Sunday, October 28, 2007

Never a dull Atlanta race


The late season Atlanta races have always been some of my favourites, going back to 1992 which was the first season I followed start to finish. Today's pre-race ceremonies had a neat "torch-passing" tribute to Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon. It was 15 years ago that Gordon made his debut and Petty shut it down, all while Bill Elliot, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki battled down to the wire for the championship. Swervin' Irvan took out poor Davey in a wreck, which handed the title to independent hero Kulwicki by a single lap led. After that, of course, I was hooked.

As it's no longer the season finale, the excitement at recent races has been tempered somewhat. Today, however, a late race caution set in motion a series of events including a clumsy restart (how on earth did NASCAR not wave that off when it was clear the 11 was a sitting duck?), an executive pit road decision by Chad Knaus to take on two tires and gain track position, and a spectacular crash by a charging Earnhardt Junior which handed Jimmie Johnson his eighth win of the season. Johnson is now just nine points afield of Jeff Gordon and clear of most other competitors with only three races to go (Texas, Phoenix and Miami).

You gotta be good to be lucky / lucky to be good as they always say, no better example than the 48 team, who are aces at getting themselves into a position where they can pounce on these kinds of opportunities. Prior to the race, the California native Johnson pledged his winnings to the Red Cross and their SoCal disaster relief effort. He was matched by Lowes, Bruton Smith (track owner) and team owner Rick Hendrick, allowing for another one of those feel-good NASCAR finishes.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

You can't stop Jimmie and Jeff, you can only hope to contain them

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6th and 8th, respectively on the Atlanta starting grid.

So, does anyone have an answer for these two? Anyone? (taps mike) Is this thing on?

It must be disparaging to cup challengers to think that Jimmie Johnson was in third place, 41 points adrift of Matt Kenseth (who?) at this time last year, and the only thing standing in the way of a repeat is his seemingly invincible teammate.

And really, while there were flashes of potential in the run-up to the playoffs, no one's been able to carry any moment through the Chase. T. Stew, Hamilin, Cousin Carl...heck I thought Kurt Busch turned the corner and was ready to have a go through Michigan and Pocono, but not much else came of that.

There's still the spoilers, though. Greg Biffle typically pulls out a win or two down the stretch and he's got to be using the conflict between Kenseth and Carl Edward's evil twin as an opportunity to raise his professional profile within the team. Dale Jr, should his engine not expire, will be looking to make a statement before moving into the Hendrick shops. Then there's Ryan Newman, the same guy and same team that bagged 8 victories on a variety of tracks only four seasons ago, on whom this losing streak has to be wearing hard.

I think Tony Stewart can make things interesting - starting with a win this weekend. But it's going to be too little, too late for this season.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Raikkonen pounces!

Well played by Ferrari, well played indeed. The Hamilton fairytale ends in tears and Mclaren comes away from a spectacular season without any title hardware and carrying the ballast of a detached and moody two-time world champ on the payroll for next season.

Best rumour I've heard so far is that Alonso could sit and Mika Hakkinen could return as Mclaren number two. Mika was spotted in the pits again on Sunday and he's still on solid terms with Mercedes (through his DTM effort). An experienced, methodical sibling/coach for young Lewis could be the final ingredient this team is lacking if it wants to pry the driver's and constructor's away from Ferrari in 2008.

In the meantime, fathers lock up your daughters: the Kimibot should be unplugged and on the loose again tonight.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Showdown in Brazil

I can comfortably predict that this Sunday's Formula 1 final round will trump the Senna-Prost hijinx in terms of score-settling. Most likely whoever comes out as champion between Hamilton and Alonso (and I believe it will be one of these two, despite Ferrari's tactical advantage of having a designated "number two" in Massa), will have the runner up chasing him down for vengeance in 2008. Hamilton pitched the title last weekend by unnecessarily racing his tires to shreds in a battle with Raikkonen. Even if such a rare rookie mistake were to manifest itself in consecutive weekend, you have to think Alonso would be sufficiently rattled by not beating Lewis in a straight fight. Hamilton has outqualified Alonso 9-7 on the season, taking the lead with pole in Britain.

The challenge is possibly enough to encourage Alonso to keep his job for one more year, simply to demonstrate he can edge out an even more mature and determined Lewis Hamilton while in equal equipment. On the other hand, perhaps Alonso's attitude is born of frustration and insecurity and he'd like nothing more than to be released and avoid the searing scrutiny reserved for F1 teammates. Whooping up conspiracy theories about team favours is another way to extricate yourself from such an uncomfortable position.

Can we bring back Murray Walker for tomorrow's broadcast, just so he gets to scream "Out! Oh My Goodness" for us one more time?

UPDATE: Massa pole, Hamilton Q2, Raikkonen Q3, Alonso Q4.

practice lap