Rating the Toyota/Save Mart 350: 2 Stars **

The first road course race of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season followed the theme for most of the year so far that the majority of the race should be void of any action. The race at Sonoma had very long stretches of time where everyone just logged laps and talked about strategy. All in all, Sunday’s race gets a generous 2 Star Rating.

Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch did have a good battle toward the end of the race. Busch looked like he might be able to pull off a pass at the end but instead broke a piece in the rear of his car. Instead, he had to work harder at holding off Tony Stewart than catching Bowyer.

However, having Busch in contention for the win certainly added some intrigue to the finish of the race, even if for nothing more than to find out what he said afterward. Still, it is cool to see an unsponsored car challenge for a win or even run near the front of the field, regardless of who is in the car.

The rest of the race left much to be desired. Sometimes long green-flag runs are fun if drivers are sliding around and racing each other, but long green-flag runs at a road course are brutal. There wasn’t one exciting moment for the first 85 laps of Sunday’s race.

Pit stops were about the only things that happened after Jeff Gordon passed Marcos Ambrose on lap 12. Martin Truex Jr. took the lead after green-flag stops cycled around because he came in before everybody else, and then Bowyer would take the lead when Truex Jr. pitted.

The rest of the race wasn’t even just full of cars going around in circles, it was full of cars winding their way through a road with a few hills. Unfortunatly, the latter is worse for NASCAR fans.

Anyway, congratulations to Bowyer, the #15 team and Mikdkchael Waltrip Racing. That organization has improved the most of any group in the sport during the past year. Most people didn’t expect any MWR cars to make the Chase, and now Truex Jr. and Bowyer both sit comfortably in the top 10 in the points standings.

Regardless of driver preferences, it is nice to see another organization step into serious Chase contention. Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing has a car challenge for a spot every other year or so, but otherwise the Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush-Fenway and Childress organizations dominated the scene. New contenders are always good for the sport.

Although there haven’t been any first-time winners this season, there have been 12 different winners in the 16 races this year. That is an even better rate than last year, when we talked about how many different drivers reached Victory Lane at this point in the season. Only 11 different drivers won the first 16 races in 2011.

So, although the racing hasn’t been particularly exciting in many races this season, at least there has been a bunch of different winners. This would not be a good year to have one driver dominate the entire season, unless it was Dale Earnhardt Jr., of course. We saw how much his wins drum up interest after he won at Michigan last week.

Now the Cup series heads to Kentucky for the second Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. Kyle Busch dominated the inaugural event last year that received more attention for the traffic problems than the actual race. If the race at Sonoma lacked action, it is hard to imagine the race at Kentucky will have much more, but we’ll always hope.

Either way, Daytona is only two weeks away.

MMCC Power Rankings: Week 4

Sorry for the delay. I had a slight home emergency last night -- the refrigerator stopped running. Don't worry, though, it won't spoil this week's POWER RANKINGS.

1. Greg Biffle (Last Week 1) – Maintained his point lead simply by surviving. Several of the top points guys had bad days at Bristol.

2. Jimmie Johnson (7) – Johnson has become the only NASCAR driver to go from 17th to a Chase spot on a Tuesday after Hendrick Motorsports won its appeal.

3. Matt Kenseth (8) – NASCAR better watch out. If Kenseth keeps this up he may win the championship, and we'll have a whole new points system all over again.

4. Kevin Harvick (4) – Harvick was the worst of his Richard Childress Racing teammates on Sunday. Maybe this baby thing isn't such a good idea.

5. Martin Truex Jr. (10) – Sits fourth in the standings and doesn't even have a win yet. Maybe Michael Waltrip Racing is ready to challenge for a title?

6. Tony Stewart (6) – Not the run that I expected out of Stewart at Bristol, but then again, we can't let one March win spoil what is usually a June-July hot streak.

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3) –Wrecked Mark Martin last week and Jeff Gordon this week. Bobby Labonte better watch out at Fontana.

8. Denny Hamlin (4) – Hamlin has already scheduled a dancing lesson with Jeff Gordon to teach him how to dougie.

9. Brad Keselowski (18) – Apparently, Bristol's victory lane is no a wi-fi hot spot. Bruton, get on that.

10. Paul Menard (12) – Twelve of Menard's 19 career top 10s have come on an intermediate track.

11. Jeff Burton (15) – This Duke fan's bracket may be busted, but his ability to drive sure isn't.

12. Carl Edwards (5) – Edwards had the luxury of sitting on top of a pit box and eating Cheeze-Its while waiting for his car to get fixed.

