MMCC Power Rankings: Week 2

Anybody awake yet? Boy was that a dull race, and not what NASCAR needed after all the Daytona 500 ratings. There were no explosions or fires. Heck, there were only one or two single-car wrecks too.

Let's wake up a bit and take a look at the Week 2 Power Rankings.

1. Greg Biffle (Last Week 2) – Who would have guessed Greg Biffle would be the best of the Roush-Fenway Racing trio two races in?.

2. Denny Hamlin (3) – Denny and Darian sitting in a tree W-I-N-N-I-N-G.

3. Kevin Harvick (7) – That's how you're supposed to race. Put it all on the line ... to hell with what happens. Maybe a championship is in his future yet.

4. Matt Kenseth (1) – Did anyone else see Kenseth on the Jay Leno show? It's sad when the guest is funnier than the host.

5. Mark Martin (9) – Mark may already be thinking about running the full schedule, sabotaging the Elliott Sadler announcement hours after it happened.

6. Kyle Busch (12) – How often is it that Rowdy is the classier of the two drivers in a "rivalry?" The younger Busch brother got booted out of the way by Harvick and didn't do anything about it Yet.

7. Martin Truex Jr. (10) – Ok I was wrong, the Napa Know How commercials are way more annoying than anything Clint Bowyer is in ... though not by much.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5) – Junior may have a few more Diet Dew offers if he keeps up the top-15 finishes.

9. Brad Keselowski (15) – If I hear one more thing about Keselowski's Twitter antics between now and Vegas, I'm going to put all my hard-earned blogging money on black.

10. Bobby Labonte (20) – I know it may be a bit early, but if the Chase started now Labonte would be in the championship hunt for the first time since guys such as Johnny Benson, Kenny Wallace and Ricky Craven were in the series.

11. Carl Edwards (3) – I hear the Subway driver promised media members Subway sandwiches for the Subway Fresh Fit 500; too bad the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwiches never made it to the track. Disclaimer: This ranking brought to you by Subway, eat fresh.

12. Jimmie Johnson (18) – You know it's not a good race when the fastest car can't even make a decent pass.

13. Jeff Gordon (17) – Four-time champion world problems: Running top 10 - "This car is junk."

14. Joey Logano (19) – May be about time to add some jam to Mr. Sliced Bread after two back-to-back top 10s.

15. Tony Stewart (8) – Tony did his best Marcos Ambrose impression, only he did it with more than 50 laps to go and was forced to ride around in 22nd.

16. Jeff Burton (6) – No better way to ruin a strong start to the season than by something out of your control, engines and UNC basketball .

17. Dave Blaney (13) – For the record, Dave Blaney has not joined Twitter, so any attempts to follow him will be futile. Unless you do it in real life, then you're just a creeper.

18. Juan Pablo Montoya (NR) – Track workers everywhere let out a huge sigh of relief when the #42 car finished the race without incident.

19. Regan Smith (NR) – Smith had the shortest drive to the track but one of the longest back to his hauler after a top-15 run was ruined by fuel mileage.

20. Paul Menard (11) – The official Paul Menard wrecks caused tally sits at: 1

DNF: Kasey Kahne – Sounds like someone is a little to antsy about getting to drive such good equipment. So much so, he turned right way before we ever got to Sonoma.

Hauler drivers face concerns after Daytona 500 delay

The unsung heroes of NASCAR teams each and every week, are about to have a very tough week ahead of them.


Every NASCAR fan care about the driver and a crew chief. It takes a special fan to pay attention to the pit crew. It takes a die-hard to care about the member in the worst shape after the Daytona 500 is finally in the books -- the hauler driver.


Depending the week and the tracks in question, a hauler driver could drive thousands of miles transporting cars to and from the track and the team facility.


This week, it's going to be even worse. After the Daytona 500 is complete, whether it's Monday night or Tuesday morning, it's going to be a long week for all of the hauler drivers.


When the race is over, the crew must pack up the car and take it back to the home-base in Mooresville, N. C., or about 504 miles away according to Google Maps. That's about an eight and a half hour drive.

