Edwards as the Roush teammates finish 17th and 19th respectively. The rest of the Chasers will fill out somewhere in the 6th to 15th positions in there quest to be the least irrelevant chase driver over the last 5 races. But unless something goes quite wrong for Jimmie Johnson in the next two races, the G.O.A.T. articles are gonna start popping up like crazy.

Semi Mojo
Tony Stewart – When you’re racing against Jimmie, you have to back up a win with another win. Not a win with a top ten. Sux doesn’t it?
Mark Martin – Have you seen Mark’s biceps? Dude. Seriously. I bet he could bench Tony Stewart.

Lacking Mojination
Kyle Busch – I almost feel bad for him at this point. Well except for the millions in cash, the celebrity and the trophy girlfriend.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – If you could bottle mojo, I’d bet Jr would be buying the whole factory at this point.
Kasey Kahne – I know what will help you get by Kasey – Free Beer! Ah, sponsorship has its perks.

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Jeff_Gluck_Kasey_Kahne_says_debris_caution_was_bogus_but_so_what.html

Now, I understand the need to make a Fontana race more exciting. But there are other ways, for instance Don’t Race At Fontana being one of them. Through various posts on Twitter, Gluck has maintained his position and supported his argument with various points. And some are interesting and somewhat valid points. After all, the entire points system is reset for the chase, why not actual race positions at the end of a race? Another argument was that while it may change the outcome of a race, so do double file restarts. To get the full report follow Jeff Gluck on twitter. Actually you should do that anyway, he is after all a fantastic writer who is very knowledgable about Nascar. But on this issue he is wrong. Dead wrong.

There are reasons that people and Americans in general are obsessed with sports. One is what I’ll call “The Dream”. This is something that appeals to American sensibilities in particular. After all, it’s the American Dream. With hard work, dedication and talent, a person can succeed. The son of a cotton mill worker without a high school education becomes an American Icon. Sound familiar? It should, because that’s Dale Earnhardt. Another reason is that no matter who you are, black or white, tall or short, that sports have always been the great equalizer. Talent is all that matters. That’s why baseball and football were racially integrated before the rest of the country. That’s why Tiger Woods’ immense talent put the spotlight on a behind-the-times sport. We’re a superstitious bunch, us fans. We already think that there are weird forces aligning against our favorite drivers and teams. We scream at what we think are biased refs and at bad calls. The various bad calls and dubious rules provide enough fodder for a 24hour sports channel to exist and thousands of blogs, including this one. We want rules applied fairly no matter who you are, because if they aren’t then the dream and promise of sports dies. If sports lose their integrity, why bother with the sport? Why do you think people are so infuriated at the steroids scandal in baseball? Because integrity matters.

It’s exactly because of this that Jeff Gluck is wrong. The mere implication that Nascar is somehow pulling some sort of metaphorical set of strings to affect the racing is enough for fans to make the leap from affecting the quality of the race to affecting the outcome of the race. And believe me, once fans start to get the idea, right or wrong, that the outcome of a race is predetermined, then the gig is up. The dream is over. It’s not the idea that a single phantom caution is so bad. What is so bad is that Nascar has opened the door to speculation that the purity of competition has been compromised. As for the assertions about The Chase being reset and the double file restarts, etc. Those are rules that a driver knows going into a race and into a season. A random caution isn’t something that a driver knows about. That’s a wild card that’s just as egregious as a blown pass interference call in a playoff game.

I understand the desire to make races more interesting, but to use other sports as an example, home runs and touchdowns may be more exciting, but every once and awhile you get a pitchers’ duel or a defensive struggle. You don’t change the rules mid game to make it more exciting. You play by the rules that are set. A better option might be to get rid of boring tracks like Fontana, Chicago, Kansas etc. How many complaints about boring races do you hear about in regards to Bristol or Richmond or Darlington? You can’t screw with the integrity of a game by changing the rules in the middle of the game. This is something every parent teaches their kids. You can play god all you want, but unless you really are, then you just look stupid.