Kentucky’s inaugural race was uneventful

On Thursday I sat in the Kentucky Speedway media center and happened upon an article by Yahoo’s Jay Hart. He said that NASCAR’s move to Kentucky was a bad move. The race would be bland.

The green flag drops on the inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky

“Nothing against the good people of the Bluegrass State, who have done their damndest to earn a Cup date, but I can’t get behind it,” he opined.

I thought, he can’t be right. The bumpiness of the track in Sparta made for some interesting races in the years I was there. The racetrack was going to be great for racing, drivers were going to search for multiple grooves in the track and the track was good enough to promote a lot of side-by-side racing.

I was wrong.

“If that weren’t enough, the racing at these cookie-cutter tracks tends to be really, really – what’s the word? – oh yeah, boring,” Hart said.

A view of the Quaker State 400 racing action from turn one at Kentucky Speedway

And after sitting back and thinking about it, I’d be hard pressed to do much but agree, and I’m not the only one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love NASCAR with every fiber of my being. I enjoyed being at the track this past weekend and truly enjoyed seeing NASCAR’s big boys at the track closest to my house. But the Quaker State 400, dare I say it, was boring.

Kurt and Kyle Busch ran away with the first part of the event, and due to long, green-flag runs, clean air was paramount.

A few weeks back Carl Edwards was angry about having to race downforce at tracks like Michigan rather than racing his competition.

“Sadly, downforce is such a big factor in these (current) cars, and I am really hoping NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take downforce away so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race downforce,” Edwards said.

A view of the stands at Kentucky late in the race

He continued with, “Let's say all of the cars are a tenth (of a second) apart and you are behind two or three cars, your car is two-tenths of a second slower. You can't make (it) up. I'm not whining; Denny (Hamlin) earned this win and those are the rules we are under. Track position was huge, and I just wish it wasn't like that.”

“Track position is the name of the game,” said Lance McGrew to Mark Martin before the green flag dropped on Saturday night.

Even though there were a lot of late race passes, the first 150-plus laps were little more than a parade. At one point Busch had a ten-plus second lead.

I often hear non-NASCAR fans criticize me. ‘It’s so boring. I don’t know how you watch them just drive in circles,’ people tell me.

This week was NASCAR’s chance to impress first-time visitors to the track in Sparta. A lot of non-NASCAR fans were coming to Kentucky from Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington for the first time. And if they feel that NASCAR is boring because it’s just guys driving in circles, I feel their feelings were confirmed by the first part of the race at Kentucky.

Even some NASCAR fans who were watching on TV tweeted at me during the race that the race was a little bland and boring.

And that is sad. I love Kentucky Speedway, but it’s going to be tough to sell people to come to a track that has a horrendous track record with parking and has questionable racing.

I wish it was better, but we’ve got one year to see if Kentucky will fix anything. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see what kind of improvements Bruton Smith and SMI make to the facility in Kentucky. They’ve got a long list of things to fix. We have to have faith that they’ll get it done.

But I’m afraid the damage has already been done.

Martin scores season-best runner-up finish in FedEx 400

Being a Mark Martin fan has taught me to be patient, and watch a patient man work his magic. It only took 11 races this year for that patience to finally pay off.

About two months ago I wrote that Mark Martin’s mediocre finishes didn’t tell the entire story of the first few races of the 2011 campaign. (Read it here: http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2011/03/opinionmartins-mediocre-finishes-dont.html)

If we needed more proof, Martin jumped out of his car yesterday with a huge smile on his face after finishing runner-up to Matt Kenseth.

Martin leads Kenseth late in the FedEx400. Kenseth passed Martin going into turn one at Dover with 32 laps to go, and never looked back, defeating his former Roush Racing teammate by over two seconds. (Getty Images for NASCAR via Yahoo!Sports)

“I always get excited about coming here to race. You know, we had a really fast racecar. Today we finally got a finish,” he said. “Looked like we were going to get 15th again with a really fast racecar. We've had a racecar this good a lot this year. Seems like for some reason or another we wind up in the back of the pack and we just don't have enough to climb our way back to the front.”

Mark Martin fans have been quite vocal about the fact that Martin just doesn’t have what it takes to make it to the front, and Crew Chief Lance McGrew generally gets a lot of the criticism.

Earlier in the race, Martin battled Montoya. It was Montoya's late-race spin that allowed Martin and Crew Chief Lance McGrew to gamble and stay out of the pits under the final caution. (Getty Images for NASCAR via Yahoo! Sports)

But when Juan Pablo Montoya spun out yesterday with 40 to go to bring out the what happened to be the race’s final yellow flag, Mark Martin made the call to stay out, not McGrew. McGrew agreed with Martin on the call though.

