Race number one of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship provided the fans with plenty of excitement and drama. It was pretty evident, during the New Hampshire race, that the cream from the 12 championship players is going to rise to the top very quickly. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:
HOORAH to Mark “The Kid” Martin and his crew chief, Allan Gustafason, for an extremely well done performance during the process of winning Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It was Martin’s series leading fifth win of the year and he remains as the top seed in the Chase. It was also Martin’s 40th career win which places him 16th on the all time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner’s list.
Beyond the obvious element of being a genuine NASCAR Sprint Cup racing hero, Martin is also a genuine class act who truly appreciates the efforts of his Hendrick Motorsports contemporaries who has helped him get to victory lane, and in Chase, this season. It’s no wonder that Rick Hendrick was anxious to sign a contract extension with him.
***************
HOORAH to Denny Hamlin for his second place finish at New Hampshire and for clearly showing that he’s going to become a major player in the Chase. I said it last week, and I’ll say it again this week, this young man is really starting to impress me a lot both on and off the track. In recent months there has been a noticeable spike in his sense of professionalism and his level of personal maturity. As the lone hope for Joe Gibbs Racing’s chance for another NASCAR title, Hamlin has stepped up admirably. No matter how the Chase scenario plays out for this team, you can bet that Coach Joe Gibbs is going to be very proud of his young driver.
*************
HOORAH to Juan Pablo Montoya who showed us some racing teeth during the New Hampshire race by providing much of the excitement in the race. Montoya and company will be the first to tell you they were points racing during the first 26 races of the season. They were quite content with parking their car somewhere in the top ten while accumulating the needed points to make the Chase.
With that mission accomplished, the team “took the lease off of their dog” and let him get back to that balls to the walls style of racing we’ve seen from this driver in the past. The result was bonus points for being a race leader, as well as an additional bonus for leading the most laps in the race, a third place finish and a significant jump in the Chase standings.
But WAZZUP with some of Montoya’s post race comments? This is especially true of the barbs aimed at race winner Mark Martin who spent most of this week singing Montoya’s praises. Really Juan, Mark Martin “screwed you on that final restart?” Earnhardt Ganassi Racing needs to settle this down quickly. This driver has achieved a new level of acceptance with American stock car fans and comments like the ones heard following the New Hampshire race can change that in a New York minute.
Speaking of the acceptance of American racing fans, WAZZUP with the television networks, that broadcast these races, insistence on constantly referring to Montoya as “a foreign born driver in NASCAR?” Yeah, we get that. Our first hint was his South American accent. Also, WAZZUP with the networks not hanging the same moniker on Australia’s Marco Ambrose? The television media will call him “the Tasmanian Devil,” they may even sometimes refer to him as “Kangaroo Meat” but you never hear Ambrose called ” a foreign born driver in NASCAR.”
Here’s the absolute final Montoya observation for this week.WAZZUP with Montoya blowing off scheduled interviews with network affiliates after the race? NASCAR had arranged a block of time for reporters, from network affiliates all across the country, to do post race interviews with their Chase contenders. Despite some careful logistics, these sessions do have a tendency to run into a little bit of overtime. Montoya, realizing his scheduled time was up, took off his microphone and left the interview stage despite the fact there were reporters who were waiting for an interview with him. One of these television stations, reported to be a Fox Network affiliate based in Sacramento-California, was said to be so angry they left the stage not caring if they never did another NASCAR related interview again. Someone needs to tell this driver that the one way to incur the wrath of NASCAR is to embarrass them in the public relations arena.
************
At the beginning of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season absolutely no one expected any one of the four drivers from Richard Petty Motorsports to be seen in victory lane let alone the Chase line up. Kasey Kahne amazed us all with two wins and enough top ten finishes to become a championship contender.
So WAZZUP with the team’s championship hopes turning south so early in the first Chase event? The early in the race blown engine has left Kahne 12th in the Chase standings and 161 points from the top of the chart. Mathematically the team is not eliminated from winning this championship. But they are in a huge hole that may be very tough to climb out of.
| 
|