Top 4 stories from Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway:
1st gear -- Toyota's first Cup Series win: This hardly qualifies as a surprise, given the Toyota camp's alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing this season and the way the JGR cars had performed over the first 3 weeks of the season. Still, Kyle Busch's victory at Atlanta did give the Japanese manufacturer its first Sprint Cup Series win and marked the first victory lane appearance by a foreign manufacturer since a Jaguar won in 1954.
2nd gear -- Tony Stewart blasts Goodyear: A Tony Stewart rant hardly qualifies as newsworthy these days, but his pointed shots at Goodyear following the race were especially bitter -- even for a guy with Stewart's reputation. Not only did he call the tires on his No. 20 the worst he'd ever put on a car in his professional career, but he committed a NASCAR cardinal sin by naming names -- Hoosier, Firestone, anyone? -- of other companies not affiliated with the sport. Boy, Stewart may loathe the media, but does he ever make for some great copy...
3rd gear -- Jimmie Johnson's continued struggles: Jimmie Johnson's won the last 2 Cup Series titles, and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate dominated the "COT" races in 2007. So, what gives? Were The Chase to start today (which, obviously, it won't) Johnson would be on the outside looking in. The No. 48 rallied for a top-10 finish at Atlanta, though it looked like it was going to be much, much worse than that for most of the 500-mile event. Had Dale Earnhardt Jr. not set such a blistering pace early -- putting nearly half the field down a lap before the 100-mile mark -- Johnson's results certainly would have been dreadful. It's still very early, but observers of NASCAR racing expect teams like Johnson's to make much quicker turnarounds than the 48 camp has thus far.
4th gear -- Debris cautions raise eyebrows: Taking shots at NASCAR and its television partners has become both warranted and great sport in the last few years. "Phantom debris" cautions, in particular, have become targets of criticism -- as conspiracy theorists love to accuse NASCAR for using these cautions to drum up better competition. Twice in the early going Sunday the race was slowed by cautions for debris -- when Earnhardt and Busch were threatening to stink up the show. Still, it should be pointed out, that NASCAR's top priority is safety -- and erring on the side of "caution" (no pun intended) when the track may be unsafe is always a wise move. No matter how fishy it may look.
6 comments:
I guess I haven't seen all of Smoke's comments after the race (other than to blast Goodyear), but I surely hope he didn't say or insinuate that Hoosier could do a better job. The Cup series has been down that path before (although Stewart was probably running around in dippers at the time) with Hoosier. Their brief run in the Cup series during the late 80’s was characterized by two things:
1. Bad wrecks.
2. Tire shortages.
A couple of Cup races were nearly postponed due to tire issues while Hoosier was in Cup land.
Maybe if the series stopped changing cars specs all the time and tracks stopped trying to reinvent themselves Goodyear would be able to get ahead of the curve at some point.
BTW - I’m I the only one who thinks Tony should be hanging out more with Jared from Subway?
Tony looks too "puffy" to be called a professional athlete.
Yep, he did. He said both "Hoosier" and "Firestone" in the same breath...
TB
maybe if nascar would put these cars back on springs instead of bunp stops the cars would not eat tires as much. the cars would be alot more stabile and they could drive them with out take a chance of wrecking in every corner. nascar needs to stop mandating tire presures camber ect,
bingo
Personally i wish Jared and "smoke" would marry, buy a deserted island and retire there. They make a good couple for we are dog tired of seeing Jared and listening to "smoke". Subway is badly mistaken thinking that Jared helps them sell sandwiches and "smoke" is badly mistaken thinking that folks with half a brain who don't own a 20 t-shirt takes his hollow words seriously.
TO anonymous. Nascar mandated camber and minimum air pressures to PREVENT teams from over abusing the tires causing the failures.
T
why did nascar outlaw the bump stops a few years back and now they got the car of today they can run them.
bingo
Im guessing it could be the only way a team can set up the car of today to be able to turn and not drag that front blade in the turns.? not sure
t
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