“[Martin] brought it up and that's what I wanted to do so when he said it, I said, 'Hell yeah, stay out,’” McGrew said. “Because I felt like everybody was going to pit and our car was so good.”

The ever-humble 52-year-old Martin could have taken all the credit for the call to stay out, but instead he did what he’s always done—given credit to his race team.
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Mark Martin leads a pack of drivers down the back straightaway at Dover during the FedEx 400 (Getty Images for NASCAR via Yahoo! Sports)

“This was a good race for us,” Martin said. “Great call by Lance, great teamwork. We've had great teamwork all year. I'm proud of this race team. I'm proud of these guys.”

And McGrew couldn’t disagree with his driver.

“I think this is a good race team,” he said. “We've managed to scrape together a few finishes with some bad luck, with tearing up some cars, and doing this and doing that. But I don't think you've seen as good as this team can be.

“These guys deserved a good finish because we've worked really hard and we've had some stuff bite us. If it wasn't for the crash [and resultant 36th-place finish] at Texas we'd be pretty solid in the top 10 right now. But we're close, and we had to have a good car to do it.”

Mark Martin fans need to remember the axiom that Martin gave in 2007: “Impatience is a real hard thing to deal with and to work with. Impatience is waste of time. It's a diversion. If you're impatient, you're worrying about things you can't control.”

It’s easy to get impatient with Lance McGrew and some of his calls, but it seems like the tide is turning for Mark Martin.

And that’s something that will get any fan fired up.

Mark Martin’s bad weekend ends in wreck

“Impatience is a real hard thing to deal with and to work with,” Mark Martin said in October of 2007. “Impatience is waste of time. It’s a diversion. If you're impatient, you're worrying about things you can't control.”

He was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time on Saturday night, and the bashed in hood of the GoDaddy.com car signaled the early end to an otherwise forgettable evening in Texas for Mark Martin. Up to this point in the year, Martin and crew chief Lance McGrew had fought through little scrapes and minor damage to compile finishes no better than 10th but no worse than 20th.

On Saturday though, it sounded like Martin and McGrew couldn’t agree on what was best to help the car out, and they fell behind quickly. However, as I’ve noted numerous times in the past few weeks, not all is lost for fans of the No. 5 Chevy. Jeff Gordon didn’t do too well either, finishing 23rd on the evening.

When Rick Hendrick decided to make the monster move after the Homestead race last season, the main reasoning behind it was to help all four teams be more competitive. In 2009 Hendrick owned the three cars that finished 1-2-3 in the points standings. In 2010 that was far from the case.

The driver that was going to benefit the most from the move was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was moving from his shop with Mark Martin across the campus of HMS to the shop that houses now five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. In turn, Jeff Gordon moved over to Mark Martin’s shop.

The results of that switch were very evident this weekend when the Nos. 48 and 88 were in the top ten while the Nos. 5 and 24 hung out in between 18th and 25th place. At some point someone with more credibility and access to these problems will raise a question on whether or not the move helped all four Hendrick teams.

As a fan I say heck no, and as an impartial observer, I say there’s still a lot of time for ground to be made up.

Last season, Jenna Fryer, of the Associated Press, noted that Alan Gustafson—who was then Mark Martin’s crew chief—was the most loyal Hendrick worker. He gave up some of his team that pushed Martin to the runner-up spot in points in 2009, to benefit the entire 5/88 shop in 2010.

Earnhardt Jr. told Fryer one year ago that he felt it helped both teams. “I think it helped us,” he said. “I know Mark is struggling compared to last year. But it helped us as a team. (Engineer) Chris Heroy come over was a big deal for me and Lance both. I think he’s enjoyed being part of our group.”

Gustafson agreed. In the same article from last year he said, “If I was somebody who was not involved in this everyday, that is what I would say because that is the most obvious and makes the most sense. I think it’s wrong. I do think our shop has made a net gain, even though we haven’t won any races. The 88 is significantly better than what they were. So I think the team strength is a lot better.”

I’d be interested to see where this goes if Martin and Gordon are still sitting outside the top 12 in points when we head into June or July. We know Alan Gustafson, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin probably won’t trash the boss that has put them in their current predicament, but as fans looking from the outside in, we all sit back and wonder if the move has paid off so far.

