It has already begun

It has already begun...
2/11/2008

Before the first official race of 2008 Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch found themselves heading to NACARS official trailer. This is nothing new for either of them and may not be the last time this happens during the course of the year. The incident itself was not the reason for the visit; as usual it was the reaction of one of the drivers, in the case Kurt Busch. I did not see what happened at the time I was at work that night. From what I can tell If Kurt would have left it at one bump in the side not 4 or 5 then they would have never been called to the trailer to begin with. They incident in question was just racing for position as far as I can tell and Kurt should have left it at that.

Congratulations to Dale Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports for winning the Bud Shootout Saturday night. I thought the racing was awesome, there was some passing and racing all through the pack. There were even some cars making passes for position with out any drafting help. Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have dominated the night but he had quiet a few drivers come to the front to challenge him. The most surprising was the #22 Cat Toyota driven by Dave Blaney and the #55 Napa Toyota driven by Michael Waltrip. Waltrip is one driver I am not counting out of the 500. He knows how to win at Daytona and from the looks of his performance this weekend He just might. Then you had all three of his teammates up in front with him. Tony Stewart had in nose in the mix as usual. In all honesty looks like, at least for now, it looks like we will have another year of Hendrick dominance. The question seems to be with driver that will lead the Hendrick stable? Will this be an all team effort or will Casey Mears be the odd Man Out?

I have been asked my take on Toyota, well here it is. Look at 2007 for Toyota and forget about Daytona with MWR for a minute. We all know how they struggled last year but they did have moments when their moments. Toyota had 2 poles last year, one with Dave Blaney and the other with Michael Waltrip. Between the three teams they had 12 top 10’s and 2 top 5’s and only led 160 laps. Dave Blaney had 4 top 10;s, 1 top 5 and 1 pole, there where teams that did worse. So for a first year in the Cup series it could have been much worse. Yes Michael Waltrip Racing was caught cheating at Daytona, but so was the series champion, and Chad Knaus was caught cheating twice in 2007. From the looks of things at the Bud Shootout Toyota will do much better in 2008. Will the fact that Joe Gibbs Racing switched from Chevrolet to Toyota, yes but only partially. I don’t think that Joe Gibbs could have come off the line looking as strong as he did without the efforts to Red Bull Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Bill Davis Racing in 2007. Let’s not forget that Tony Stewart is in a contract Year so J.D Gibbs and Toyota will do everything in their power to keep him running on top. Tony has strong ties to Chevy and they would love to have him back.

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Good Racing
Alf