■ 22 February 2009 | 11:52 PM
Kenseth wins again but did you notice ...
Ok, so all the talk is about Matt Kenseth winning his second consecutive race and being the first driver since 1997 to win the first two races of the season, but a lot of other things happened Sunday night at Auto Club Speedway.
# Jeff Gordon is pumped.
Gordon struggled most of last year at the 1.5 to 2-mile tracks until the end of the year. His runner-up spot has him excited for the end of the season. After the race, he said: "We keep putting cars like that on the race track, it's not going to be about trying to win a race but how many.''
Still, he didn't win Sunday. His winless streak is 43 races. It took him 42 races to win his first race and he hasn't had a winless streak as long until now. Gordon was upset with himself on the radio after the race for making an adjustment on the last stop. It also could be argued his pit crew could be shaper. A couple of times Gordon lost a postion on pit road, including the final pit stop when he came in first but Kenseth beat him out. Getting the lead and that clean air is critical at these tracks and Gordon couldn't overcome that.
# Dale Earnhardt Jr. is stumped.
Guess who is 35th in points after 2 races? Yes, it's Junior. The pit problems and crash at Daytona and now he has an engine problem. Certianly this is no time to panic and he'll likely climb the standings starting next week at Las Vegas, still this has not been the start he wanted. Of course there is plenty of time for him to recover. Still, it was interesting to see Earnhardt and teammate Mark Martin both have engine problems and both apperaed to be similar _ valve spring issues.
# Look who is third in the points:
Yes, it's early, but yes it is Tony Stewart.,who is tied with Kurt Busch. Stewart finished 8th Sunday.
"We've done it two weeks in a row now, but I mean, it's still a little early to tell but I thought this week was a truer test than last week was,'' he said. "I was satisfied with the results of it.''
It's a lot better than teammate Ryan Newman mustered. He finished 28th.
# The big teams reign:
Six of the top seven spots were taken by drivers from either Roush Fenway Racing, Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. The exception was Kurt Busch, who placed fifth in a Penske Dodge that had that new Dodge engine. Richard Childress Racing, which has been among the top four organizations the last two years, was disappointing. Kevin Harvick was the only one who ran well until his engine blew and he slammed the wall (that ended his streak of running at the finish at 81 consecutive races). Jeff Burton (31st), Clint Bowyer (19th), Casey Mears (24th) were all non-factors. One race doesn't make a season, so let's see what they do at Las Vegas and Atlanta, but if they are this far back in those races, then there are some big issues there.
# Richard Petty Motorsports returned to Earth.
After placing three of its drivers in the top 10 at Daytona, RPM had only one car in the top 20 (Kasey Kahne was 12th). Reed Sorenson was 21st, Elliott Sadler placed 25th and AJ Allmendinger was 29th.
# Odds and ends
Matt Kenseth won $341,615 for the victory. ... The crowd was estimated at 78,000 (place holds 92,000 grandstand seats). The estimate, which included those in the infield RV lots was about 8,000 more than the crowd estimated for the Labor Day race here last year. Sunday's crowd did look larger than the crowd on Labor Day. ... Four of the five cautions Sunday were for rain. ... Joey Logano was the top finishing rookie. He placed 26th.
# A reminder: You can follow me during races and the week at twitter. Just search for dustinlong.
# So, what did you think of Sunday's race and what we've seen the first two races of the year?
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Boring
The worst waste of time I spent. NASCAR has screwed up the sport with the COT and sanitized driving rules there's nothing much left. I used to go to all the races in Richmond and Charlotte but pay for this? No way. At least when I'm home I can flip to something else while they play follow the leader. This one was so tame the caution flags for rain was a relief.
late finishes
It used to be great to get together with friends Sunday afternoon to watch the race. The problem is that nowadays in order to "grow" the sport, the west coast TV audience is critical to NASCAR and the networks. There are no "get-togethers" for a 5:30 race on Sunday. Families have dinner, kids to bathe, get ready for bed, lunches to pack, etc. Obviously there are exceptions such as Super Bowl parties, but even those we leave at half time, and Fontana, nor Las Vegas are (or ever will be) the Super Bowl. I agree with the other poster that stated all the "pomp and circumstance" is getting ridiculous. Every Sunday is not the Super Bowl!!! Oh, and someone needs to tell Fox that the gopher thing is STUPID.