In my opinion it hasn’t, but I’m willing to be patient. Because impatience is something that Mark Martin cannot tolerate.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishes 2nd at Martinsville

The last time Dale Earnhardt Jr. visited victory lane George W. Bush was in the White House and the Cincinnati Bearcats, with head coach Brian Kelly, still hadn’t won a Big East title.

My how things have changed yet stayed the same.

Earnhardt Jr., who last won in June of 2008 at Michigan, was leading with four laps to go in the Goody’s 500 on Sunday when Kevin Harvick, driving a car that was reminiscent of the cars that Earnhardt’s father drove, pulled off a move that would have made The Intimidator proud (and probably a little ticked off too, since it was his son that Harvick beat).

“I could see the people just going crazy coming off of turn two when he took the lead from Kyle,” Harvick said about Jr. taking the lead with 20 to go. “And I as catching him and I'm like, ‘Man, I'm going to be the bad guy here.’ But I've got to do what I've got to do.”

Earnhardt Jr. was disappointed in finishing second, but told reporters he knew he didn’t have a car that could win.

“We really were not a top-5 car all day. We worked really hard to stay inside the top-10 all day. Made a lot of changes on the car, we made several changes trying to find that speed,” he said.

Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 car at Indianapolis last year

Earnhardt Jr. was close in the end, but noted the handling on his car started to go away, and Harvick caught up to him.

“We had an opportunity to win the race,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I'm disappointed that I didn't get the job done and it will probably bother me more and more as the night goes on.”

I’m sure Earnhardt’s finish didn’t bother his car owner Rick Hendrick, who made a dramatic three-car, three-team, three-crew chief swap after last season’s finale at Homestead. So far it’s paying off for two of the three teams, Earnhardt and Gordon.

Gordon and new crew chief Alan Gustafson visited victory lane in the season’s second race at Phoenix, and Gordon’s old crew chief Steve Letarte almost helped Earnhardt break a 98-race winless streak on Sunday.

So what gives for Mark Martin, who has an average finish of 13.8 this season? He’s teamed up with Earnhardt’s former pit boss Lance McGrew, and as I noted a few weeks ago, Martin and McGrew are just missing something.

Earnhardt Jr. isn’t though.

“I'm really thrilled,” he said. “I know it don't look like it, but I've got such a hell of an opportunity. This is such a great group to be around, and I'm having fun it. I'm racing cars. It's all I've ever wanted to do. I want to run like this.”

“I want to finish like this and run a little bit better than this on every weekend, and we are right on the outside of that, you know, and it's frustrating to be that close. It was frustrating to be leading the race with just a few -- inside ten laps to go and be passed,” he added.

“But there's definitely a brighter side to what's going on, too, and I won't forget to notice that.”

Sounds like he’s been taking notes from his teammate Mark Martin.

And speaking of Martins, how about the wreck that Martin Truex Jr. and Kasey Kahne were involved in on lap 222 that sparked a 25-minute red flag? That was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen at a place like Martinsville.

But I’m thankful that Truex and Kahne were able to walk away unscathed.

“Thanks to NASCAR and all the guys who build the SAFER barriers and these race cars, they are unbelievable,” Truex said. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t be standing here.”

More NASCAR news, notes and opinions as the week rolls on. This week’s race is the first-ever night race at Texas. Should be an interesting one for sure.

Opinion—Martin’s mediocre finishes don’t tell entire story

While I admit to being a superfan of Mark Martin, I also must be a realist. The start to the 2011 season for the Batesville, Ark., native could have been much better. Through four races, Martin has finished no higher than 10th but no lower than 18th. That’s pretty average if you ask me.

However, if you look at the stories behind the finishes, Mark Martin has been nothing short of stellar to start the 2011 campaign—his last in a Hendrick Motorsports car.

Early on at Daytona, the GoDaddy.com car was tangled up in that wreck that took out half the field. Martin and new crew chief Lance McGrew worked on the fender damage and eventually made it back to the lead lap late in the race. On the final restart Martin was fourth, behind Tony Stewart, ready to push Smoke to victory in the season’s opening race.

Not bad for a car that was smashed up on lap 30. Even though Martin only ended up 10th, it could have been much worse for the GoDaddy team that day. McGrew and Martin set the tone for the next few races with that fight at Daytona.

At Phoenix Martin was once again tangled up in someone else’s mess, slightly damaging the front end of the car. Martin got into the back of Kevin Harvick, making the 2007 Daytona 500 champ slightly less than pleased.

But once again McGrew and Martin battled, making the car as good as they could near the end. Even though Martin only finished 13th it could have been a worse day for the team.

