DownNDirty
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It seems every year when the season ends I'm ready for it to be over. But by about, oh, now, I'm ready for racing again. Ready for it but know I have to wait the entire month of January which is my least favorite month in all of sports. I mean I like NCAA basketball but its just not the same without football and racing. So I'm about to enter into that stretch of the year where I really start getting amped up for Daytona more and more. At least they have the NASCAR Irwindale All Star North/South/East/West deal the last weekend of January.
So why not pass some of the time by looking ahead at the 2010 campaign and having some friendly discussion about what's going on here in the offseason and what might happen next year.
Sprint Cup
I guess the biggest talking point next year will be who if anyone can unseat Jimmie Johnson. Every year I think someone will do it and yet every year no one can answer the challenge once it gets Chase time. As long as JJ/Knaus are together they are going to be hard to beat. Bad luck will eventually have to catch up with them at some point with a broken engine and a couple of crashes in the Chase to keep them from winning but will it be this year?
I don't really care for JJ/Knaus much but I'm also in the mindset that what they are doing is pretty remarkable. Rick Hendrick can spout off all he wants to about all teams sharing notes and no teams hiding anything from the other teams but that 48 team has to be doing something that the other Hendrick cars aren't. Chad has found some secret he's not sharing. He may share most of his information but there is something with that 48 car that just makes it stand out from the crowd. If they are able to cheat somehow and not get caught more power to them with NASCAR's tight rule procedures.
Now that we are into another full season with the COT will the racing improve any more at all? I honestly doubt it will get much better until they tweak the car just a little bit. When Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, DW, Petree, McReynolds, current crew chiefs, drivers, and all of these NASCAR writers weekly call for these minor tweaks maybe just maybe NASCAR will implement some of them in 2011. I think they are going to see how all of these changes work on the Nationwide COT first. Everything that these guys have been clamoring for as far as changes to the COT will be addressed with the Nationwide COT. Those may be the most intriguing races of the year and be the biggest indicator of whether NASCAR will change the Cup car in 2011.
With their being little changes to the rules or to the COT next year I'm of the opinion that the competition should be tighter next year. There's only so much they can do with the cars right now that I think other teams are catching on to what makes these cars go. I see Gibbs, MWR, Childress, Roush, and Petty all being better next year. RCR really came on towards the end of last year with their new technology cars as well as MWR. Roush has to bounce back and be strong and Petty switching to Ford power will make that team much stronger going into next season.
2010 is likely the most pivotal season for Dale Jr in his Cup career as well. If things don't turn around next year it may get pretty ugly on that front. I don't think Hendrick would just dump him or anything but he needs to run well next season or its just going to get worse.
How many teams from last year may shut down or scale way back next year? I'm sad to see that Robby Gordon may only be in 8 races due to lack of funding. RCR is probably going to have to drop the 07 car after Daytona. McMurray gets the 1 ride with Bass Pro Shops but for how many races? Will Earnhardt/Ganassi pull the plug on this team after Bass Pro Shops fulfills their contracted races? Hall of Fame racing and the 96 looks to be history.
Nationwide
The biggest question will have to be how will the Nationwide COT work out this year in its select races? Seems NASCAR is using this car and taking all of the info the Cup guys want for the Cup COT and plugging it into this one. That about has to be the biggest story of 2010. Well, and she who shall not be named. My father-in-law was down in Daytona testing yesterday for ARCA and he said there was a posse of bodyguards escorting her everywhere she went. Said he thought the media coverage was crazy for Dario at Dega a couple of years ago but this is insanity.
How many start and parks will be in Nationwide next year? Will Marty Reid ever have the hammer dropped on him for his utter loathing of the start and park cars?
Another big story will be the drivers going for the Championship and how many Cup guys will run full Nationwide schedules next year. Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer may all be full time next season.
RCR takes the Zaxby's money of John Wes Townley to field a car for him for 2010. How many times will he crash out? I'd venture to bet the over/under would be 12-14 judging from last year.
Rusty partnering with Gibbs should actually make Stevie boy and Brendan both pretty competitive next year. It would be good to see a couple of Nationwide only guys do well next season against the Cup onslaught. This team along with Braun may both be able to hold their own from time to time. Braun may have 4-5 full time teams depending on sponsorship.
Trucks
Could 2010 be an up year for the trucks? Last year IMO was a pretty down year with a huge drop off in quality of trucks through the field. There were 4-5 pretty elite trucks, another 10 or so decent trucks, and the rest were really just basically junk. This coming year we will have some more good trucks enter the mix with RCR fielding two full time entries - one for his grandson Austin Dillon. The new team of Turner Motorsports will get help from KHI and Ricky Carmichael will be full time and James Buscher will be a part time truck for the team. Justin Lofton moving up from ARCA into a full time deal in a new truck should be pretty competitive. Mario Gosselin's team will improve with full sponsorship for 2010 and he even had a couple of pretty decent runs last year. Kyle Busch's new team will have 2 full time entries and maybe 3 if a sponsor could be found for Johnny Benson (which I hope comes to such a good guy). Even though Busch left Billy Ballew he's not giving up and will still have one full time truck with Aric Almirola and maybe a second truck as well with Ted Musgrave as the driver. Bill Venturini may run Alli Owens with her sponsor for about half of the truck races along with the full ARCA schedule. And Parker Klingermann may run about half the Truck schedule under the Brad Keselowski Racing banner.
All of these improvements will have to help the truck fields next year. However, there are a few teams that may shut down if sponsors aren't found including HT Racing with David Starr, the 81 ride for Randy Moss Motorsports, and Stacey Compton's Wyler Racing 60 truck.
