Martinsville...Here We Come!
Jess
I'm about falling asleep during ESPN's ridiuclously long prerace show, so I might as well take this time to celebrate the amazing accomplishments some of our heroes have made this season. Four of our drivers - Michael, David, DJ and Brian - had the task of not only qualifying for the first five races of 2008 but to run well enough to lock themselves inside the top 35 so they are guaranteed into Martinsville and hopefully beyond. More than I could ever hope for, they did it. 
Brian certainly impressed. His qualifying runs were just fast enough to squeak himself into all the races but his performaces during the races were awesome. The only time he didn't finish in the top 25 was at Bristol when he crashed. He's 17th in points - wow!
I have to wonder how Doug Richert feels about this since he said last year when he left Team Red Bull, "If I land somewhere, I'm definitely looking at the points. It will be in the top 35." Ouch. Regan Smith is 39th in points, 39 points from 35th. Ouch.
David has run much better than his finishes show and nearly every race he's been running top 15 to top 10 times. The #00 has a 109 point cushion, but then you realize that starting at Martinsville he's jumping into the #44. The plan was that he'd take the #44's owner points because in theory since DJ had the Past Champion's Provisional he was just about guaranteed to make the first five races and would possibly have been higher in points than David (since David could miss a race). This didn't happen...DJ ended up being the lowest MWR driver in the standings, with only 15 points separating him from the Martinsville star cars. This poses some problems. First of all, David earned those points in the #00 - he should be able to keep them. Secondly, 15 points is basically nothing. If David had just a little hiccup at Martinsville it could mean he'd be outside the top 35 with a fully sponsored car while Michael McDowell has partial (at best) sponsorship. I remember Michael Waltrip having a fit last season when his sponsored cars were missing races while the unsponsored cars of Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin were locked into the races.
To Michael's credit, he said on his radio show (summarized by a good friend over on Michael's fan club
) that MWR is going to ask NASCAR if David can carry over the #00's owner points to the #44. This is a relief because I know that Michael thinks a lot - a lot - of McD and in some ways having the most points of all the MWR cars could help him stay up there with his rookie status. But sponsors talk. UPS, I'm sure, is talking quite a bit! Secretly I'm hoping NASCAR tells MWR that to take those points David will have to be in the #00...and UPS then says, "Okay, then we'll be on the #00 with David as our driver." I can dream, right? 
I'm very proud of how Michael and the #55 guys pulled it together at Bristol and made sure they were going to be locked in for Martinsville. They've struggled in more ways than one and I'm putting my faith in these guys that not having to worry about qualifying anymore will improve their communication.
DJ tried hard to be as far up in points as he could be but he had a lot of bad luck that hindered his effort. I wish he could have had more to celebrate about in his last five points races at MWR and I'll really miss seeing him on the track. Thankfully he's not going anywhere and will be a voice of reason over at the chaos known as ESPN!
He's not at Nashville this weekend...listening to the broadcast I very much wish he was!!
I'm going to be extremely interested in how McD fares in the first year at the Cup level. He's talented, incredibly talented. Charming, good-looking, religious. A "good guy". I'll admit at first I was very wary of this guy but he sucked me in with that smile (grr!). But...ARCA isn't Cup. McD has only run four Busch/Nationwide races and one Craftsman Truck race with no top 10s in any of them. I really hope he's ready for the pressure, demands and competition in Cup. There have been drivers who have run an entire Busch season and have crumbled in Cup. Plus...I get the impression that McD is quite outspoken about things that he might be better off letting the higher-ups at MWR deal with. I don't know. He sort of reminds me of Kyle Busch...which might scare a lot of MWR fans! Michael could have some trouble with him...we'll see. I almost look forward to the day Michael has a troublemaker for a driver because I'm curious to see how he would deal with that as a team owner. Aaron's is very kind, as they will be on the #00 for Martinsville, Phoenix and Talladega - then McD will have to inspire companies to sponsor his ride.
