Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Preview
Thursday September 6, 2007
This Saturday night under the lights in Richmond the Race to the Chase will come to a close. At the end of the race the top twelve drivers will be locked into the 2007 Chase for the Cup. The twelve Chasers will celebrate and everyone else will commiserate.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick will be squarely in the spotlight on Saturday night. Harvick is twelfth in points holding onto a 128 point lead over Earnhardt in thirteenth. If Harvick stumbles Junior could close the gap and sneak into the 2007 Chase.
Comments
I would love to see Jr make the chase but Harvick can really turn it up when he needs to ! and his car has been more reliable .If you ask me I think they should ditch the chase all together !! I know i wouldn’t drive any different just because some chase guy was behind me .Its like Nascar makes the rest of the field seem second rate …Could you imagine Montoya getting into a tangly with Harvick this week !
I think the race will be between #20 and #24. Both are locked in the chase and have nothing to lose. Wins mean everything when the chase starts. If Jeff wins, he will at least share the lead in the chase. I’m pulling for the big orange #20.
Okay, I am new to this sport. After this race is over and the 12 are locked in then what happens. How do you win! And when does this season end? If there are any good E sites for me to read up on then let me know. Go TONY!
Those that are locked into the chase will be going for the win for the extra points. Tey will pull all the stops to try to win as Tony did last week by trying to satrech his gas looking for a yellow flag, had he got one, I think he would have recieved the checkered flag not J.J. This week won’t be any different! This should be the best race this year, no playing it safe looking at the Big picture any more. I like happy harvick & Jr, it will be fun to wsatch! GO Tony GO!!!
Lauren ONLY the teams in the top 12 have a chance to win the championship. That includes for (Long shot) instance if JR is #13 or any other driver out of the chase, IF he wins the last 10 races and the top 12 teams come in on the bottom 12 (30-43 in ranks) he still don’t get the championship and one of the 12 teams that is lock in will be champion. Fair uh?
The Chase is crap and derived to hype TV ratings.
The season ends at Richmond this w/e, and then the Chase, or “playoff” races begin, with the Big Finale being at Homestead in November, where the Champion is Cupped.
I’m pulling for Bowyer. That’ll put a nice face on the Chase. No wins this season, but a Champeen. LOL
The chase crap was started mostly in part when the fans that have no idea how the points system worked the year when Matt Kensith (misspelled) won the championship without winning or maybe one or two races that year. He got his points by being consistent in the top 5-10 finishes where everybody else win one week and then fall out of the top 5-10 or dnf the next. He was only one or very few that were consistent, fans complain, and NASCAR in their wisdom fixed it. NASCAR wisdom now look what they got everything the same the tracks, the cars and drivers can say anything they want as long they don’t say anything bad about NASCAR. Go figure
I have to miss the race because im in marching band at my school and we have a game (I’m only in it to watch football for free). Not that matters, Edwards is solidly in the chase and I could careless if Jr. made it (YEAH THATS RIGHT I DONT CARE IF JR. MAKES IT). Not that I have anything against him though but if your 13th you really have no buissness even being close (they shouldnt have expanded the field to 12). And its not like hes missed it before.
Come on JR time to kick some A$S n get into the chase
I am glad this season is almost over, it is … isn’t it? I mean if Dale Earnhardt Jr. the son of the soon to be cannonized “Saint Dale the 1st” is not in the chase, then why bother to watch NASCAR after Saturday night.
Last Tuesday night, I finally got to see “Dale” the Movie on CMT. There where more ignorant red-necks on that pre-show than in my own family! Saint Dale was able to see thin air (and possibly walked on it too). As the bull started to spread, we saw only one side on the man. I am glad I did not have to pay good money in a movie threater to see such a kiss*** example of ignorance.
