Monday, July 28, 2008

A New Champion This year?

It's possible. Currently Kyle Busch is leading by 253 points over second place Dale Earnhardt Jr. Neither has ever won a cup championship before. In 3rd place, only 18 points behind Dale Jr., is another driver who has never won the cup, by the name of Jeff Burton.

When the Chase for the Cup starts after the 2nd Richmond race, The points will be reset, but Kyle Busch will have an obvious advantage, with currently 70 bonus points, 10 each for each race won so far. As we saw yesterday at Indianapolis, Kyle Busch is not invincible. Kyle Busch can be beaten, and there are a lot of drivers that are perfectly capable of beating Kyle at any given race track.

I don't do lists here, or top 10 picks, but in my humble opinion, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Ragan, and Brian Vickers are the most improved drivers in 2008, compared to their 2007 seasons. Kyle obviously has found much success with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. Dale Jr. has found much in the way of more consistent finishes at Hendrick Motorsports. Brian Vickers and David Ragan are finishing much more consistently than they have in recent years. Jimmie Johnson is moving closer to the top of the standings because he currently has 2 wins for HMS. There are a lot of drivers in play for the championship this year.

I have a personal favorite for the Cup Champion of 2008. It's personal, and it's biased, but I do believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is making major progress in getting a handle on the New car and all the troublesome things that have come with it. While Chad Knaus and Steve Letarte were competing for a championship last year, Tony Eury Jr. and Darien Grubb were concentrating on figuring out the new car. It's possible that by concentrating on winning the championship in 2007, the 24 and 48 teams got behind on their strategy of winning in 2008. Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson seem to have caught up, at least somewhat. The disaster that passed for a race yesterday at Indianapolis is hardly a true test of what exactly the 48 Lowe's Chevrolet team has actually accomplished though.

It's pie in the sky time. I believe that Kyle Busch's domination of the top series in Nascar will dwindle as crunch time gets closer. Kyle appears to be a pretty emotional guy, and those emotions will eventually get him in trouble. One of these days, in the heat of the moment, Kyle will do something that even Nascar can't ignore. Dale Earnhardt Jr., in contrast, seems to have a lot of ice water in his veins this year. He doesn't ruffle easily. He gets frustrated, but he takes it out by cursing on the radio, and not by wrecking other cars on the track. In my opinion, Dale Jr. has truly achieved Cool. Let Kyle Busch sew his own curtain of defeat.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a definite shot at the Cup Championship this year. I will be cheering him on, because the guy currently in first place makes me want to vomit.

9 comments:

  1. Jimmy, This is a really good blog, and I hope you're right about Dale Jr and the Championship, not only because I want him to win, but because I think he will win. I just posted a mini-rant on DEJ's pit board re: vk because I am so frustrated with the situation. We've waited all year for things to change and they are still the same; he is still getting away with everything he does, with nassie's blessing it seems. So, yes, I am upset but thankful nonetheless for Dale Jr's spectacular season. I'm proud to be a fan of such a really great person!

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  2. im a junior fan too but takimg 4 tires instead of two still shows the inconsistency if they keep making decisions like that they will never win a championship

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  3. To be honest with you, I'm too worried about the tire call. Dale Jr. probably made a mistake demanding 4 when he needed 2. But in this disaster of an even they called the Indy race, I don't know that it matters that much. 12th was pretty good when you consider that Jr. had a DNF last year with a pulley coming off the engine. Sometimes we takes what we can gets, and I'll take 12th vs. a DNF all day.

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  4. Love that last line of yours because it's exactly how I feel about that kid too.
    Well, if Dale Jr. has ice water in his veins he has his stepmother to thank for that...because she's loaded with the stuff.

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  5. Jimmy,
    Nice Blog. I agree with your assessment...Kyle (a.k.a. shrub) makes me want to vomit too! Jr. has all the pieces this year. The gears are meshing...he just needs a little more luck.

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  6. jr continue s to make bad decisions even the least talent ones dis at indy if ur happy with 12th say tha when junior never wins one is it just me or whats happened

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  7. Let me just say this. Dale Jr. is making bad decisions? Who's 2nd in points right now? I pretty much didn't understand the rest of you post. You're welcome to post as much as you want to, but I hope you make an effort to say what you're thinking in the future. Not a cut, but I'm really not understanding what you said.

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  8. Dale jr will get it cause Kyle will implode when the chase gets here. He is his own worst enemy there.

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