Full Throttle

Here are a few lingering thoughts after the Dover event:

Why is it that Matt Kenseth is crying the blues after the Roush team gambled and lost on fuel strategy? “I just don’t understand what we did there at the end,” Kenseth said. He sure understood it at the time. I distinctly remember (and Dustin Long confirms it) he agreed with Robbie Reiser’s call when it was discussed over the radio.

So now, after the fact it’s a problem?

Let’s visit the Anoited Ten™ versus the “other 33″ issue a second. After the opening event at NHIS Tony Stewart made much of the fact that he didn’t like the fact he, and others out of the Chase, had to be all touchy-feely around those in contention for the championship. This week that came back to haunt both Stewart and Kasey Kahne when an innocent spin by Smoke took away any last vestiges of Kasey’s Chase chances.

After Dover Smoke had this to say:

“I don’t think this Chase thing was thought out well enough,” he said. “Brian [France] is a smart guy. We’ll see if he can make adjustments to make it right for these guys. But you look at what’s going on right now. The guys that have an opportunity to win the Chase are guys that just don’t have bad luck. That’s all there is to it. It’s not about anything else.

My question is just when have other drivers treated those chasing the championship with kid gloves? And “luck” shouldn’t be an issue. Chase or not, good or bad luck, sh*t happens. No matter what some may think NASCAR can’t legislate luck.

Does Stewart believe those that raced in the last few events of his first championship year of 2002 (by a scant 38 points over Mark Martin) all had a guardian angels riding with them to avoid any interference or more to the point treated the two combatants with “Kid Driving Gloves?” Somehow I doubt it! (Here’s a far better example from the 1992 season.)

Other Rantings

NASCAR has released the “official” NEXTEL Cup testing schedule for the 2007 season. As you can see it’s limited to seven tracks offering a variety of track types, albeit, heavy on superspeedways and, ahem… short, on short tracks.

• Daytona — Jan. 8 running through Wednesday, Jan. 10 for approximately half the teams. Thursday, Jan. 11 is the rain date, if necessary. Test sessions will resume Monday, Jan. 15 through Wednesday, Jan. 17
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway — Jan. 29-30 (rain date is Jan. 31)</li
• Bristol Motor Speedway — (CoT) Feb. 28-March 1 (rain date is March 2)
• Richmond International Raceway — April 3-4 (rain date is April 5)
• Lowe’s Motor Speedway — May 7-8 (rain date is May 9)
• Dover International Speedway — (CoT) May 14-15 (rain date is May 16)
• Talladega Superspeedway — (CoT?) Sept. 10-11 (rain date is Sept. 12)

“The seven tracks that were selected provide the teams with a wide variety of layouts, surfaces, and track characteristics that should provide them with an opportunity to have success in 2007,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president for competition.

Ok guys, gals, those that call themselves NASCAR aficionados that is, do you see a problem there? No… well look at this list then; Bristol, Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond, Dover, New Hampshire, Darlington, Infineon Raceway, Watkins Glen, Talladega [fall 2007].

With the exception of Talladega where it is an issue in the fall, all in the above list will be running the CoT in both their scheduled 2007 NEXTEL Cup events. But there’s something missing, a testing date for the Car of Tomorrow at road courses.

Obviously Virginia International Raceway will be seeing more than a little testing by the Cup teams trying to sort out a brand new vehicle that to my knowledge has never been tested on the “twisty bits.” At least so far, and I haven’t seen any tests scheduled at this point.

Not that that is unusual, VIR had plenty of Cup “customers” this year along with the Caraway short track, Kentucky Motor Speedway and various and sundry other racing venues not on the NEXTEL Cup schedule.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Talladega, Virginia International Raceway, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle