People and things that need to 'Git R Done' in '08
Here is a list of the various people and things that need to step up this season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The first guy that came to mind as I put together this list was Dale Earnhardt Jr. after leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Hendrick Motorsports in the off-season.
The record Hendrick had with Casey Mears, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch last season has been on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s mind and he wants to continue the winning trend at the four-car organization. But it isn't just on Dale Jr.'s mind. Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. also has to be relishing the opportunity coming this season.
This is their year to make a point and prove something, and they know they have the resources and everything else they need so there shouldn't be any excuses.
Look for those guys to really "Amp" it up this year because they are anxious to "Do the Dew" in Victory Lane — especially during the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.
I can't tell you all how many people I've talked to over the last week or two that are telling me about all the extra special effort they are putting into Daytona this year, and it's not just because we are running the Car of Tomorrow for the first time there. It's because it is the 50th annual running of the Great American Race. Richard Childress had a big grin on his face when he told me how special it would be for one of his cars to win this Daytona 500. Rick Hendrick was the same way as he told me all about the extra effort his organization was putting in to claim the golden Harley J. Earl winner's trophy.
Casey Mears
Since we are talking about Hendrick Motorsports, I think I should point towards Casey Mears as one of the guys that needs to kick it up a notch this year because he is on the powerful four-car team. He finished 2007 with momentum, so he really needs to step up and be the superstar that everybody keeps waiting for him to be.This could be the year he gets it done.
Joe Gibbs Racing
Another group of guys with pressure on them is Joe Gibbs Racing. They've got to go out and prove that they didn't make a mistake by choosing Toyota instead of staying with Chevrolet. The only way to do that is by running strong and showing people that last year's disappointing results from the Toyota teams was because it was a learning experience for the manufacturer.I know the Toyota people really well, and they don't take defeat lightly. They are going to come out of the gate in 2008 loaded for bear, so I look for the Gibbs cars to win races. Kyle Busch was at the top of the speed charts during the first Daytona test session last week, and a lot of Toyotas have been toward the top of the charts this week at the superspeedway, so I think we are going to be hearing a lot about the Camry with JGR's Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin leading the way.
Michael Waltrip Racing
This is Michael's year to prove that he can get it done after all the embarrassment, heartaches and headaches he had to endure in 2007. Maybe he can put some of those things behind him this season and get all three of his team cars running well and inside the top 35 in owner points so they don't have to worry about qualifying by time every week.There's no question in my mind that JGR's input and participation in the Toyota program will benefit all of the teams under the manufacturer's banner. But you have to remember this, and I don't want to take anything away from Team Red Bull, Bill Davis Racing or my brother's team, but they did all the research and development. Last year was a development year for Toyota with new teams and a new car in their rookie campaign. Everything was new, so everybody went through an incredible learning experience.
Gibbs chose the right time to switch to another car make, because basically they just need to change the nose and the tail (maybe the quarter windows as well) of their Car of Tomorrow chassis' from last year and they have made their switch from a Monte Carlo to a Camry. The Chassis are all the same, you can't do anything there, and the bodies are almost identical. So if you were going to change manufacturers, this was the best year to do it. It was a smart move on Gibbs' part, and they are going to reap the benefits from all the hard work put in by all the other teams in 2007.
I think it's going to all pay off based on what I've seen down at Daytona these last two weeks. It looks pretty promising for the Toyota boys.
Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing has to step up this year. Their COT program looked like it was coming around at the end of last season with the runs put in by Carl Edwards and certainly Matt Kenseth. The driver of the No. 17 had an awfully good last 10 races of the year in '07. Yes, he had a couple of bad races in between there too, but overall he did pretty darn good and that's gotta be encouraging for the Roush camp.If RFR caught up to Hendrick in the COT development, and they looked like they did, it'll be interesting to see if they can get it done in this season.
Jamie McMurray
If Roush has really picked up on their COT program like it appears they have, then Jamie McMurray has to rise to the occasion. Even though he did have that victory at Daytona last July, people keep waiting for him to have a breakout campaign and become a championship contender.
The Chase for the Sprint Cup
This year's Chase better be exciting because it just hasn't created the excitement that Brian France and everybody at NASCAR had anticipated.NASCAR didn't tweak anything going into the 2008 season, and I think the reason for that is they are going to see how it plays out this year. I'm pretty sure though that if we don't see some improvements in the competition and excitement level at the end of this year that we are going to get a revamped system soon after that.
I have a couple of suggestions and they are pretty simple. First, I firmly believe that you have to reward the regular season champion. Jeff Gordon should have gotten a trophy and a big check after his dominating "regular season" performance in 2007. Instead, they took his 400 point lead away, patted him on the back, told him he did a good job and said "Oh by the way, you're in second place going into the Chase."
Anybody who finishes on top heading into the Chase should get a big check and a nice trophy for being the regular season champ. After that, let's go into the playoffs and see who is going to be the Sprint Cup champion.
In my mind, that was the downfall for Gordon last season because he is driving like we are still under the old season-long points system, whereas two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is racing under the new point system. Gordon's gotta get up there and get after Jimmie in the last 10 races this year and he's gotta win more — that's how Johnson won his championship.
Still, I'm glad because I've preached for a long time that there should be a premium on winning and the guy who wins the most should be the champion, and it turned out to be true in 2007.
If you want to win championships, you have to win races and that's what makes this exciting.