Seriously, it is about time we buried poor Dale and remember fondly of what hew meant to each or us. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will never be the driver his father was, nor should he try. Dale Jr has his own career ahead of him and if he wins that is great and if he doesn’t we should understand. I meant no disrespect to those who consider Dale Earnhardt a hero, but he was also a man with the same flaws as we all have. The movie failed to mention that he until he made it to NASCAR, his children were not the most important part of his life. Kerry was a teenager before he really got to know his father and that was something that would have shown a flaw in the man as a parent.
Fans only see what they want to see and Dale Earnhardt did alot of great things, but he was a human and has his
problems just like we all do. They wrongly believe in things that were not true, because if they saw these flaws in the man, maybe that bust their warped dream that Dale was some sort of personal friend to them.
Dale Earnhardt was great driver, but I can name 10 better. That is my opinion and you might not share that opinion. That is your right. But on Saturday night, Dale Jr. will try his best to become a part of a playoff system that has ruined NASCAR. If Dale Jr. fails to make the top 12, many fans who spend millions on diecast cars, t-shirts hats and “8″ stickers for their car (or pickup) windows, might lose interest in the last ten races. Why watch a race if you favorite driver can do nothing but win. Why follow a chase tha has your favorite drive not able to win the Nextel Cup even if he has 10 great races at the finish. And that is just Dale Jr. There are many fans of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Both drivers havew m ore wins than the other drivers, yet if someone gets hot tye last ten races or if either have just a small problem during the last ten race, all those wins and top ten finishes both these drivers had for 26 reaces were for not!
I am not a fan of this playoff style season that NASCAr has for the Nextel Cup anhd if I have written something that gets that point across today, I hope the France family understand that NASCAR is much more than it has been since the first 50 years passed. With this new “Car of the Future” that looks more like the Le Mans style Corvette Gt car than a stock car and a playoff system that lockes out the biggest stars in it’s sport with 10 races to go, maybe what NASCA needs is to go back to its roots when they drove on Sunday afternoon at such places as Rockingham and Darlinton was raced on Labor day!
jhust a thought, hope it kicks up some interest.
I think Lenny has a valid point. I am a relative newcomer to Nascar racing, and Jimmie Johnson has been my main man ever since I “discovered” the sport four years ago. I will always regret that I nevr saw Dale Earnhart race. Nothing I can do about it now. I believe that most people know that he had his faults as a husband and a father, but I also can see where he appealed to the Nascar type people, which are mostly od the blue collar type. I watched “Dale” last Tue night and I shed a little tear at the last. If he were alive today, I think he would be very vocal in opposition to the top 12 playoff format. My man will probably start in first place, but I agree that it’s a sorry way to end the season. Perhaps the fathers of the sport will mend thier ways in the future.
The problem with NASCAR is that the old loyal blue collar “good’ol’ boy” Country/Western fan is being replaced by the 21 century Rock & Roll business suit fan. This is also a new part of the make up of NASCAR drivers and crews as well. Back in the day, they rooted for the southern “Alabama Gang” style driver. As in the Moview “Days of Thunder” when they asked where the the new driver (Tom Cruise’s) character was “Yankee” and someone said came from and they said he came from California, Robert Duval made some sort of joke that he came from “no-where”. Last week, no less than 8 drivers in the field came from California and more and more come from all over the country. The Good Ol’ Boy days are over and with that NASCAR has lost it’s special twang!
