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NASCAR Notebook
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Jeff Gordon says he likes NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship.
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Published: September 12, 2008
Gordon is closer to Busch for now, but not nearly as close as last year
■ Jeff Gordon is still winless. So is Tony Stewart.
It makes you wonder if NASCAR's TV ratings might be higher if those two stars, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., too, were doing better. But at least all three are in the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship.
Gordon is in sight of tour leader Kyle Busch for the first time in a while, now that the standings have been reset. But it's quite the opposite of where Gordon was last year -- battling for the championship with perhaps the strongest, most consistent team on the tour. In the last 10 races, he had two wins, nine top 10s and a 5.1 finishing average.
And still he lost.
Under NASCAR's longtime championship system, Gordon, 37, probably would have six Cup titles now, instead of four. Still, he says, "this format is exciting for the fans, and it's exciting for the competitors.
"And while I could have, should have won more championships if we were still using the season-long format, I think this one is better for our sport. It's tougher to win. Instead of two or three or four guys racing for the championship at this point in the season, we now have 12.
"I've had big leads wiped away when the chase started, and we're on the flip side now: We were 681 points out of the lead before Richmond, and now it's down to 80. While it has not been a stellar year, that could change in the final 10 races."
But, unless something dramatic happens right here this weekend, it probably won't.
■ Jack Roush has three drivers in the Chase, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. Edwards has won six races, and Biffle and Kenseth are winless.
"Carl has certainly been the strong horse in our group, but Matt has won a championship, and he's got a strong team behind him and is certainly able," Roush said. "Every year, Matt has some portion where he's just spectacular. He hasn't really had that spectacular run so far. But I think it's in front of him, and I expect it in the next 10 races.
"Greg won a Truck championship and a Busch Grand National championship, and he's anxious to complete the trifecta, and I'm sure he can.
"Our technology is great, our testing program has been productive. We think we're ready to close the deal."
■ There's still no word on NASCAR's search for a new sponsor for its touring Truck series. Sears' Craftsman division is not renewing. However SPEED TV reports that its Trucks broadcasts are showing double-digits growth, up an average of 28 percent, with increases in 12 of the 14 races. The Truck race at Concord in May pulled a 1.13 rating. The tour is averaging a .77 rating, compared to last year's .60.
■ Tony Stewart is still burning over losing last week's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 to Jimmie Johnson and it shows. "When we know we let one slip away," Stewart said, "that's something we do let ourselves get down about."
Stewart, winless since Watkins Glen last season, is wary about his chances for a third Cup title. "In the Chase, there are more variables you can't control than you can. You've got to hope every lap that everything goes alright."
Stewart knows that too well. His run-in with Robby Gordon at Loudon a few years back knocked him out of the title hunt before the 10-week Chase was 30 minutes old."
■ For Dale Earnhardt Jr. the next 10 weeks are the payoff, whichever way it goes, for his jump from DEI to the Rick Hendrick camp, to team with champions Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
"I'm hoping to lean on them when I can to improve our car's ability and performance … to take advantage of their experience and their success, and this company's success," he said. "That's really why I'm here to begin with."
It's obviously a good place to be. The Chase has run four years, 40 races, and Hendrick's drivers have won 16 of the 40. And Johnson might become only the second driver to win three straight Cup titles, after Cale Yarborough (1976, 1977, 1978).
Is Earnhardt championship-caliber? That's debatable. He's good, better than in several years, but to win the championship, he and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. must step things up. Earnhardt did lead 90 laps at Richmond, running his season total to 796. That's the best lap-leading for him since 2004.
■ In the DEI camp, Aric Almirola will be back this weekend in the car Mark Martin has been running much of the season. The two have shared the ride, and Almirola is scheduled to drive in three more Cup races, Talladega, Martinsville and Phoenix.
■ General Motors' objections to having Toyota's Marc Davis in one of their Chevy Trucks, the Randy Moss team, apparently will keep the Davis on the sidelines this week.
■ Speaking of putting lipstick on a pig, or a pit bull, Atlanta Motor Speedway is trying to take advantage of the gimmick to sell a few more tickets to its October race -- buy four tickets for $159, and you get four Cokes, four hot dogs … and now a tube of lipstick. "I'm sure the hockey moms, female fans and others will enjoy the extra addition," said Ed Clark, Atlanta's president.
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