Monday Morning Crew Chief
Written by Jonathan Ingram · May 5, 2008
What a mixed bag at Richmond, a capitol of the confederacy of competition otherwise known as stock car racing. I was pulling for a fellow Virginian to pull off the nigh impossible perfect victory and simultaneously disdaining the ease of Toyota’s incursion into the top echelon of the Sprint Cup. Then there was the disaster of Dale Earnhardt Jr. versus Kyle Busch.
To take up the latter case first, both of the drivers involved in the late-race concussion in Turn 3 could have done better. The fans were deprived of an excellent duel between natural rivals. Instead of Chevy vs. Toyota and Little E versus the blossoming Shrub under the lights, the fans got instant squish.
My issue with this scenario concerns the good ol’ days being better. As Busch said afterwards, either driver could have given the other enough room to race, which would have produced an excellent duel for the remaining laps. Instead, Earnhardt Jr. cut down and Busch dove in too deep despite the inevitable slide up the track. (Please put on hold the “my guy” is always right; both were wrong.)
Racing fans are perennially long suffering, but particularly on this night following the demise of Hamlin’s right front tire. No lead changes is acceptable if it’s a hometown favorite in the lead or, say, Richard Petty. But after leading 380 laps, pole starter Hamlin’s dominant performance went pfsssst!
The night suddenly picked up without the dominant Camry until the center stage meltdown during hostilities in Turn 3.
The other issue with the backstraight robbery of the fans concerns the patter and banter in the TV booth. Instead of redressing these guys for, in effect, depriving the audience and grandstands of a great duel, the good ol’ boys in the booth did what ex-racers turned media mavens so often do. They swallowed their tongues. They made up for the mistakes of the current knuckleheads, offering some whipped chiffon in place of a good tongue lashing for each of the guys who should be past the learning stages of how to race in the big leagues. The ever-amiable and seemingly knowledgeable play-by-play man, meanwhile, failed to pick up the slack.
The incident and its TV coverage combined were limp. There wasn’t even enough conflict between Earnhardt Jr. and Busch on this night to bring up the hint of a blister. Had they been side-by-side for 10 laps, or exchanged the lead a few times before wrecking one another, well, that would be racing and that would be a rivalry in action.
The tired references in the booth to retribution from Junior Nation towards Busch lacked passion, because the whole incident lacked real drama. It’s as if the media coverage of Busch being moved out of Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt moving in constitutes a great story. Well, it does as long as they prove there’s something to argue about. In this case, drop them off at the nearest bus depot.
In the big picture, Busch has the goods on Little E. The latter won his first race at Daytona’s Bud Shootout and has done well in the points, generally living up to his commitment to Hendrick Motorsports, his teammates and equipment. On the other hand, Busch has been the most exciting driver in the Sprint Cup this season, bar none, en route to victories in Atlanta and Talladega. He drives with the moxy and arrogance of, well, Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Earnhardt Sr., unlike Junior, likely would have not have tried to squeeze a driver in Turn 3 while on the outside, fighting for the lead and with plenty of laps to get back by. Lots to lose, not much to win, especially if both cars have the same number of laps on their tires.
At least Toyota did not win another race in favor of Clint Bowyer’s opportunistic bolt into the lead in an Impala. Otherwise, it might have begun to look as if NASCAR’s premier league stands on the corner waiting for the biggest bunch of dollars to come along and presto! Victory lane is yours.
In effect, Toyota has bought one of the best teams in the business in Joe Gibbs Racing by paying a manufacturer budget for each of three cars to the tune of $8.3 million per car per year. That’s roughly double of what other manufacturers pay per car to their favored teams. And, it’s in cash, no strings attached.
What made JGR so formidable was the presence of Hamlin and Tony Stewart, an excellent one-two punch of youth and fired-up experience. Then, of course, Busch fell into the laps of both Gibbs and Toyota after being exiled by Rick Hendrick to make room for Little E.
Gibbs has an excellent engine program under Mark Cronquist — which doesn’t need to rely on Toyota Racing Development to be good. The team has one of the best technical directors in Jimmy Makar, a former championship-winning crew chief who quickly made the transition to the current era of engineering. The team’s simulation program, directed by Nelson Cosgrove, is cutting edge due to its reliance on the 40 percent scale wind tunnel at Penske Technologies.
Put all this together with the Car of Tomorrow’s first full season and you get an excellent performance by Joe Gibbs Racing on behalf of Toyota. In addition to winning races, this partnership has created instant rivalries among manufacturers in general and two drivers in particular. Lets hope the drivers in question can live up to it.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com
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