Boring Race
Nascar is biting the hand that feeds them. Races are too long. Drivers cruise around for 3/4 of the race, then go for it the last few laps if they are in position to win. Public cry out if a race is called due to rain, rightfully so. Solution, shorten the races. Race the Nationwide Series in early afternoon, Cup in the evening on Saturdays. If rain comes Saturday, complete the race on Sunday. I've been a Nascar fan since the late 70's. Nascar has put themselves between a rock and a hard spot. Time to start thinking about what makes this sport work. It's the fans. Ticket prices are ridiculous. Fans pay to see a full race, fans are the ones getting shorted if a race is called early. Races are usually boring until the very end. New tracks are all the same. How about getting back to the roots, short tracks. Want some excitement in the sport, build some more short tracks near those "markets". Why is every new track a Charlotte, sorry, a Lowe's Motor Speedway look alike, or a Michigan copy cat. Bristol has proven that you can fit just as many fans around a 1/2 mile track as you can a 1.5 mile track. I only go to Richmond once a year now because of the cost. I drive up, go to the race and
Exciting?
It was only exciting if you were a #17 or #24 fan , otherwise it was a real snoozer . NASCAR is becoming a real snoozer , especially with the car of tomorrow . Why not require GM, Ford, Chrysler and 'Yoto to actually build a 'stock car' like what NASCAR was built on . You can call them anything you want , but what they aren't is a Chevy , Ford , etc .
If a Porsche can run over 200mph in the rain , why can't a fake Ford run 180 in the rain . Oh , I forgot , Goodyear can't even make a decent slick , much less a rain tire . What is the deal with Goodyear anyway , something going on under the table with the fat cats upstairs ?
Why do we need an hour of pre-race crap too ? That was the worst attempt at singing down by the so called CW star .
All we need is the national anthem , gentlemen start your engines and get the show on the road . Too much meaningless fluff , I don't turn the tv on until at least 45 minutes after the coverage starts .
And the NASCAR website is bloated and will barely run , cut the crap and get to racing !!
What is exciting?
I'll say this, there was some great racing between Gordon and Kenseth for the lead for a few laps, but a few laps out of 250 does not make a great race.
So what makes for an exciting race? People used to say Bristol but now many people say that track is not as "exciting'' after they changed the track. While there's less beating and banging, it is still quite a sight to see them go two-wide through the corners there. Of course, I hear Richmond is exciting but wasn't it last year when Denny Hamlin led like 381 of the first 382 laps and was set to win that until his tire blew?
What makes a race exciting and what makes one boring? Or is it just a case of a race is exciting when there is a battle for the lead in the final laps (would you say Kansas was exciting last year for the Edwards-Jouhnson duel, and if so, can you tell me what happened the rest of the race)?
Just wondering what folks think on this issue.
Boring
Gosh that was a boring race. Heck, it's always a boring race at California. And Michigan for that matter.
Even if I lived there I'm not sure I'd want to sit and watch it from the stands.
Crowd
There were certainly those in the media center who questioned that number of 78,000. I heard one estimate of 55,000 by a local writer but the prevailing thought was that seemed a bit low. I think many people kind of centered on the 60-65,000 range.
78,000 ???
If there were 78,000 at the race sunday they must have been counting the vendors and the pit crews. If an east coast track looked that empty NASCAR would be threatening to move the race. Many times you could see small groups of people having entire rows of seats to themselves.
And this is the track Darlington lost the Southern 500 to.
WAKE UP NASCAR. REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM