Rating the Budweiser Shootout: 5 Stars *****

Speedweeks got off to a smashing start Thursday during Budweiser Shootout practice as six teams had to go back to the hauler and bring out the backup car for Saturday night’s Shootout. Yes, it is not much of a surprise that there was a wreck during a practice at Speedweeks, but this time the eventual winner of the race had his primary car torn to pieces and he wasn’t even in the state. All of this was just part of a great weekend for stock car racing in Daytona and earns a 5 Star Rating right out of the gate.

Congratulations to Kevin Harvick, the #29 team and the entire Richard Childress Racing organization. After a tough 2009, RCR needed to have a strong start to their 2010 campaign. While this does not guarantee success throughout the rest of the season, winning the first race of the year is better than the alternative. If Harvick continues to have a good season, it will make things very interesting come July when teams that are obviously out of the Chase hunt start getting their stuff organized for a run at the Chase next year. Already there has been more than enough discussion about Harvick and Kasey Kahne’s potential free agency at the end of the year. Isn’t it ironic that they finished first and second in the Shootout Saturday night? Maybe, just maybe, a big-time driver will resign with the team for which they are currently driving. But that is a topic for another day.

NASCAR’s decision to move qualifying to Saturday instead of Sunday was a great move regardless if the Super Bowl was on Sunday. This made Saturday one of the best racing days of the year, that is, if you didn’t have prior commitments to attend to, in which case Saturday was heartbreaking because you missed nearly 12 hours of racing coverage. First, we were introduced to every driver that will be attempting to race in the Daytona 500 this year. Qualifying is a great time to set the scene for any race weekend because there is time to discuss each driver and what is currently going on with that team. Heading into Thursday’s Duel races, we already know what each driver has to do and what their agenda will be, whether they need to squeak in through the backdoor on Thursday, or if they are set to go and only have to worry about where they will line up on the grid Sunday.

Next, and this really couldn’t be considered a racing blog if her name wasn’t mentioned at least once this week, Danica Patrick made her big debut in the ARCA series. Overall she was rather impressive. The beginning of the race started off very slow as there were numerous wrecks and two cars flipped over. Then, on lap 56 the moment everyone had been waiting for finally happened as Patrick spun through the grass but was able to keep the car from hitting anything and was able to continue, albeit in 24^th. However, from that point on she steadily moved up through the field and was right there with the leaders and crossed the line sixth, prompting the decision to go ahead and run the Nationwide race this coming Saturday – as the folks at ESPN party like the Saints just won the Super Bowl.

Finally, the Bud Shootout produced some very good racing throughout the night. Things started off pretty calmly as Carl Edwards led the entire first segment and had a surprisingly dominant car early. There were a few tremors during the first part of the event with Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and Michael Waltrip (twice) spinning to bring out a caution. Then, with only two laps to go, the inevitable big one happened as Greg Biffle spun at the front of the pack and collected seven other drivers, including his two teammates. But, the driver who had probably the most consistent race ended up winning the race. Harvick was never very far back in the field and gave himself an opportunity to be there at the end. He is starting to put together a pretty good record at Daytona.

So next week is The Great American Race. It doesn’t get any better than this. Generally I like Talladega’s smooth surface because it seems to create larger packs of racing, but on nearly every lap of the Shootout there was somebody who was incredibly loose and had to make a heck of a save. If there is racing like that for 200 laps Sunday, we will be in for a treat. Have a great week!

Bump-Drafting Into the New Year

Welcome, NASCAR fans, to the final weekend without NASCAR racing. Even that is only half true because there are several NASCAR drivers competing in the 24 hour race at Daytona this weekend. With that said, Speedweeks will begin soon and before you know it there will be plenty of NASCAR action on one of the greatest tracks on the circuit.

Last week, NASCAR made their highly-anticipated announcements regarding rule changes for the upcoming season. There will be larger restrictor plates on the cars at Daytona, which will likely give the drivers better throttle response. However, the big change (and it was really only outlawed for one race) is that bump-drafting will once again be allowed.

This sets up an interesting situation once cars actually get on the track Thursday for Bud Shootout practice. Every year we hear drivers come in after the first couple of practices and complain about all the bump-drafting that is going on around the track. The drivers have complained for years about this issue, and then for one race NASCAR actually does something about it and everyone hates it even more.

A few examples:

Tony Stewart, speaking about bump-drafting before the 2006 Daytona 500; “Five years from now, we’re probably going to have to do another tribute to another driver because we’re probably going to kill somebody. It could be me. It could be Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. It could be anybody out there… We’re going to do what it takes to win the race. It needs to come from NASCAR.”

Carl Edwards, on bump-drafting after the 2009 Aaron’s 499 in which he sailed into the fence on the final lap, “We’ll race like this until we kill somebody; then NASCAR will change it.”

This type of talk has gone on for years, but once NASCAR did change it, the drivers were singing a much different tune.

“It’s kind of like the NFL going from tackle to two-hand touch,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., after the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega last fall.

“It was just kind of a terrible race today in general,” said David Ragan, also following the fall race at Talladega.

So drivers begged for NASCAR to clamp down on bump-drafting and they did, but then everybody really had problems with what NASCAR had done. It looks as if NASCAR is in a no-win situation. You can bet at some point during Speedweeks 2010 there will be a driver stepping out of his car furious with all of the bump-drafting in the corners that is going on. That’s just how drivers are. However, I think most of us learned our lesson when we saw what would happen if NASCAR really did police bump-drafting.

Aside from all of that, I can’t help but be excited when Speedweeks is just around the corner. These two weeks are some of the best of the entire season. There will be large packs, fast speeds, big wrecks, and several surprises along the way. Each year there seems to be one small-time team that steps up and has a very good Speedweeks and maybe even a few decent weeks to follow before fading back. Those stories are what make this time of year the best of each NASCAR season.

However, before Speedweeks can begin, we need to know exactly how the field is set for the Great American Race. Enjoy the cartoon and have a great Speedweeks! The Monday Morning Crew Chief ratings will return the Tuesday following the Bud Shootout.

NASCAR May Fix Problems in 2010

After completing a season that ended with many fans upset about the racing, driver personalities, and just about anything else related to the sport, NASCAR has been surprisingly quiet during the offseason. Before going any further, let’s take a look at some of the issues many fans had problems with in 2009 and what NASCAR may do about these problems this coming year.

First, people still don’t like the COT. After three years, very few in the NASCAR world were able to warm up to the flat rate box that is the Car of Tomorrow. The two most noticeable features on the new car have been the front splitter and the rear wing. After drivers eternally complained about not being able to pass after getting up behind a car because of an “aero push”, NASCAR built a car that would have no such problem, but in the process created a whole new set of problems. Now people think the old car may not have been so bad after all. Rarely do drivers complain about the car in the Nationwide series like they did when the same model ran in the Cup series. So, in the coming weeks NASCAR will likely make an announcement regarding changes to the COT, with a return to the rear spoiler at the top of the list.

The next complaint was heard loud and clear for four weeks last season, and the rest of the time it was grumbled about. That would be the racing at Daytona and Talladega. In each restrictor plate race last season there was a big wreck that involved popular drivers and brought up the never-ending safety concern. In the weeks that followed each race ideas and opinions were thrown around everywhere, ranging from taking off the restrictor plates to flattening the corners. So now the idea being tossed about involves, once again, undoing something that was implemented years ago to try and makes those tracks safer. That would be to remove the yellow line rule that forces drivers to stay on the track regardless if there is room in the pack. While I would like to see this change made for the entire race, it looks like this will only go into affect on the final lap, which still is a move in the right direction. Should Regan Smith get his win back now? I’m just saying.

Also, the bump drafting rule enforced at the beginning of the fall race at Talladega may disappear. That race was highly anticipated by many race fans. After enduring weeks of Jimmie Johnson dominance, fans were looking forward to large packs of cars throughout the race where any driver could come away with the victory. While the race did have “the big one” and an unexpected winner in Jamie McMurray, much of the race was filled with single-file racing around the top up the track because the drivers were instructed not to touch the car in front of them.

Finally, many fans were upset that the races were starting later and later, or they couldn’t find the actual start time of the race. NASCAR took care of that one during the second half of the 2009 season by announcing that all the races will have a uniform start time. 1 p.m. ET, 3: p.m. ET for the west coast races, and 7:30 p.m. ET for night races. It will be nice to see the Daytona 500 end in daylight.

So, after looking through the list of complaints, it looks as though maybe NASCAR really is trying to tailor the sport to those who watch and follow it on a weekly basis. There have been many times over the past decade where I’ve thought NASCAR (and many other sports for that matter) was just into making money and was a puppet to the television companies. While we will have to wait and see what changes are actually announced on January 21st during the NASCAR Media Tour, all signs point towards a sport that will be moving in the correct direction for a change.

As you probably know, my biggest problem with the sport is the debris cautions. I have watched several old races this offseason and saw two cautions for oil on the track. Otherwise, the yellow was not thrown unless there was an actual incident on the track. I can understand NASCAR staying quiet on this issue because they would rather not admit that those cautions are bogus, but I certainly hope to see less “debris” cautions in 2010. With everything else heading the right way, it would be a shame for this issue to remain a thorn in the NASCAR fan’s side. Regardless, there are more reasons to be optimistic about the 2010 season than there have been in seasons past.

Budweiser Shootout Format Changes...Again

Earlier this week, NASCAR announced that for the second year in a row, there will be a new format for selecting drivers to compete in the Budweiser Shootout. This time, drivers will be selected based on a number of eligibility factors.

First, the 2009 Chase participants are to be entered in the race. Next, any past series champions are eligible who have raced in the past two seasons, including any driver who has won either a previous Budweiser Shootout or any points paying race at Daytona. Finally, Joey Logano will be in the race because he won the 2009 Rookie of the Year award.

So, what does this all mean? Well, rarely do the non-points events have the same rules from year to year, but now the format of how to choose the drivers is the part of the race that is changing. I understand that Budweiser no longer wanted to have the previous season’s pole winners in the race because Coors Light now sponsors the pole award. But, that move was what kicked off another downward spiral for this race.

Winning the pole now means nothing more than starting at the front of the field and having the chance to select the first pit stall. I always felt that the Bud Shootout was special in the fact that it awarded drivers for something other than winning a race or even how their entire season had gone. In the past few years guys like Joe Nemechek would have to run partial schedules, but by qualifying well at a place like Talladega, they were able to run the Bud Shootout the following year. That is no longer the case.

Now this race is just like every other gimmick race in that it will have the same basic drivers year after year. For the most part the drivers in the Chase remain fairly consistent from year to year, and the past series champions will never change. I thought past champion eligibility was reserved for the All-Star race.

However, if we are going to go down this road, I do like the idea of having past Daytona winners entered in the race. Sometimes drivers who do well at Daytona and Talladega are different than those that are traditionally at the front of the field each week. But, overall this is just another case where corporate sponsorship got in the way of a good race.

Changing the format for the manufacturers last year was a bad idea that had no real staying power. Eventually a manufacturer was going to leave the sport or one would enter the sport. Either way, there would be a group of cars that were not as competitive as they should be for this race. To illustrate how bad an idea this was, only one year into the change, one of the manufacturers now has only three full-time cars in the series, thereby leaving open holes in the field.

So, once again, changes had to be made. But like many things in the sport over the last five years, if the first change had not been made, none of the following changes would have been necessary.

Rating the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: 3.6 Stars ***'

The 2009 season has come to a close and the awards have been handed out, so now it is time to take a look back on the fond and not-so-fond memories from a season filled with rain, action on the track, new rules, debris, spectacular crashes, spectacular finishes, and history with Jimmie Johnson winning the Sprint Cup for the fourth consecutive year. This all adds up to a 3.6 Star Rating for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

To assemble the rating for the season, Monday Morning Crew Chief went back through the ratings from each race this season, excluding the two non-points events and the reader’s choice Watkins Glen edition, and averaged the ratings. So, that means according to the ratings, the season was almost directly between OK and fairly good. Late in the season the complaints started to roll in more heavily about the problems in NASCAR. There are problems, but as a whole, the sport is still not doing too badly. As in other sports, no matter what goes on around the game, the game will always remain. Racing has been around longer than most of us, and they will continue to race long after we are gone.

Here is the breakdown of ratings throughout the season:

5 Stars: 5 races

4 Stars: 16 races

3 Stars: 10 races

2 Stars: 3 races

1 Star: 1 race

The 5 Star races were, interestingly enough, all run on either short tracks or superspeedways. Our first 5 Star Rating came in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville. There was close racing throughout the race and the final laps came down to a duel between Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson with Johnson nudging Hamlin out of the way in turns three and four and taking the victory.

Next came the Aarons 499 at Talladega. This was a race that certainly had everyone talking the next few days. On the final lap of the race Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski paired up and roared to the front. However, coming through the tri-oval on the final lap, Edwards made a move to block but the rookie held his ground and Edwards was sent flying into the fence in one of the most dramatic moments of 2009.

Up next was another superspeedway, this time Daytona in the Coke Zero 400. After the 500 had been rained shortened, everybody was excited to get a full race in under the lights on July 4th. Throughout the night Tony Stewart had the best car but found himself behind Kyle Busch coming to the line. Similar to the Edwards-Keselowski incident, Busch tried to come down and block Stewart but was instead turned up into the wall creating the big one at the finish line.

The fourth 5 Star race was the final regular season race of the season. On a Saturday night in Richmond, getting into the Chase was all that mattered in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400. Denny Hamlin got the win in his home state, but the real battle was between Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers as they fought for the chance to race for the championship. This one was not decided until the checkered flag flew and Vickers raced his way into the Chase and Busch was left shaking his head, missing the Chase by a mere eight points.

Finally, in the most controversial race of the season, NASCAR pulled on the driver’s reins just hours before the start of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega. With penalties in play for bump drafting in the corners, the drivers played it safe until all heck broke loose in the final 10 laps. Heading into Turn 3, Ryan Newman got turned around and went airborne, landing on his roof after sliding up the track and back down with many flips in between. Then, on the final restart of the race, another big one occurred and championship contender Mark Martin got flipped upside down and, as Carl Edwards’ wreck at Talladega did the year before, may have cost Martin the championship.

So now after looking at the best parts of 2009, I want to mention a few things that can be improved upon going into next season. First, cut it out with the debris cautions. The fans hate it, the drivers hate it, even Darrell Waltrip hates it.

“We've also become predictable with debris cautions to bunch the field up or stopping the race with those red flags,” Waltrip said in a recent article on FOXSports.com. “If you know who is going to win or be in the top 10 every week, isn't it common sense that folks are going to lose interest and find something else that excites them?”

However, before we all jump on the NASCAR haters’ bandwagon, there are other people in the sport that can do a better job. Yes, I’m looking at you Casey Mears. Drivers such as Mears, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, and others of that same breed need to step up and make something happen. I know we hate the field fillers at the back of the pack, but these guys have more or less been field fillers in the middle of the pack. Please, somebody step up in 2010 and make some noise. I’m not sure how long sponsors will continue to hang on to these guys year after year.

Overall, the 2009 NASCAR season was pretty good. As with every season there are good times and bad times, but I think we can all look forward to better racing in the coming years. I think/hope NASCAR learned some valuable lessons from this season and will take steps to improve the sport as time moves forward.

Throughout the winter Monday Morning Crew Chief will have different articles regarding offseason news, rumors, and opinions. Thank you to everybody for reading this season and have a wonderful holiday season.