2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season

It's back!

Tonight was the Bud Shootout at Daytona. 23 drivers, 70 laps. Toyota ran well which is good news for Joe Gibbs Racing and the COT is now the standard model race car. There were a few times tonight where some big wrecks could have occurred but with the new model the drivers were able to hold to their race cars. Kurt Busch did an excellent job of hanging onto his car when a tire went down late in the race. Although it still ended up spinning out he was able to keep it under control long enough for the field to get by. With last years style car, it would have snapped loose and shot back up the track into traffic, taking out half the field.

But perhaps the greatest moment of the night was Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the win!



After a disastrous season last year and leaving his fathers team this is a great way to begin this new alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.

Daytona 500 is next weekend! 2pm EST on FOX.

Some notes to follow this year:

- New model car

- Joe Gibbs Racing switching to Toyota

- Dale Earnhardt Jr. with Hendrick Motorsports

- Jeff Gordon taking back what was his last year, the Championship

- Open wheel stars: Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier and Sam Hornish Jr.

This is already shaping up to be a quite an interesting NASCAR season.

Jimmie Johnson starting first for the 500 bodes well for Hendrick. Michael Waltrip starting second is great news for that team and Toyota in general. David Reiturman (however you spell it) put another Waltrip Racing car in the top ten. Not that it matters since the Duel 150's set the starting field. I'll probably miss the first 150 but I should be home in time for the second one. I hope Gordon doesn't wreck. I just want him to have a decent top 15 starting spot.

Oh and Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch are on probation for the first six races after their little incident during last Fridays Bud Shootout practice session.

NICE!

Earnhardt Jr. takes the first Duel 150 and Denny Hamlin wins the second one bringing home Toyota's first NASCAR victory. I'm loving this new Earnhardt Jr. I hope he's able to keep it up.

That didn't long. Villeneuve is out of the 27 for the season.

Didn't see this one coming. Ryan Newman, who hadn't been to victory lane since 2005, wins the Daytona 500 giving Roger Penkse his first restrictor plate win and first Daytona 500 win.

I really thought Kyle Busch was going to bring this home since his car was the best one out there all day. But he screwed himself over on that last restart when Tony went high and he went low.

I was mad when the suspension broke on Jeff Gordon's car, I was pissed when Jimmie Johnson got spun and then I was furious when Casey Mears slapped the wall. Three Hendrick cars all done. Plus Dale Jr. screwed him self over by not taking fresh tires.

David Ragan wrecking... what a surprise!

And probably the big thing tonight was that several times throughout the race there were great opportunities for big wrecks. But this new model car was amazing! Guys could pass more easily at this track and the rear wing would help prevent them from snapping wildly loose and coming back up the track into traffic. It'll probably take another year to sort everything out with this new model car but I'm liking it so far.

Next week: California!

So Carl Edwards takes home another one.

Jeff Gordon smashed the inside wall pretty hard knocking his radiator literally half way across the backstretch. Glad he was able to walk away without any problems. I have to say it again but if they were using last years model car he would have been in some serious pain. Tony Stewart too since he took quite a hit to the wall. At least he had the added help of a SAFER barrier. Gordon not so much.

Earnhardt Jr. brings home a good run and David Ragan surprisingly didn't wreck! I like that even the commentators mentioned how much he wrecks and never finishes.

Atlanta next weekend! Can't wait!

What a fantastic finish to todays race. They restart with about 13 or so laps to go with Stewart in the lead. Harvick and Stewart battle for the lead and Hamlin just speeds by, then Stewart wrecks and Jeff Burton zips by out of nowhere to take second. They restart with 2 laps to go and some shit goes wrong on Hamlins car and Burton just drives off with the win giving RCR a 1-2-3 finish. Earnahrdt Jr finished 5th and Jeff Gordon came home 11th.



Next weekend they off then it's on to Martinsville!