All in all I'd say the trucks are upgrading for next season and should have better fields overall than they did last year. If some of these second or third teams do happen then it will definitely make the 2010 truck field much stouter than last year.
So why not pass some of the time by looking ahead at the 2010 campaign and having some friendly discussion about what's going on here in the offseason and what might happen next year.
Sprint Cup
I guess the biggest talking point next year will be who if anyone can unseat Jimmie Johnson. Every year I think someone will do it and yet every year no one can answer the challenge once it gets Chase time. As long as JJ/Knaus are together they are going to be hard to beat. Bad luck will eventually have to catch up with them at some point with a broken engine and a couple of crashes in the Chase to keep them from winning but will it be this year?
I don't really care for JJ/Knaus much but I'm also in the mindset that what they are doing is pretty remarkable. Rick Hendrick can spout off all he wants to about all teams sharing notes and no teams hiding anything from the other teams but that 48 team has to be doing something that the other Hendrick cars aren't. Chad has found some secret he's not sharing. He may share most of his information but there is something with that 48 car that just makes it stand out from the crowd. If they are able to cheat somehow and not get caught more power to them with NASCAR's tight rule procedures.
Now that we are into another full season with the COT will the racing improve any more at all? I honestly doubt it will get much better until they tweak the car just a little bit. When Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, DW, Petree, McReynolds, current crew chiefs, drivers, and all of these NASCAR writers weekly call for these minor tweaks maybe just maybe NASCAR will implement some of them in 2011. I think they are going to see how all of these changes work on the Nationwide COT first. Everything that these guys have been clamoring for as far as changes to the COT will be addressed with the Nationwide COT. Those may be the most intriguing races of the year and be the biggest indicator of whether NASCAR will change the Cup car in 2011.
With their being little changes to the rules or to the COT next year I'm of the opinion that the competition should be tighter next year. There's only so much they can do with the cars right now that I think other teams are catching on to what makes these cars go. I see Gibbs, MWR, Childress, Roush, and Petty all being better next year. RCR really came on towards the end of last year with their new technology cars as well as MWR. Roush has to bounce back and be strong and Petty switching to Ford power will make that team much stronger going into next season.
2010 is likely the most pivotal season for Dale Jr in his Cup career as well. If things don't turn around next year it may get pretty ugly on that front. I don't think Hendrick would just dump him or anything but he needs to run well next season or its just going to get worse.
How many teams from last year may shut down or scale way back next year? I'm sad to see that Robby Gordon may only be in 8 races due to lack of funding. RCR is probably going to have to drop the 07 car after Daytona. McMurray gets the 1 ride with Bass Pro Shops but for how many races? Will Earnhardt/Ganassi pull the plug on this team after Bass Pro Shops fulfills their contracted races? Hall of Fame racing and the 96 looks to be history.
Nationwide
The biggest question will have to be how will the Nationwide COT work out this year in its select races? Seems NASCAR is using this car and taking all of the info the Cup guys want for the Cup COT and plugging it into this one. That about has to be the biggest story of 2010. Well, and she who shall not be named. My father-in-law was down in Daytona testing yesterday for ARCA and he said there was a posse of bodyguards escorting her everywhere she went. Said he thought the media coverage was crazy for Dario at Dega a couple of years ago but this is insanity.
How many start and parks will be in Nationwide next year? Will Marty Reid ever have the hammer dropped on him for his utter loathing of the start and park cars?
Another big story will be the drivers going for the Championship and how many Cup guys will run full Nationwide schedules next year. Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer may all be full time next season.
RCR takes the Zaxby's money of John Wes Townley to field a car for him for 2010. How many times will he crash out? I'd venture to bet the over/under would be 12-14 judging from last year.
Rusty partnering with Gibbs should actually make Stevie boy and Brendan both pretty competitive next year. It would be good to see a couple of Nationwide only guys do well next season against the Cup onslaught. This team along with Braun may both be able to hold their own from time to time. Braun may have 4-5 full time teams depending on sponsorship.
Trucks
Could 2010 be an up year for the trucks? Last year IMO was a pretty down year with a huge drop off in quality of trucks through the field. There were 4-5 pretty elite trucks, another 10 or so decent trucks, and the rest were really just basically junk. This coming year we will have some more good trucks enter the mix with RCR fielding two full time entries - one for his grandson Austin Dillon. The new team of Turner Motorsports will get help from KHI and Ricky Carmichael will be full time and James Buscher will be a part time truck for the team. Justin Lofton moving up from ARCA into a full time deal in a new truck should be pretty competitive. Mario Gosselin's team will improve with full sponsorship for 2010 and he even had a couple of pretty decent runs last year. Kyle Busch's new team will have 2 full time entries and maybe 3 if a sponsor could be found for Johnny Benson (which I hope comes to such a good guy). Even though Busch left Billy Ballew he's not giving up and will still have one full time truck with Aric Almirola and maybe a second truck as well with Ted Musgrave as the driver. Bill Venturini may run Alli Owens with her sponsor for about half of the truck races along with the full ARCA schedule. And Parker Klingermann may run about half the Truck schedule under the Brad Keselowski Racing banner.
All of these improvements will have to help the truck fields next year. However, there are a few teams that may shut down if sponsors aren't found including HT Racing with David Starr, the 81 ride for Randy Moss Motorsports, and Stacey Compton's Wyler Racing 60 truck.
All in all I'd say the trucks are upgrading for next season and should have better fields overall than they did last year. If some of these second or third teams do happen then it will definitely make the 2010 truck field much stouter than last year.