While Martin didn’t find any trouble in Vegas, his car was never quite fast enough to run up front. McGrew and Martin kept adjusting and never quite hit on what they needed to get to the front.

To add to fans’ frustrations, Martin was the lowest finishing Hendrick car that day.

Fans knew McGrew wasn’t held in high regard by fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr., whom McGrew last worked with at HMS, but prior to the 2011 Cup season the last time Martin and McGrew hooked up was for a 2008 Nationwide Series win in Vegas.

So things could get better for Martin and the No. 5 team, but likewise, they could be a whole heck of a lot worse. Martin is known for having very little luck, and this year he’s getting some breaks to go his way.

He sits 11th in Sprint Cup points after this weekend’s race in Bristol. A race that once again left Kevin Harvick fuming at the man he beat back to the line at Daytona in 2007 by a mere .02 seconds.

“That’s two times in four races,” Harvick said over the radio after Martin bumped him and spun him out on Sunday. “They need to check his old ass for vision.”

Kasey Kahne was running in front of Harvick with less than 100 laps to go and suddenly slowed up exiting turn two. Harvick had to let off and Martin, who was accelerating and tailing the No. 29 car, had nowhere to go.

Welcome to Bristol Mr. Harvick.

After the race he was a little more calm, simply saying, “You know when we were sitting there running third and fifth, really we were just riding. I just wanted to make sure that we had a race car left and (Kahne) got a little tight and (Martin) ran over us again,” Harvick said.

Once again, it’s typical Bristol racing. Although I’m still sticking by my theory that it’s just a Karmatic (is that even a word? Well, now it is) payback for the atrocities of the 2007 Daytona 500. You win some and you lose some.

Harvick rallied to finish 6th on Sunday and Martin came home 12th. Although they both could have had better finishes, the wreck could have completely devastated both men.

It’s another sign that although Mark Martin’s luck could have him sitting 30th in points, he’s only 11th, 27 markers back of the leader, Kurt Busch.

Martin will make his 800th career Cup start in two weeks at Martinsville, appropriately enough. By then we’ll have a better handle on how the season will turn out for the 52-year-old Martin. Right now, I’m sticking by the ‘it could be (a lot) worse’ mantra.

Some would call the start mediocre, but until you look at why Mark Martin is only averaging a 13th place finish, you’d say, “That’s awfully darn good.”

Those are my thoughts, and I’m sticking to ‘em.

Martin’s 2011 Goal: “Have fun and get it in done”

Mark Martin’s plan in his final year at Hendrick Motorsports is quite simple.

“My goal in 2011 is to have fun and get the job done,” Martin said last Thursday on NASCAR.com media day. “I’m going to have fun doing it. I’m determined to and so I look forward to it. It’s a great challenge.”

Martin, who came to Hendrick in 2009, has a new crew chief this year in Lance McGrew. Martin is excited for the challenge of working with a new crew chief. But, he’s worked with McGrew before, and it turned out nicely.

“Lance crew chiefed one race for me in 2007—a Nationwide race. I went in an hour early, sat in the trailer, we talked about dirt track racing, got to know each other. We went out there and won the race,” Martin said.

McGrew, who has been working with Dale Earnhardt Jr. the past season and a half, was moved to the No. 5 team as a part of the offseason’s big crew chief swap at HMS. McGrew moved to the No. 5 team with Martin. Martin’s former crew chief Alan Gustafson was paired with four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon, and Gordon’s former crew chief Steve Letarte was paired with Earnhardt Jr.

Rick Hendrick’s goal for the swap was to make his whole organization better. Sure Jimmie Johnson’s fifth consecutive Sprint Cup title was great, but Gordon and Martin had trouble replicating their 2009 season, where Hendrick Motorsports finished 1-2-3 in the final point standings.

“In my opinion working with the same group all the time is overrated. Because you get comfortable,” the 52-year-old Martin said. “I’m on my toes, Lance is on his toes. We’ve never worked harder than we will right now for this first few weeks.

“We want this bad and one of my goals for 2011 is to help Lance get the success that he’s capable of, and this team is capable of. Same as it was when I went to the No. 5. All I wanted was for Alan [Gustafson] to get the recognition that I thought he deserved.”

Gustafson and Martin’s first season in 2009 was a career year for Martin. At 50 years old no one expected Martin to win five races, and lead the point standings as late as the Kansas race.

In 2010, Martin didn’t win one time. He’s not going to predict what his chances are to win in 2011, but knows the formula for his team’s success this season.

