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Too Tough To Tame!!!

Written by Rich Hemstreet · May 9, 2008

Is the old lady still “Too tough to tame?” Darlington has been repaved, so it shouldn’t tear up tires like it used to, but will the increased speeds be reflected in more damaging “Darlington Stripes?” With the safer barriers in placeand the seemingly sturdier COT platforms there might be less damage from the ol’ Darlington stripe. It’s really tough to predict. But hopefully some teams won’t over-tweak their camber settings, and cars won’t be torn up because of tire problems.

Give the “lucky dog” the boot!

Do you like the “lucky dog” rules? While it really keeps a lot of cars on the lead lap I’m not sure it improves the competition. We’ve seen some drivers that lost a lap early on use the “lucky dog” to get back on the lead lap and post a good finish. In the old days drivers had to race to get back on the lead lap… of course there weren’t all the “competition/debris” yellows either. They had to try to short pit, or stretch fuel, or stretch tires, or, in short, do something other than simply drive around waiting for the next caution period. Question, how many full rounds of green flag pit stops have we seen in 2008?

How do you rank the teams?

A while ago I mentioned that I expect each week’s winner to come from one of the big four teams. I see the Gibbs’ team as #1, Hendricks’ team is #2, Childress is #3 and Roush is the #4 team. I doubt there would be much debate over who the top four are, just maybe where they are placed. The next tier of teams would probably draw more debate. I think, currently, #5- #8 are DEI, Penske, Ganassi and probably the Yates team. It really gets tough coming up with distinctions for #8 through #11. Evernham would be #9, followed by Red Bull. Michel Waltrip Racing is fortunate to come in #11. MWR just barely beat out Robby Gordon Racing. Due to the strength of Bobby Labonte’s efforts in the 43 car Petty Enterprises would rank #13. The Furniture Row Team, with Joe Nemechek as the driver, would be my 14th best team. The Haas team would be next, followed by the Bill Davis team. The Woods Brothers would be the last team on my list, any other single car entries would rank behind them. Unfortunately I fear that this might be the final year that the Woods will be competing in the Cup series.

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