Let the Conspiracy Theories Commence

NASCAR fans are a conspiracy minded lot, at times. After almost every race, every debris caution, and every penalty doled out, some jackasses are accusing NASCAR officials of favoritism and teams of cheating.

This weekend at Talladega, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s engine blew. Dale is leaving the team at the end of the year for Hendrick, but still has a chance to get into the Chase for the Championship.

Considering how well Kurt Busch is doing these days, if Earnhardt pulls it off, it'd probably come at the expense of DEI's soon to be leading man, Martin Truex. That'd be pretty embarrasing, if the guy who's ditching the team made it while the one who is supposed to be their new star gets locked out.

Maybe the DEI folks decided to make sure that wasn't a possibility. Maybe they gave Dale a shitty engine. Yeah, and maybe JFK was killed by aliens.

Of course, the more innocent explanation (besides just bad like for Jr.) is that Martin Truex is probably getting the top tier equipment and motors now, and Dale Jr's motor failure is just a reflection of that. It makes sense from an organizational standpoint.

Still, it is a lucky turn of events for DEI to save face. Dale Jr. will now be hard pressed to make the chase at Truex's expense. Though, it could turn out really bad if *both* of then fail.

Just keep an eye out for debris-wielding men in dark trenchcoats on the grassy knoll.

Ginn-DEI Merger Fallout

A lot of people are talking about what the Ginn-DEI merger means to those two teams, the uncertain future of all sorts of drivers, and Ginn's role in the sport overall. I'm getting the feeling the millionaire real estate man has worn out his welcome in NASCAR, or at least destroyed all the good will he built up earlier in the year.

But the biggest, most immediate impact we'll see Sunday won't have anything to do with that. Aside from the question marks relating to Marlin and Nemecheck, this will dramatically change the qualifying situation for the "go or go home" teams. Sure, the 15 car now has Marlin's points, but that's just a swap, but in the end this deal means that 2 cars that were always threats to make the field are no longer there. Plus, I think Nemecheck was in 34th, so that should move the Wood Brothers up into the top 35 either for this week or at least by next week (assuming, of course, they make the race and Ginn doesn't sell the 13's points to someone else.)

That's gotta be a good feeling for the 21 folks, especially with Terry Labonte trumping Bill Elliott's champ provisional this weekend. (I guess I was wrong about Mikey maybe asking DW to drive his car.)

With two Ginn cars off the track, a lot of other folks outside the top 35 have to be a little more confident about making the Brickyard. Nothing's guaranteed, but Ward Burton and Jeremy Mayfield have to be a little more optimistic this week than last.

It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out.

NASCAR Owner Points

Owner points are very important for many teams, especially those around the top-35 mark because of Nextel Cup's guaranteed spot for those cars. So if the race for the win or the chase is a snoozer on Sunday, watch closer and see the desperate struggle some teams are in to survive. Their battles are often more entertaining than the leaders, because you know for these guys its do or die. It's only a matter of time before sponsorship money dries up for some of those outside the 35. To steal a phrase from strategy guru Robert Greene, these teams are on "death ground." They will go further, try harder, and take more risks because the survival of the team is at steak.

Despite all this drama, and the time dedicated to talking about it on TV, NASCAR owner points don't seem to be prominently displayed on the nascar.com website. But they are there, and they are updated after each race. So follow this link and bookmark it for the 2007 season:

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/data/standings_owner.html

Right now, Kyle Petty's 45, Ginn & Nemecheck's 13, and the improbably successful number 70 team with Sauter behind the wheel take up 33, 34, and 35th respectively. Right on the outside looking in is the Wood Brother's 21. Now piloted by Bill Elliott, they have the advantage of Elliott's champion provisional. Which is good, because: Bill rarely wrecks, does well at intermediate tracks like we're in right now, and he often qualifies on time anyways. The choice is incredibly smart when you consider that they're 200 points behind the 35th position. So long as Elliott drives the car, you should see them in the field each Sunday.

So that leaves the 37th place team (only a couple points behind the 21) as the most desperate. Their pilot is the perennially underestimated Dave Blaney, who would easily be a multi time winner if luck were on his side a few times. Unfortunately, bad luck continues to plague this team. Despite Blaney's ability to wrangle it into the field each Friday in qualifying, a series of tire blowouts, accidents, and part failures leave them on the outside looking in.