If you look at NASCAR now, you will start to see the high roller class driver entering the field. The former Formula One Drivers like Montoya and Villenuve are on their way. Formula One is too competitive for some drivers to stay in their riddes and with the bigger bucks now in the offering in NASCAR, those drivers who could not cut it in F-1 will wipe the filed when it comes to the Nextel Cup once they learn the oval track driving. In Montoya and Villenuve’s case, they have some background in oval track racing because both are former Indy 500 winners and Indy cars drive alot of ovals. However, these drivers will be deadly in road courses because F-1 is all road course racing. In the first two road course races Mexico and Infinion, Montoya was the class of the field. Now if you add some sportscar drivers like some of the ones coming from the American Le Mans series in the next few years, NASCAR will have a field of both foreign and highly skilled drivers. Most people might not realize this, but South America produces some of the best drivers in the world. From Juan Manuel Fangio to Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittpaldi to Tony Kanaan many forms of racing are dominated with great talent south of the border. Before, I said I could name 10 drivers better than Earnhardt. On the top of my list would be Stirling Moss, Ayrton Senna and Juan Manuel Fangio. Dale Earnhardt competed from 1979 to 2000 full time and won 7 championships. Juan Manuel Fangio drove (fater the age of 40) from 1950, 1951 … was injured and did not race in 1952 and from 1953-1957. In just 51 races, he won 24 and 5 championships in 7 years! He was a quiet champion .. there was no swagger of confidence like he was something special. True race fans who followed Fangio after he retired knew a man who was more and everyday man than Earnhardt ever was.
Ayrton Senna drove just 162 races from 1984 until his death in early in 1994 and in those race took 65 poles and 41 wins. Earnhardt won at Talladega the same day Senna died and too tome to honor the man. To this day, 13 years later Ayrton Senna’s death hits many Brazilian’s as does the death of JFK in this country
Sir Stirling Moss was the greatest driver “never” to win a championship. But he is on my list far above Earnhardt From 1951-1961 moss enter 497 top class races winning 194 of them in 84 different cars. He races in as many as 62 races in a season driving full time in Formula One and competing in the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Le Mans and other endurance races. In 1955, he won the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Tourist Trophy races as well as drivibg a full schedule in F-1. His time of 10 hours and 8 minutes in that Mille Miglia is a record that still stand to this day. That itha a once around 1000 mile road course through Italy, not on modern highways but on the dirt roads and villages of that day. Imagine driving from New York to Miami without driving on I-95 in 10 hours and 8 minutes. A few years ago, they thought Tony Steward driving in both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 was big deal, but that was on a paved track and he had a break between those races. Moss drove with a reporter, Denis Jenkinson and did all of the driving stopping only for tires and fuel. Fangio was 31 minutes behind Moss at the end of that race and Fangio was the best driver in the world in 1955. Imagine Dale Earhradt winning the 1998 Daytona 500 by 10 laps! That is how far out Moss was to the rest of the field in that race. Moss was also a real Gentleman racer. Today, professional athletes look for anyway to win. This year several crew chiefs were suspended for cheating. Moss only would win if he did his best and his opponent was at their best. In 1958, he competed against Mike Hawthorn for being the first British F-1 champion ever and the 1958 F-1 period. Moss had come in second to Fagio for the past 3 years, but Fangio retired in 1958 a Moss had his best chance to win a F-1 Championship. At the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix, Moss won and Hawthorn finished second. Moss got 8 points and Hawthorn got 7. But at the end of the race, Mike Hawthorn was disqualified for “pushing the car” and his points and finish were removed. Now today, Ferrari, his team would contest that decision as most any team would. But when Ferrari went to the race stewarts to convince them to not disqualify Hawthorn, Moss was already there arguing in Mike Hawthorn’s behalf to give him bach those 7 points! Moss, would not win a championship by default. He wanted to win it only if Hawthorn was at his best. Stirling Moss convinced the race stewatrs to return those 7 points to Hawthorn and Moss lost that championship by 1 point at the end or 1958. That is a kind of courage and a true spriit of sportsmanship that Earnhardt lacked. He did not get a reputation as a win at all cost driver for nothing. Some people consider that a mark of being a hero, but for my money, Moss was a bigger hero and someone I like to be like.
Today, professional sports is plagued by arrests, drugs, steroids and cheating of all kinds. Make the big buck is more important that being a true sportsman. I live in Miami country and Shaq O’Neal doesn’t go to a children’s hospital without a news crew! Every athlete has some charity wit their name on it to show how these millionaires are so kind to the poor. But the true heros do it without fanfare. I’ll take Fangio, Moss and Senna any day of the week as role models
We can and do have our own opinons about the chase and thats great , its american and we have freedom of speach here lol well sorta . At any rate it is what it is and and to be sooo long winded about it is kinda like watering your lawn in a rainstorm , it wont make a bit of difference to the lawn lol
Lenny, can you repeat your comments I fell asleep after the first 3 sentences. Boy they are looooooonnnnng.
Hey Lennie maybe you should remember a couple of things. 1) These guys are only human. 2) He who is without sin can cast the first stone. 3) If you didn’t like watching the thing about Dale why didn’t you just turn the channel?
Hey Steve, maybe you should delete anything over 500 words! Good God!!!
I forget what I was reading before I finished it.
If anyone has been to Richmond,how bad is the parking?Also,Im not a fan of the chase but I wonder if the same people were complaining that the drivers were just points racing before it started?
willy, very well be that. This new breed of fans that nascar has in the past 7-8 years has no idea of what nascar was. In my earlier comment when the fans complain when Matt Kennisth won the championship the way he did and nascar wisdom change the format to the chase crap because of it. It be my guess and only my guess the new breed didn’t bother to understand the point system in racing and complain back then and now they still complaining along with the old timers fans.
Go Figure,your probably right,but I think some people just like to bitch.
My vote is for Jr. to make the chase. He deserves it. I want to see him there and not Harvick. Harvick can stick this year to Busch.
I’m with you Leanna.my rather is definatly Jr. and not the hot head Harvick. The great part about this race? It’s A B C the rest of the season, not ESPN. Now you gotta love that Leanna! Get-R-Done
From reading the previous 21 comments the future of NASCAR is Danica Patrick in a Thong advertising Go Daddy.
Steve, As I understand it if Jeff G. doesn’t win todayJimmy J. will be in first place for the chase. How can that be when Jeff is over 400 pts. ahead of Jimmy.What about the good year Jeff has had ? If jimmy is in first place with 5 wins and Jeff is second with 4 wins, HOW DOES NEXTEL THINK THAT IS FAIR? Please explain.
Well, did anyone other than me watch the Bush race last night? Rusty came through once again with the dirty/clean air crap! At least it’s about over for this year with all that ESPN crappy coverage!!!! I still like TNT the best but, ABC can’t be any worse the ESPN!
Mick20 couldn’t be any worse. Considering ABC owns ESPN, if I’m not mistaken.
I read all these comments on here about how bad the coverage is on ESPN and other channels and I have to think well at least they provided race coverage. You know if all these people don’t like the coverage, there are a couple of things they can do. 1) they can go out and take a multimillion dollars loan out and start their own broadcasting company and show it like they want, or 2) they can go to the race in person and not have to worry about how it’s broadcast. I don’t like all the commercials either, but at least I’m thankful it’s broadcast.
I think the points system is awful. It’s not fair to Gordon that if he doesn’t win, he will not be in first place, and I’m NOT a Gordon fan. I think the points system should be based on average finish after each race. For example, if you finished the first race in 10th place and the next race in 20th place you would have an average of 15th. Anyone with a better average finish would be ahead of you in the points.
Dog gone I hate these races, they interfere with the commercials. just to much racing, and not enough commercials.
Smoke62, if I am not mistaken although I could be but don’t think so, didn’t I read some of your comments couple of weeks ago about you complaining too about the commercials?
Dang it, commercials again. There was a wreck and wow we didn’t get to see of it till much later. Yeah it was ABC but still with the ESPN bad racing and then of couse another clean/bad air agin. NBC did a much better on the races and we got to see more of the races then commercials. I am happy for Jimmy and sad Jr. didn’t make the chase. Oh well!!
Hey # 28. Yes I did say there were too many commercials, but that’s where it ends. I’m not on here continually complaining about them.