After unloading all the Daytona equipment, teams must load equipment and cars for the race at Phoenix the following weekend. That can't be a quick process, I'll guess it would be about a three-hour event. So far, we are at a minimum 11 and a half hours from Daytona to ready to leave for Phoenix.

The drive from Moorseville to Phoenix International Raceway is a long one, 2,110 miles. Google Maps says it would take one day and nine hours, or 33 hours one way. That's puts us at a total of 44 and a half hours from Daytona to Phoenix not including sleep and rest stops. That's not going to be an easy trip for anybody.

"I just was looking at the schedule earlier today," Carl Edwards said. "We're not on the track till midday Friday or something.  Yeah, if we were to put this out until Tuesday, I think that would be real tough.


"But I'm sure it will be fine.  I mean, we've got guys, they can do it.  I know our Phoenix stuff is ready to go.  I think there might be an issue with some of the engines, especially with our FR-9s.  Have to ask Jack.  Doug Yates, the quantity, the amount of engines we had to have ready for these races, I'm sure they'll be running back and forth and turning things over."


That may be a simple transfer for teams as big as Roush, but the smaller teams may have issues.

Bobby Labonte of JTG Dougherty Racing is concerned for the hauler driver's safety.

"It's going to make a tough trip for the truck drivers more than anything else, leaving here, when we do leave here, to go home and make a swap," Labonte said. "How many hours will that take?  You have to make sure that you're planned well enough that your truck drivers can get there in the amount of time that's out there.  It's a long ways.  So we'll see."

The drivers have to be parked in the Phoenix infield by 5 a.m. Friday, moved from 5 p.m. Thursday, to get prepared for the weekend festivities. So if you see a NASCAR Hauler behind you this week, be sure to get out of the way and let them go. They are going to be in as much of a hurry as the NASCAR drivers will be at Daytona.

Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson continue to climb all-time wins list

As Kyle Busch crossed the finish line Saturday night at Richmond he notched his 21st career Cup victory to move into a tie for 22nd on the all-time wins list with drivers such as Benny Parsons, Jack Smith, Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte. Not bad for a 26-year-old driver.

Similarly, Jimmie Johnson won the 54th race of his career at Talladega two races ago to tie three-time NASCAR champion Lee Petty, which is also not bad for a 35-year-old.

Both feats are very impressive and we are privileged to have the chance to watch them on a week-to-week basis, just as St. Louis Cardinals fans have been able to watch Albert Pujols become one of the greatest baseball players of all-time.

Let’s see if we can offer some perspective on these two drivers, arguably the two best in the sport right now. It’s natural to think of Busch as the guy who wins races and Johnson as the guy who wins championships. While that is true, it would be unwise to think Busch won’t contend for championships for many years to come and Johnson is starting to move into the realm of the all-time greats in the sport with his win total.

Now, Busch is easily on pace to eventually eclipse Johnson in terms of wins simply because he started younger than Johnson.

Johnson started his Sprint Cup Series career full time in 2002 at the age of 26 and Busch already has 21 wins at that same age.

Setting aside the factor of his championships, Johnson still should be considered one of the greatest winners in NASCAR history. He has won 16 percent of the races he’s competed in, while Busch has won just 9 percent.

Yet, many expect Busch to end up in at least the top 10 all-time as far as Cup victories are concerned. As is the case with Johnson, Busch has a 21-win head start. If Busch were to win at the same rate as Johnson for the next nine years, he will have 75 wins and be right there with Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.

Johnson, meanwhile, is the same age Gordon was four years ago when he won six races to bring his career total to 81. This isn’t to say Johnson is about ready to fall back and become a guy who’s win rate will dramatically fall off, but he is at the age where other talented drivers saw the Victory Lane gates shut.

Gordon has won just twice since 2007, and Burton won 17 races up until he turned 34 in 2001, winning four races since.

How far will Johnson get? He hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down and currently sits second in the points standings with a victory under his belt.

So, maybe 10 years from now Busch might be making his way up the all-time wins list and surpassing whatever number Johnson has, but it is possible Johnson could've had those numbers himself if he had the chance to start his career a few years earlier, as Busch did.

Sometimes it’s not the case of one driver being better than another, just the case of when they were able to find the opportunity to break into the sport.