So a few posts back I mentioned that I'm a huge NASCAR fan. Well I haven't really said much more about it but that all changes today.
Tonight the boys race the short track in Richmond VA. It's the last race of the season before "The Chase" starts. The Chase Is NASCAR's attempt at some kind of playoff situation. In my humble opinion it doesn't work and they should get rid of it, but for some reason the president of NASCAR isn't returning my calls (that bastard). Here is how it works: first of all the racers get points for everything - leading laps - showing up - wearing a cute fire suit. Ok maybe not for everything but NASCAR has a ridiculously complicated scoring system that I haven't even begun to try to figure out. So anyway the season has 38 races and goes from Feb - Dec. After 28 races the top 12 in the points are admitted into what is called "The Chase" and those guys basically race for the championship. Everyone else still races but they have no chance of winning the big prize. So if you are having a late season surge there is absolutely no chance of you winning it all or if you are having a tough late couple of races you could fall right out of the top 12.
The one thing this format does do is to allow the non-chase racers to really screw with the chase guys. Last year Tony Stewart did not make the Chase and then went on to win either 2 or 3 of the chase races which keeps the other guys from getting points toward the championship. It was funny because you could tell he was having a hell of a time doing it because everyone knows that Tony just likes fucking with people.
So that brings us to today. It's the last race and my driver although technically not eliminated has to have a lot of things happen to make it (side note this is not why I don't like this format). Both Kurt Bush and Kevin Harvick have to have bad races and that's almost impossible at this point. Kurt Bush especially can do no wrong - his car is running well and as a few races ago he has a new crew chief and that has made a huge difference. I'd rather see Harvick not finish - he and Juan Montoya have a good little on track battle going on. I'm hoping Montoya pulls one of his bonehead moves and takes at least Harvick out. Juan - if you are reading you are in no way going to make The Chase so any damage you can do it either guy today would be greatly appreciated.
There area bunch or scenarios that would get Junior into The Chase but I'm not going to go into them here. He does well at Richmond and has won there 3 times. He didn't qualify well and will start in the 21st spot but that doesn't stop him from moving to the front of the field pretty quickly when he has the right car.
I can't wait for next season when Junior no longer drives for DEI (Dale Ernhardt Inc - the company his father started) and he goes to Hendricks Motor Sports. He'll be racing with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears. If you are a Junior fan you HATE those guys. But I like to think I'm smart enough to see that this is a great move for his career for lots of different reasons. Hendricks is not tight with the purse strings like his current owner step-mother Theresa Ernhardt. The bottom line is you have to have the cash flow and good equiptments. DEI doesn't always have that, Hendricks always does. So even if he doesn't make it we have next season. I would of course like to see all fo the stars align and have Juinior make the Chase this year - he's worked really hard and well, he's my favorite dammit.
