Off to a great start in 2008
Relive the action
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Race Trax:
News:
- Don't expect return of Southern 500
- Roush driver wins ARCA race
- Stewart wins wreck-filled N'wide race
- Biffle sets record, wins pole
Analysis:
Fantasy:
Can you dig it?
Photo galleries:
Blog:
I've been worried all winter long that I had false hopes that I was going to show up down here this February with this new car and that it wouldn't perform well. I was concerned that my excitement and my confidence in Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports would disappoint me. I was concerned that NASCAR would come down hard on drivers, even though they said they were going to lighten up a little bit and let the guys have a little more freedom in expressing themselves.
All of those things that have been said and put together over the off-season were all things that were exciting, things we wanted to see happen and things the sport needs ... but you never know how it's going to work out until you roll it out if it is going to work out like you expected.
Well, I thought Friday when Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart had their little incident in practice — I am certainly not condoning using the race cars to retaliate against each other, and you've heard me say that before — was well handled by NASCAR. Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby and Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton called Tony and Kurt into the NASCAR hauler and had a conversation with them. I think that meeting may have gotten a little physical — I don't know that for a fact, but rumor has it that there was some pushing and shoving going on. I know emotions were high enough and the boys got so out of control that Darby said "We are going to have a meeting in the morning."
Oh, by the way, the second meeting was at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.
I think a night of letting things cool off a little bit and getting everybody back together in the morning was the right call. I think all is well now.
But folks, I said this on the FOX telecast the other night and I'll say it again: NASCAR doesn't run an adult day care center. NASCAR is a sanctioning body that makes rules, enforces rules and conducts events in a professional manner; and that's how they expect their athletes that participate to behave.
One thing that has bothered me, and it's been bothering me more and more as time goes by, is that when I see two drivers who have histories like Stewart and Busch do, I'd like to know where the owners are. Where are Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske? Those are two of the most respected owners in the garage area, and their drivers are two of the most talented in the garage area. Gibbs and Penske should be disciplining their drivers and telling their drivers that if they continue to do this and continue tearing up race cars, something is going to have to be done about it.
I remember when I drove for Junior Johnson in the early 1980's. He wouldn't tolerate me getting into a wreckingfest with Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott or anybody else. I drove for Rick Hendrick and he would not tolerate me getting into that type of position. If I did, he'd call me and say "If you want to continue racing my cars, you are going to have to respect my team, the people who work on these cars and the quality of equipment I am giving you. Stop going out there and tearing it up."
I'm not saying that's not happening behind closed doors at Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing, but in a situation like this when a driver gets summoned to NASCAR's hauler, their owner and crew chief should be right beside them. They should all sit down and resolve their differences once-and-for-all. The crew chief ultimately is responsible for everything that happens to the race car, the owner is responsible for everything that happens with the race team.
There's some times there where it has to go to the next level where owners have to sit drivers out. It shouldn't be that every time something goes wrong teams want to run to NASCAR and get them to fix it. That's part of NASCAR's job, but it's not their only job.
But that's not what this weekend was all about, a lot of good things happened after that.
We saw an incredible Budweiser Shootout — one of the most exciting ones I've seen. I was so happy with the way the new car performed. It's not unusual to see cars stay bunched up and race hard like we did in the first 20-lap segment, but in the final 50-lap segment where you get to making those long runs on your tires we'd see the cars get strung out in the past and side-by-side racing goes away.
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Not this time.
These guys stayed bunched up and they were pushing and shoving, beating and banging like a typical Saturday night short-track race. I was so happy to see that we have a race car that these guys can race with.
I'm not saying the car still doesn't need some tweaks and that they can't make it better, but I am saying that now that this is the only car teams have, and this is what they have to focus on, they will continue to improve it. If NASCAR just works a little bit with the teams and they keep on beating and working on this thing, we are going to see a car that everybody is going to be very happy with and it won't take too much time to make that happen this season.
California Speedway could be a different animal as well as Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We've got some different race tracks we haven't been to yet coming up on the schedule, but I sure was happy with what I saw Saturday night.
I was also happy to see Dale Jr. pull that first win coming right out of the box. To see that No. 88 Chevrolet coming across that finish line first — and he had to beat champions like Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson ... he had all the hounds after him. But he drove that thing just like I knew he would and I'm proud and excited for him, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and I'm super-happy for Rick Hendrick.
Both Hendrick and Earnhardt had a lot of pressure on them, and I'm glad to see them pull it off.
Fast forward to Sunday real quick, the qualifying for the front row of the Daytona 500 was unbelievable. I mean Jimmie Johnson told us what he was going to run before he even jumped in the car, and he practically nailed it on the head.
We knew my brother Michael was going to be good based on practice, and he's right there alongside Johnson on the front row. I could talk all night about Michael, what he's been through, what he sacrificed and what he's had to deal with to get to where he is. It took a year — exactly a year — but he undertook a year's worth of work when he created his three teams, tried to get going and be competitive with a new manufacturer. He had to deal with a lot of things we've talked about in the past, including having to build two different race cars last year. I knew this year was going to be better.
Everybody says, "Oh, Gibbs came onboard and that's what turned everything around at Toyota." No it's not. It's all the hard work and heavy lifting that the Toyota teams did last year that made it easy for JGR to come in and put their finishing touches on a product that was already there. Gibbs have certainly helped in the motor and engineering departments, but it's the hard work of all these guys — Team Red Bull, Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing — from last year that make this year's results possible.
I'm proud of my brother, and I know there's people that say, "All you do is talk about your brother ... " I'm not making up anything. That No. 55 Toyota Camry, with my brother driving, is on the front row for the 50th Daytona 500 — and that's all I have to say about that.
Well, one more thing, David Reutimann is right there with him.
Great job by Michael. I'm proud of him for hanging in there, enduring, persevering and going through what he went through. He's a better man than I would have been because I don't know if I could have tolerated all he went through last year.
Oh, by the way
I'm glad to see that there's some movement in the open wheel ranks right now between Champ Car and IRL. I think it would be great for them to get their differences resolved and I think this is the time to do it.
I'm excited to see John Force get back in the car and be competitive. I love watching the NHRA, they have some great drivers and have a lot of exciting things going on.
I think Formula One is going to have another great year with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen going at each other for the title. And seeing how Fernando Alonso does in his return to Renault...
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Can't get enough Darrell Waltrip? Check out his new "Oh, by the way" blog to get even more of DW's insights. | ||
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This is going to be an exciting year of racing. It's going to be outstanding in NASCAR and just as exciting across the board. As my boss at FOX David Hill always says, "A rising tide lifts all ships." I think that's definitely true in racing.
All these series are going to have great years and look to stay healthy, it's better for all of us and that's why I think '08 is going to be so great.
Motorsports across the board is going to rise to a new level this year, and I am so happy and proud to be watching and reporting on it.
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