The OBW Experts will get together the day after the Sprint Cup race to discuss the hot topics of the week.
This week we chat about Atlanta, reflect on the season thus far, restarts and runaway tires. We will also take a look ahead to next Sunday at Bristol.
This is the first off-week, so let’s start off by evaluating the first four races of the season. Who are your surprise drivers and most disappointing drivers thus far?
James Jones: The most surprising, Kurt Busch and Penske Championship Racing. Busch has started off the season with finishes of 10th, fifth, 23rd and now Sunday’s near-perfect win. If this means Busch and Penske are back to form, then the competition should be worried as we’re headed to Bristol next where Kurt has five wins in 16 starts there.
Ryan Newman and his team are the most disappointing. With similar Hendrick Motorsports equipment, teammate Tony Stewart has cracked off three eighth place finishes in the first four races. So why is Newman’s car dropping transponders, having wings fall off, and cylinders getting lazy half-way through the race? I’m not yet 100% confident that Stewart-Haas Racing are not fielding old show cars for Newman’s No. 39 team.
Mike Maruska: I’m also surprised how well Kurt Busch has ran through four races. I wasn’t sure whether Penske would provide the consistent cars. The most disappointing has to be the No. 5 team. Mark Martin has done little wrong, but two engine failures and a flat tire have pushed him to the brink of the top 35.
Jeffrey Gutowski: The biggest disappointment to me is also Mark Martin. Granted that he lost two engines and blew a tire that sent him into the wall but, I thought he would make the Chase easily in a Hendrick car.
My surprise drivers are David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip. We all know that you don’t get to the top series unless you are one of the best so the driving doesn’t surprise me. The thing that surprises me the most is how they have improved over the last couple of years.
Ryan Rantz: My surprise driver so far this year is Jaime McMurray. The No. 26 team has been a solid competitor in almost every race this year. Their position in the point standings doesn’t reflect how competitive they’ve been in 2009.
The driver that has disappointed me the most in 2009 is David Ragan. I thought he was primed for a breakout year after last year’s success and with UPS coming on board. Last year, Ragan completed the most laps but this year Ragan has finished on the lead lap only once.
Darren Fauth: How about Jimmie Johnson as the most disappointing driver? The can-do-nothing-wrong luck they had last year is not happening so far. I guess I’ve got to remember that he is exactly where he was after Atlanta spring race last year, 13th. I must have his Chase performance so dominating my memories that I’ve forgotten this is typical Johnson rev up.
Eric McClung: Brian Vickers is my pick for biggest surprise. Vickers had six top-10s all of last season and he already has three this year. He is one of only four drivers who have three top-fives through the first four races this season. The Red Bull team has come a long way in a pretty short time. Of the drivers who missed the Chase last season, the popular pick of who would make it this season has been David Ragan– now it looks like Vickers.
How much did Marcos Ambrose’s crew member alter the race by putting so many cars a lap down when he went after the runaway tire?
Mike Maruska: Forget putting cars down a lap, how about putting your life in danger? Running into the infield under a green flag? I’d rather smear myself in chum and go snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef.
Darren Fauth: It was huge! It drives me nuts when things outside of the control of the teams, like rain or that dude chasin’ the tire, totally jack with the outcome of an event. If it wasn’t for the ‘Lucky Dog’ giving guys back their lap it would have been a lot less than 12 drivers that were on the lead lap. It’s pretty frustrating. I’m a lap down on NASCAR 09, I start driving like a madman when so I’m surprised there weren’t more wrecks.
James Jones: It didn’t alter the race at all, this sort of thing is a part of racing. The caution was going to fly anyway, so the teams who got caught would have been losing a lap anyway. Also, such a situation is part of the risk you take during green flag pit-stops. Racing is a team sport and situations like these are where the crew becomes a critical part of the equation. It is the resulting level of communication, organization and direction between the crew chief and the crew that will show you exactly what sort of race team you have. In my opinion, this is where Chad Knauss and the No. 48 team shine above the other teams and is a big reason why Jimmie has three straight phat Cup Series championship trophies.
Some of these restarts are getting pretty confusing, should any adjustments be made to the rule?
Darren Fauth: I still don’t know what was happening. I need someone to draw it out for me. As an aside, I would love to see them start putting lapped cars on the outside instead of inside.
Mike Maruska: David Poole has long suggested a double file restart with the lead lap cars all at the front like at the start of the race. Lapped cars are eligible for the Lucky Dog regardless of where they are in relation to the leaders; let them fight over it without wadding up the leaders.
James Jones: NASCAR has a “formula” now. Don’t let the word “formula” scare you though. Here it is: pit road speed x2 = “the restart zone’s” length. Surely that’s easy enough math for the drivers to understand. I hope they don’t need Ryan Newman’s Purdue engineering degree to explain that formula during the driver’s meeting.
Ryan Rantz: I don’t really find anything confusing about restarts. The only rule that I would really like to change is that only cars within two laps down can be in the left lane for restarts. If you’re any more then two laps down, you have no business at all being down there.