I don't know what the fuck is going on with Jeff Gordon's team. Last year was absolute dominance and now this year it's like he's lost his talent and is driving for a under funded team. These guys, hell all of Hendrick Motorsports, better get their heads straight or just one guy will be making the Chase. It's weird that Earnhardt Jr can have two terribly shitty seasons in a row then come over to this powerhouse organization and kick all his teammate's asses.

RCR and Gibbs are the teams to beat this year.

Haha, what a piece of shit he is. I was pissed when that happened. Earnhardt Jr. was pissed off and disappointed as hell during that post-race interview. It's almost like he was about to cry and say "fuck it! I give up.", he was so defeated. I think Kyle Busch just replaced Jeff Gordon as the most hated driver in NASCAR. When you mess with Dale Jr. and cost him a win by wrecking him the fans never forget.

It was great though to see Clint Bowyer just shoot by and steal the win. I couldn't imagine his expression when he saw Jr. going around. I was thinking too that Bowyer was running third at the time and either way it would have been a great night for him. But I bet he was thinking, "If I just lay back and let these guys mess around I can just zip on by when it happens."

They were both being pretty aggressive, Busch more so, and there was bound to be a mistake made by either both of them knocking each other loose or just slowing each other down.

I was scared too that on the restart Busch was going to dump Bowyer. But Mark Martin helped Bowyer out by racing Busch pretty hard there. What a fantastic race. Denny Hamlin completely dominates the race and then cuts a tire with 12 or so laps to go then with two to go Dale Jr. while leading gets dumped and Bowyer just drives off with the win. And that big accident definitely shook things up a bit.

Darlington next week under the lights!

Jeff Gordon Watch: He apparently does know remember how to drive a race car. He came home 9th after dicking around for most of the race.

FINALLY!

Not since May 2006 has Earnhardt been back to victory lane. It's about friggin time and hopefully this also helps give the whole Hendrick Motorsports organization the boost they need.

That was wild finish with Harvick being an idiot and taking out three good cars. Jeff Gordon was finally able to secure a good finish.

And I've been hearing that Mark Martin could leave DEI at the end of this year to replace Casey Mears over at Hendrick Motorsports for one last full time season run. Could it be that Martin FINALLY retires?

Indeed. It blew my mind when I saw the line up. The whole top ten starting grid is odd.

And big news this weekend as it was announced that Casey Mears is out of Hendrick Motorsports at the end of year. Now apparently Mark Martin has been rumoured (some say confirmed) to take over the 5 car at Hendrick to make one last full time appearance then call it quits. Martin has driven Hendrick cars in the Nationwide series for the past year or two, even having some great success so this move wouldn't surprise me. And I actually think it would be a great move to help that team out. I guess Dale Jr. wants to move his Nationwide driver, Brad Keselowski up to the Sprint Cup series at some point in a Hendrick car. So... if Martin drove the 5 car next year he could not only help the team improve with his years of experience but also mentor Keselowski along the way.

HOWEVER.... Tony Stewart is also popping up in the rumour mill about either going to Hendrick in the 5 car OR going to Haas CNC Racing where he would get majority ownership and have say over who his second driver would be (rumour is Ryan Newman).

Casey Mears could be headed to Richard Childress Racing to drive that teams fourth car starting up next year and Clint Bowyer is off the rumour mill as he said that he signed an extension with Childress.

The next few months are definitely going to be interesting.

Fuck that race.

Last week it was announced that Mark Martin would leave DEI and join Hendrick Motorsports to run one final full time schedule and then a part time schedule in 2009.

NOW Tony Stewart has finally made a decision. He's leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the year to buy into Haas/CNC Racing as a majority owner. Rumours are he'll hire on Ryan Newman as his teammate. The good thing about this deal for Stewart is that it gets him out of the Toyota's (which you could tell he was mad about when JGR announced it last year) and back into Chevy's and Haas/CNC gets their engines from Hendrick Motorsports.

Aside from Charlotte a few years back that was probably the most frustrating race I've ever seen.

Although Jeff Burton redeemed it.