Aside from putting a premium on winning, here's a few more ways to create more excitement:
I know people say "I don't want them to have their own point system," but those people have to realize that NASCAR already has a separate point system by creating the Chase. Those 12 guys aren't really racing the 31 others out there, and that's why they need their own point system. If you did that, you would keep them bunched up and keep the title battle a lot tighter instead of the separation we are getting now.
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Right now, the Chase lacks intensity. In the NCAA basketball tournament, you have one bad game and you are eliminated. The same thing goes in the NFL playoffs — look at what happened to the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys this year. With the Chase, we are not eliminating anybody because of a bad race, instead we are doing it over a period of time and by the time you get to the final races you forget about everybody else.
Shorten up the Chase and give the championship contenders their own point system. That'll create a lot of excitement among those 12 guys, I guarantee it.
I hope NASCAR looks at this format for next year.
Television
Speaking of excitement, all of us TV people have to do a better job. All three networks, we have to work harder to bring the fans at home what they are looking for, what they want to watch, hear and see. We've got to all work together to try to grow the sport to get the TV ratings back where everybody thinks they ought to be.Our television ratings are still better than any other sport except football. We keep comparing ourselves to football, even I do it, but I think we have to be careful doing that. We have the second most watched sport on television and we have more spectators come to our events that any other sport, so we have a lot of good things going for us. We just need to do a little bit of a better job. NASCAR has to work with us and the networks have to work together so that we bring the fan at home what they want to see and want to hear.
Racetracks
Another thing I want to bring up, this could be a tough year for everybody. I'm already hearing from team owners and people in business budget for $3.75 to $4 a gallon fuel later on this year. When a gallon of gas costs that high, we have to be concerned about the number of people that can drive long distances to get to races.With that in mind, I think the racetracks have to do a better job of attracting the local fans. California comes to mind — Las Vegas Motor Speedway does a great job — any racetrack that is near a big city, that's where they are going to have to work hard to get the big audiences because people are not going to be able to afford to drive long distances if gas prices skyrocket like everybody predicts they will.
Jimmie Johnson
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This is also a year for Jimmie Johnson to see if he can "Git R Done" and win his third Sprint Cup Series title in a row. It's only been done one other time, and that was by Cale Yarborough from 1976-1978.
I had a pretty good shot at it in 1981, '82 and '83, but I fell short. Jimmie's got a great opportunity to do something only one other person has done in NASCAR history. If he does, it creates a dynasty out of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet team. Can Jimmie and crew chief Chad Knaus back up what they have done the last two years with a third championship? If they do, then they will have created something very special and very similar to what Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham did in the '90s.
Nationwide Series
This is the year NASCAR has to step it up in regards to their Nationwide division. People keep talking about what NASCAR is going to do to the series, but I think it's gotta be something more than changing the car. Just changing the car doesn't create any excitement nor does it add anything. However, it does cost the teams a lot of money.I don't think that people are really concerned with what type of car you are racing in the Nationwide Series. I think they are interested in who's racing and where they are racing at.
NASCAR really, really needs to think long and hard about getting the Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide Series back on short tracks. I'll tell you why: Young kids all over the country — from Hickory Speedway to South Boston Speedway, Nashville Fairgrounds to tracks in the Midwest and West coast — can get their chance at these tracks. That's where the local hot dog can prepare and build to compete on a national level. By following this plan, these drivers won't need to have a superspeedway car or truck, he doesn't have to be a road racer, he just has to be a short track driver, and that's how a guy can really make his mark.
Every one of us — myself, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett and many others — all honed our skills racing on short tracks of the Midwest and Southeast. NASCAR has taken that away, but I think that's what the Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series has to get back to. These short tracks will help develop drivers so that when they get to a big racetrack in the Sprint Cup level they won't be so intimidated.
It's not about the car, it's about the track.
Penske Racing
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If Roger Penske is ever going to win a championship, this should be the year he can do it. Kurt Busch started running really good when Pat Tryson got over there, so they need to have a good start to the year.
The No. 2 Miller Lite team had a good car at Daytona last year but got caught up in a wreck, then when they returned to Daytona in July they finished third at the Pepsi 400. That proves that they've got a team that can win the Daytona 500, which would be big for the entire organization. That would be a great way to start the year off as Busch tries to help Penske win his first Cup championship. Roger first showed up in Cup racing in 1972 with Dave Marcis and Mark Donohue driving a total of 11 races behind the wheel of a Matador, yet he has not won a Cup Series championship nor the Daytona 500.
This could be the year that Roger Penske's teams get it done.
Kurt's going to have to get it done also because he is going to either have to qualify into the first five races based on time or rely on the past champions' provisionals he has at his disposal after he swapped owner points with teammate Sam Hornish Jr.
Dale Jarrett
Speaking of past champions and provisionals, Dale Jarrett is also going to have to step up because he won't have a provisional to fall back on if he and Busch stumble in qualifying on the same weekend.As I mentioned earlier, my brother's organization has to put last year behind them. If my brother is going to succeed and stay in this business as a driver and owner, he has got to have a better year than he had in '07. Sponsors will cut you a little bit of slack, but they won't do it forever. He's gotta get all three of his cars running good. I feel with the changes he's made in personnel, and with Toyota showing more power and running better, Michael can go to Daytona without any issues and he can "Git R Done." That would be exciting for a lot of folks.
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