Michael Waltrip's 55 is fucked this year. The penalty from Daytona left them in the negative for a good chunk of the season, especially after a 7 week long string of missed races. Waltrip's season has been the strongest argument against the top 35 rule. Would there have been additive in the engine of his car at Daytona had he been able to simply qualify his way in? The man is almost as good as Earnhardt on restrictor plate tracks. They were made desperate by the top 35 rule from the get go, being a new team with no owner points. They gambled and lost. Many times, Waltrip has qualified in the top 25, yet failed to make the race because of the rules.

Now he's so far behind, he has no hope of making the top 35 this season. Unless they did something drastic. Now that Fox's coverage of the season is done, do you think Mikey will get desperate enough to call older brother Darrell (and past champion) out of retirement to race the rest of the season, at least guaranteeing them a spot in 7 or so races? I doubt it would happen. I don't think Mikey has the humility to ask.

What I can say is, the race in the back of the pack is often times more interesting than that at the front. Pay attention.

Kyle Petty F-Bomb

So Matt Kenseth Dive bombed Kyle Petty, and reacted by saying exactly what everyone was thinking: "What the FUCK was that!?"

Unfortunately, this is the race where Kyle Petty is the in-race reporter, with a high quality mic linked up with his video. Someone at TNT goofed big time and ran a replay immediately with the audio running, uncensored.

The awkward silence on the broadcast after that was classic.

Kyle Busch is Unlucky; Does Donuts to Celebrate

Kyle Busch can't catch a break. For one, he drives what is consistently the ugliest car in the field every week, but he has been shafted when he's had a dominant car many times this year, many times involving wrecks. He's wrecked a ridiculous amount of times in the past few weaks between the Busch and Cup series, and they haven't exactly been minor wrecks. He had that "miscommunication" after a wreck where he thought his car was trashed and left the track, resulting in Dale Jr. driving his car to the finish. He flipped like crazy in the Aaron's 312 then smacked the wall hard in today's race. It's no wonder he declined the customary interview - and it shows that for all his immaturity, he at least has enough presence of mind to know when to keep away from the cameras.. well, when he isn't in victory lane, that is.

Despite all his bad luck, he did win a race, and suffered a case of foot-in-mouth disease, badmouthing the Car of Tomorrow in its first race. But he'd probably be our points leader right now if he weren't catching so many bad breaks - and I think he knows it.

After today's wreck, he tried to keep going with an obviously smashed car. The only result from this was he wound up doing a set of donuts on the backstretch of Talladega, much like the ones a winner celebrating would do. Who knows, maybe he was celebrating his own bad luck.

Screenshots of Kyle Busch's post-wreck donuts.

Jimmie Johnson's Vengeance on the 25

Today's race was officially "Irony Day" at Talladega. Stewart gets saved by a debris caution when he was just earlier in the week complaining about them. Dale Earnhardt's last rival eclipses him on his birthday at a track filled with fans who would never have possibly seen it coming, and were none too pleased. Oh, and the 48 car dumped the 25 car in a miscue after working well together all day - an exact reverse of what happened at the end of the last race at Talladega, that saw Brian Vickers going on to victory lane.

Of course, the drivers were different - Casey Mears has since replaced vickers as the driver of the 25. But it just seems that anybody who drives that car gets sadled with bad luck. Up and comers like Jerry Nadeu, a former Busch champ like Vickers, and now Mears. Their cars were consistently good, but the 25 just seems to be cursed. Or something.

Either way, you have to wonder if maybe Johnson had some left over agression towards the 25 from last time. Of course, if you're going to go by that theory, maybe he was mad at Greg Biffle, as Casey's car is an almost exact replica in paint scheme of the Biff's National Guard car from last year. Ok, maybe not. Here are the screenshots:









We know now it was another Hendrick "miscommunication." Mears and company thought their teammates were peeling off with them to pit. Johnson and company had no clue this was going to happen and Johnson apparently missed Casey's hand signals down the backstretch. Hendrick cars have been dominating this year, but they also seem to be plagued by bizarre missteps that hurt them. Only their utter domination on the track makes up for this. Luckily for Mears, he will barely hang on to the 35th position in points, meaning he has a guaranteed slot in next week's race.