13. Ryan Newman (16) – Apparently "Rocketman" got his nickname at Bristol. Isn't it time he lost it?

14. Brian Vickers (NR) – Welcome back to the sport Vickers; congrats on the strong run.

15. Clint Bowyer (19) – Maybe the move from RCR to MWR wasn't such a bad thing after all.

16. Jeff Gordon (9) – I'm a little dissapointed with how calm Gordon was after Earnhardt Jr. wrecked him, Terry Labonte woulda been pissed!

17. Kyle Busch (13) – Back-to-back Bristol races where Kyle has finished outside the top 10.

18. Joey Logano (14) – Never had an issue and still finished two laps down. Now that is a long day at Bristol.

19. Jamie McMurray (NR) – One of five drivers I didn't expect to see in the top 10 that was.

20. Juan Pablo Montoya (NR) – Another one of those drivers, but I don't expect JPM in the top 10 unless it's a road course.

DNF: Regan Smith – Caused a wreck that took out three of the top contenders in the race. Oh, what a race this could have been. Then maybe Bruton Smith wouldn't threaten to tear up the track.

Michael Waltrip Racing in regards to switch: 'We are definitely a Toyota'

The strongest Dodge team since the manufacture's return 10 years ago, Penske, is leaving the Dodge brand for a more beneficial switch to Ford. With that switch it leaves Dodge in a state of disarray with the pending announcement of the 2013 Dodge Charger Sprint Cup car next weekend at Las Vegas.

One of the teams that was speculated could make the switch to Dodge for more funding was Michael Waltrip Racing. They can officially be ruled out. A source said the switch won't happen because "We are definitely a Toyota."

With MWR being ruled out, that takes one of the bigger teams with a chance for a switch out of the picture. Popular opinion would say Hendrick Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Hass Racing and Richard Childress Racing also have no reason to switch.

A spokesman for Dodge said the process is underway for Dodge and RAM to determine their 2013 lineups.

That leaves teams such as Richard Petty Motorsports and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing as two of the bigger teams left who might look at switching brands.

The official statement from RPM didn't rule out a switch, but it didn't say it would happen either.

“We have a partnership with Roush FenwayRacing and we are happy to be a part of the Ford Racing program. As wealways do, we will evaluate all of our options and make decisions based on whatis ultimately best for our race team.”

Not surprisingly, Brian Vickers still without a ride

Nearly every 2011 Spring Cup Series driver has a ride for Speedweeks as the NASCAR offseason comes off of Turn 4, but there is still one notable exception.

Brian Vickers, a two-time Sprint Cup Series winner and formerly of the #83 Red Bull Racing Toyota, is still sitting on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

Time is getting extremely short, however, and any Cup ride he finds will have finished lower than 30th in the 2011 points standings.

Several former Cup winners were out of a job when the 2011 season finished. Teams found sponsorship difficult to come by, and several teams had to shut their doors.

Vickers’ Red Bull team is one of those that shut down after the final race in November at Homestead. But, his wasn’t the only one.

For example, David Ragan’s #6 car didn’t have enough sponsorship to continue as a full-time team and Michael Waltrip Racing kicked David Reutimann to the curb as the season came to a close.

Ragan and Reutimann, along with drivers such as A.J. Allmendinger and Kurt Busch all found rides for 2012, but Vickers has come up empty.

Maybe that’s because his reputation has caught up with him.

Ragan, Reutimann and Allmendinger have kept their noses clean throughout their careers for the most part and haven’t created many enemies in the sport.

Vickers, on the other hand, has ruffled feathers throughout his career, and he really turned up the aggressive meter in 2011.

First, he put Tony Stewart up into the tire barriers in June at Sonoma after Stewart had punted him early in the race. Next, he went nuts in October at Martinsville and effectively ended Matt Kenseth’s championship run. Then, a few weeks later he again got into the back of Kenseth and pushed him all the way into the Turn 3 wall at Phoenix.

His explanation of the Phoenix incident also didn’t help his case.

“He wrecked me at Martinsville, he got wrecked here, but it actually wasn't (payback),” Vickers said after the Phoenix race. “I'm not saying I wasn't going to pay him back, but I'm just saying that wasn't it.”

That may not have been the best time to get into a feud with a championship contender, especially when Vickers’ team was shutting down and he needed to find a different ride for 2012.

The same thing happened to Kurt Busch on a slightly different level. Busch spent most of the year screaming at his team over the in-car radio and pushed things over the limit when he cussed out Dr. Jerry Punch while waiting for an interview at Homestead.

Busch does have a ride for the upcoming season, but his new job as the driver of the #51 car for Phoenix Racing is a large step down from the #22 Penske Racing car he previously drove.

Busch’s temper cost him his job. Luckily for him, he is a former champion and has 24 career Cup victories.

Vickers, on the other hand, has two wins and he wrecked Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson at Talladega in 2006 to get one of them.