“I don’t put success on numbers,” he said. “I can’t say how many wins and top 5s and making the Chase and all that stuff is any particular goal for 2011. Man, let’s just go out there and reach our potential and if we do that, then we will be successful.”

No one knows how many races Martin and McGrew can win in their only season together. Martin has remained loyal to owner Rick Hendrick, and wants to do nothing more than to put another trophy on his owner’s mantle.

Martin has 40 career Cup victories, and 49 career poles. He wants to add to that this season, and knows that his team has the passion and energy to put the No. 5 car in victory lane. He can feel it.

“That race team is so excited. I feel the same energy that I felt at the 5 car when I went there in 2009,” he said. “They’re so excited and it’s so much fun to go to the racetrack and go to work with a race team that is excited. So, we just have to go out and do it.”

Martin picked to finish 18th by Yahoo! Experts

Mark Martin had an amazing first season in 2009 with Hendrick Motorsports. The then-50-year-old notched five wins and finished runner-up to teammate Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint Cup standings.

Last season began just as 2009 had ended. Mark Martin won the Daytona 500 pole and finished two of the first four races in the top five. Things were looking up again for NASCAR’s most loveable second place finisher. And then things seemed to unravel.

Was it his team’s inability to adjust to the spoiler? Was it the constant questioning as the season wore on about Kasey Kahne taking over the No. 5 in 2011?

Martin became frustrated with questions about 2011 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season

Or was Mark Martin just falling apart?

Well, it’s highly unlikely that the now 52-year-old from Batesville, Ark., is falling apart—in fact, he’s probably the best conditioned driver on the circuit—and he’s getting the chance to show his talents with a new crew chief this season.

Part of what was called “The Great Hendrick Switch” left Martin paired with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s old crew chief Lance McGrew. Martin will now work with Jeff Gordon out of the newly designed 5/24 shop.

And because of all this “turmoil,” Mark Martin has been picked to finish 18th in the points standings by a panel of experts on Yahoo.com. Last season he missed the Chase, yet had Martin made the cut, he would have finished the season fourth in points.

So what gives? How did these five sportswriters—all of whom cover NASCAR for big-time publications, including USA Today and the Associated Press—decide Mark Martin would finish so low in the points this season?

“Regardless, the window has likely closed on Martin’s opportunity for a championship. While Martin has the absolute respect of everyone in the garage, many drivers will be paying their respects in the rearview mirror,” the article, written by Yahoo’s Jay Busbee, stated.

Busbee picked Martin to finish 18th. Jenna Fryer of the AP and Nate Ryan of the USA Today both said Martin wouldn’t even crack the top 20 in points. Dustin Long, who writes for numerous Southern newspapers, picked Martin to finish 14th, one spot lower than 2010.

The lone “dissenter” of the group was Yahoo’s Jay Hart who decided Martin’s final season in the No. 5 car would result in a tenth place finish in the final points.

Jay Hart (right) of Yahoo.com, chats with Richard Childress last July in Indianapolis

The article also stated, “Martin’s a future Hall of Famer, and he’s beginning the transition from driver to mentor this year. But he’s still got some racing left to do; don’t be surprised if he grabs a couple more victories on his way out.”

Wait, what?

The same guy who picked Martin to finish 18th in points said he’ll “grab a couple more victories on his way out” the door? I’m confused.

Admittedly I don’t do big predictions like this for one reason. I’m not good enough to put my neck on the line to make predictions like this. But that being said, it’s tough to see Mark Martin in a Hendrick Motorsports car finishing any lower than where Yahoo’s panel has put him.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mark Martin come out like gangbusters again in 2011. If it’s anything like 2009, he’ll prove these folks wrong. And I’m willing to bet that they wouldn’t mind that at all.

It’d make their job easier. Let’s face it, Mark Martin stories are easy to write, and just plain fun to read.

Like the one SBNation’s Jeff Gluck wrote last year. In it Gluck mentioned a letter written to Martin from a fan in Maryland. That fan wrote, “You always give thanks to the people who support you and always speak honestly from your heart, and that is how I try to live my life. You make everyone around you proud to be a part of your life whether being directly involved with you or just being a fan.

“You give so much more to your fans than just your racing. You and your family have in all actuality become part of our family, and I think you again for what you give us just by being a decent human being.”

“That,” Martin told Gluck, “is what I have to say about the haters.”

Line up folks. The Old Man of NASCAR might surprise you this season. He’ll certainly be better than this Yahoo! article says he’ll be.

Mark my words.
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It was good to see some cars on the track today at Daytona, and now we’re four weeks away from the Gatorade Duels at Daytona. In less than 31 days we’ll get to see the “Great American Race,” the 53rd Daytona 500. Join me tomorrow for another Friday Flashback and more on testing as the weekend progresses.

Thanks for reading. Have a good and safe day, especially if you’re dealing with snow like we are here in Cincinnati.

Hendrick Motorsports swap pairs 3 drivers with new crew chiefs for ’11

Rick Hendrick must love that old ABC show “Wife Swap,” because he’s now making his team into “Crew Chief Swap” central. On Tuesday, the so-called “superteam” of NASCAR announced new driver-crew chief pairings for the upcoming season, just two days after Jimmie Johnson won his fifth straight title driving for Hendrick.

“I think that after the championship we decided that these moves would make all four teams better,” NASCAR’s most-recognized team-owner said. “The excitement inside the organization yesterday afternoon and last night, I think everybody is pumped, excited, and I think we have a kind of new energy level to attack and get ready to go into 2011.”

The most dramatic move Hendrick says he’s ever made involves swapping three crew chiefs and moving two drivers to new shops. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will now be paired up with crew chief Steve Latarte and Jr.’s No. 88 cars will be prepped with Johnson’s in the new 48/88 shop. Jeff Gordon now gets to work with Alan Gustafson, former crew chief for Mark Martin, and Martin will get to work with crew chief Lance McGrew, who formerly was Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief. Also, Martin and Gordon will be paired in the new 5/24 shop at Hendrick.

“The only things we changed were the seat, the drivers, the sponsors and the numbers,” he said.

Hendrick started putting the wheels in motion after the Texas race three weekends ago. He asked everyone in his two shops (at the time the 5 and 88 cars and 24 and 48 cars were paired together) to write brief reports on how they feel the overall team could get better. And this was his plan.

Now, I know at first fans of each driver seemed to be in an uproar, but I feel this move will help everyone at Hendrick. Fans of Mark Martin were especially angry that their driver would be losing his crew chief of the past two years, Alan Gustafson, but with the new pairing of Gordon and Martin, Gustafson will still be in the same shop as Martin. So, not a big loss for the 51, soon to be 52-year-old.

Martin had a lackluster year this past season, but ended strong with Gustafson. He now gets McGrew, who had trouble clicking with Earnhardt Jr. in their year-and-a-half partnership. Earnhardt Jr.’s move to the No. 48 shop will pair him with Letarte, who couldn’t exactly get clicking with Gordon, and with the help of five-time champ crew chief Chad Knaus, Earnhardt may finally get rolling again.

There are about 10 weeks before the cars hit the track in Daytona, but I’m fired up to see how this will work out. Although I’m bummed myself that Martin and Gustafson have been split, I’m excited to see what the new crew chief/driver pairings will do for the so-called “superteam”.

As for speculation about 2012, well, just don’t ask Mark Martin ahead of time. I don’t want another Indianapolis to occur again (http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=12861787).


However, Hendrick seemed to be optimistic that he wasn’t putting Martin in a lame-duck situation, going so far as to say, “You gotta look at the future, and you gotta know that Mark's got one more year, but my commitment to Mark and my sponsors and everybody else, we're not going to have a lame duck situation. We're going to go for wins and championships, and Mark can do that.”

But, is it believable? You tell me.

This certainly sounds believable: “Mark's got one more year in our organization, and we have to look down the road. I have made a commitment to Mark Martin, and I think when you talk to him, he will tell you that the makeup of what he is going to have next year is mostly what he had in '09 -- a lot of it. We are going to do whatever it takes with people, with equipment, whatever it takes for Mark Martin to win races and have the opportunity to go for the championship again…. Mark's not getting the short end of the stick. He is going to get all the stick he wants, and that comes from me.”

So, the onus is now on the three new pairings, and Rick Hendrick. Will HMS get back to championship form on all four teams? Will Dale Jr. finally get back to his prime form? Will Mark Martin’s finals season at Hendrick Motorsports be like his first (2009)? Will it finally be the year someone not named Jimmie Johnson wins a title? Will Jeff Gordon finally get his fifth Cup?

I think I’ll have some more to say on those questions as the off season rolls along.
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Join me tomorrow for some comments and photos about the UC/UConn game and what song should be playing on the speakers in the Lindner Center (the UC athletics building) today? I’d tell you, ‘if only in my dreams.’ Have a good Sunday.