Ahh...for the first time in almost two years I can sit back during qualifying and relax.
Ahh. Congratulations all you drivers and teams that are now the insiders looking forward. Keep going up!
Brian certainly impressed. His qualifying runs were just fast enough to squeak himself into all the races but his performaces during the races were awesome. The only time he didn't finish in the top 25 was at Bristol when he crashed. He's 17th in points - wow!
I have to wonder how Doug Richert feels about this since he said last year when he left Team Red Bull, "If I land somewhere, I'm definitely looking at the points. It will be in the top 35." Ouch. Regan Smith is 39th in points, 39 points from 35th. Ouch.David has run much better than his finishes show and nearly every race he's been running top 15 to top 10 times. The #00 has a 109 point cushion, but then you realize that starting at Martinsville he's jumping into the #44. The plan was that he'd take the #44's owner points because in theory since DJ had the Past Champion's Provisional he was just about guaranteed to make the first five races and would possibly have been higher in points than David (since David could miss a race). This didn't happen...DJ ended up being the lowest MWR driver in the standings, with only 15 points separating him from the Martinsville star cars. This poses some problems. First of all, David earned those points in the #00 - he should be able to keep them. Secondly, 15 points is basically nothing. If David had just a little hiccup at Martinsville it could mean he'd be outside the top 35 with a fully sponsored car while Michael McDowell has partial (at best) sponsorship. I remember Michael Waltrip having a fit last season when his sponsored cars were missing races while the unsponsored cars of Joe Nemechek and Sterling Marlin were locked into the races.
To Michael's credit, he said on his radio show (summarized by a good friend over on Michael's fan club
) that MWR is going to ask NASCAR if David can carry over the #00's owner points to the #44. This is a relief because I know that Michael thinks a lot - a lot - of McD and in some ways having the most points of all the MWR cars could help him stay up there with his rookie status. But sponsors talk. UPS, I'm sure, is talking quite a bit! Secretly I'm hoping NASCAR tells MWR that to take those points David will have to be in the #00...and UPS then says, "Okay, then we'll be on the #00 with David as our driver." I can dream, right? I'm very proud of how Michael and the #55 guys pulled it together at Bristol and made sure they were going to be locked in for Martinsville. They've struggled in more ways than one and I'm putting my faith in these guys that not having to worry about qualifying anymore will improve their communication.
DJ tried hard to be as far up in points as he could be but he had a lot of bad luck that hindered his effort. I wish he could have had more to celebrate about in his last five points races at MWR and I'll really miss seeing him on the track. Thankfully he's not going anywhere and will be a voice of reason over at the chaos known as ESPN!
He's not at Nashville this weekend...listening to the broadcast I very much wish he was!!I'm going to be extremely interested in how McD fares in the first year at the Cup level. He's talented, incredibly talented. Charming, good-looking, religious. A "good guy". I'll admit at first I was very wary of this guy but he sucked me in with that smile (grr!). But...ARCA isn't Cup. McD has only run four Busch/Nationwide races and one Craftsman Truck race with no top 10s in any of them. I really hope he's ready for the pressure, demands and competition in Cup. There have been drivers who have run an entire Busch season and have crumbled in Cup. Plus...I get the impression that McD is quite outspoken about things that he might be better off letting the higher-ups at MWR deal with. I don't know. He sort of reminds me of Kyle Busch...which might scare a lot of MWR fans!
Michael could have some trouble with him...we'll see. I almost look forward to the day Michael has a troublemaker for a driver because I'm curious to see how he would deal with that as a team owner. Aaron's is very kind, as they will be on the #00 for Martinsville, Phoenix and Talladega - then McD will have to inspire companies to sponsor his ride.Ahh...for the first time in almost two years I can sit back during qualifying and relax.
Ahh. Congratulations all you drivers and teams that are now the insiders looking forward. Keep going up!