Drivers with clean driving reputations or impressive career numbers were able to find a new job this offseason, even if it is in lesser equipment than their previous ride.

Vickers has neither, and now he might be the one 2011 full-time driver who won’t return to the Cup series in 2012.

Many NASCAR teams in worse sponsorship situation than when economy collapsed in 2008

NASCAR teams entered the 2009 season with a bleak outlook in financial and sponsorship terms, but the outlook for this season doesn’t look any better.

In fact, it might be worse.

As the 2008 NASCAR season came to a close, the United States economy was on the verge of disaster, and its struggles quickly affected NASCAR teams.

Many teams had to lay off large parts of their staff, and the Sprint Cup Series went from having nearly 43 fully funded teams to questions about whether enough cars would show up on a race weekend to fill the field.

It turned out that every race still had a full field, but more and more teams showed up to run just the first few laps in a race and then head home while collecting the prize money. Even then, cars with mostly full sponsorship packages filled the top 35 guaranteed spots in a race.

Now cars that finished last season in the Chase might not even have full sponsorship for the 2012 season. Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth in the points standings last year, has sponsorship lined up for less than half of the season so far.

Several teams are still looking to put together a sponsorship package to fund the entire season, and other teams have completely shut down.

Red Bull Racing has fielded two cars since 2008, but it folded at the end of the 2011 season for financial reasons. TRG Motorsports won’t return in 2012 after fielding one full-time car for the past three seasons, and Front Row Motorsports, has yet to announce its plans for the upcoming season.

In addition, some of the big-time teams are cutting back, as well. Roush-Fenway Racing will run Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the #6 car for the Daytona 500, but it currently doesn’t have any sponsorship for the race, and the #6 car could very well be shut down for the remainder of the season.

The #33 driven by Clint Bowyer for the past three seasons will cease to exist as Bowyer moves to the #15 car for Michael Waltrip Racing. Richard Petty Motorsports recently tabbed Aric Almirola to drive the #43 car, but it doesn’t have any sponsorship as of yet. Even Tommy Baldwin Racing’s two cars currently don’t have a sponsor.

All of these changes could lead to a season where less than 30 teams have sponsorship to run the entire schedule.

Last season 30 teams ran all 36 races. A few others attempted to run every race and didn’t qualify on time. However, this season there could be cars in the top 35 in the points standings that won’t have the money to show up at the track.

TV ratings improved in the 2011 season, and attendance numbers started to stabilize after several years of freefall. At least it appears fan interest in the sport has stabalized, if not started to grow once again.

Hopefully this is rock bottom and money will start flowing back into the sport throughout the 2012 season and years beyond. But, the current situation might be the toughest stretch NASCAR teams have ever faced.

NASCAR offseason picks up again as Almirola gets rare second chance

The holidays passed and the NASCAR offseason picked up right where it left off with two more driver signings and another team shutting down.

David Reutimann landed with Tommy Baldwin Racing for the 2012 season, TRG Motorsports couldn’t find a driver or sponsor and will cease to exist, and Aric Almirola jumped back into the Spring Cup Series with the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.

It’s good to see Reutimann get a ride after being fired very late in the season from the #00 Michael Waltrip Racing team and it’s not good to see another team leave the sport, but the biggest winner of the week is Almirola.

Sure, the #43 car currently doesn’t have a sponsor and could struggle to finish in the top 20 in the points standings next year, but at least he will race in the Cup series once again.

Almirola’s first shot in a Cup ride came in 2007 when he ran six races in the #01 U.S. Army car that he shared with Mark Martin. His best finish was 26th.

The next year he doubled his number of races as he and Martin again split duties to fill the empty #8 seat left by Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he went to Hendrick Motorsports. Almirola did record a top 10 with an eighth-place finish at Bristol in the spring that season.

Since then he bounced around to several different teams and ended up only racing in the Nationwide Series in 2011. He was successful at that level, however, and finished fourth in the points standings while driving the #88 JR Motorports car.

Regardless of his results, Almirola should feel like the luckiest guy in the sport. Not many drivers get a second chance at the Cup level, especially with a top-20 team.

While Almirola drives on Sundays, former Cup drivers such as Reed Sorenson and Elliot Sadler will likely remain in the Nationwide Series and only drive on Saturdays. Others such as David Ragan and Brian Vickers are also on the market and still don’t have a ride lined up.

Since Almirola got the job, the attention will now turn to how successful he can be in that car. Remember, the #43 car isn’t in the NASCAR elite anymore, and it hasn’t been for nearly two decades. Although the car has 198 victories, it hasn’t really come close to reaching Victory Lane since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville.

A.J. Allmendinger put together the best season the #43 car has had since Bobby Labonte finished 18th in the points standings in 2007. Allmendinger finished 15th in the points standings in 2011 and 19th in 2010. Before that, the #43 hadn’t finished in the top 20 in points since Andretti’s year in 1999.

Overall, there probably shouldn’t be very high expectations for the #43 car in 2012. The vicious cycle between mediocre runs and horrible runs could easily continue for that team this season, especially if it has trouble finding sponsorship.

It’s an unfortunate situation because the organization just came off of its best season with two cars in the top 20 in the points standings, and now it is back to the same struggles it dealt with the previous season when it almost went bankrupt.

Maybe we’re overstating the negative of this situation. Maybe the organization has potential sponsors about ready to sign on and Almirola will follow in the footsteps of the five first-time winners of 2011 and burst back onto the scene.

In any case, Almirola has a Cup ride, and that’s more than a lot of other Cup-winning drivers can say at this point.

Will Bowyer be better at Michael Waltrip Racing?

One of the final major pieces of the 2011 Silly Season fell in place last week when Clint Bowyer finally announced he will be moving to the #15 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2012.

But, is this a good move for Bowyer?

Ever since Bowyer broke into the Sprint Cup Series with Richard Childress Racing in 2006, he has been a fringe contender for the Chase. Some years he squeaks in and makes it, other years he misses by just a few points.

This year he missed by just a few points, but Childress couldn’t put together a sponsorship deal to keep Bowyer in the #33 so Bowyer will try his hand as the third car at Michael Waltrip Racing.

On the surface this looks like a win-win situation for everybody. Waltrip gets a high-profile driver that has consistently finished better than his current two drivers, David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr, and Bowyer gets a fresh start after several up-and-down years for Richard Childress Racing.

However, people who think Bowyer is instantly going to be as much of a Chase contender next year as he has been in the past need to temper their enthusiasm. Just because he’s helping an organization expand and has full sponsorship doesn’t mean he’s going to succeed. Just ask Truex Jr.

The driver of the #56 car hasn’t won a race since joining MWR in 2010 and finished 22nd in the points standings.

Michael Waltrip Racing is still a young organization and growing each year, but this isn’t a group that has consistently won. In fact, it has hardly won at all.

Reutimann won at Chicago in 2010, but his best points finish was 16th in 2009. He and Truex Jr. are currently 28th and 22nd in the standings, respectively.

So, Bowyer is leaving an organization that has won 10 times in the past two years and had drivers contend for the championship to a team that has won one race in the past two years and has yet to put a team in the Chase.

Sure, it’s nice to think Bowyer will help raise the performance level at MWR, but many people hailed Truex Jr.’s move to the #56 in the same way. Granted, Bowyer has had more success in his career than Truex Jr., but it is going to be an uphill climb for the new #15 team.

Bowyer may have had to move because Childress couldn’t field a car for him next year, but he and the #15 have a lot of work to do just to maintain the performance Bowyer had at RCR.

Martin Truex Jr.: Step Forward or Step Backward?

Earlier this week Michael Waltrip Racing announced that they were bringing Martin Truex Jr. on board to take over the full-time NAPA ride from Michael Waltrip himself. This was really the first big announcement regarding driver movement this season. With the economy being the way it is, the Silly Season has been a bit slower in developing this year.

Truex will drive the #56 NAPA Toyota while Waltrip will cut back to a part-time schedule in 2010. The reason for the number switch is that MWR asked for some input from Truex and he asked to drive the #56. This was a similar situation to what Dale Earnhardt Jr. did when he moved over to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. The #56 is to the Truex family what the #88 is to the Earnhardt family. Also, Waltrip will be able to remain in the #55 in the races that he does run next season.

The question is, however, will moving to MWR be a move up or a move down for Truex? There are a couple of different scenarios that could be looked at here. MWR has developed some top notch equipment in the past couple of years and now have the cars capable to run up front with the leaders. However, the same thing was said about Earnhardt Jr. as he moved to Hendrick. So, obviously the equipment isn't everything.

The other way to look at this is that Truex will be moving to a team that has never been together before. This may not be as much as a factor because the organization is established for awhile, not one that is just getting up off of the ground.

In a poll on NASCAR.com, 72% of fans think Truex will not make the Chase next season. This was a bit surprising considering that a driver that has previously been in the Chase is teaming up with an organization that has a car in contention for a Chase spot this season.

Overall, this is probably a smart career move for Truex. He obviously was not making any moves forward in the #1 car and the entire EGR organization is facing some hard times as the group has consistently downsized from four cars to the current two in just over one year. For Truex's sake, hopefully this works and he can find himself back up at the front of the pack in 2010 and beyond.