So though this week's Nascar race at Atlanta wasn't the most exciting race in the world three things were made pretty clear.
One that Kyle Busch has arrived, all the talk of the past few years of his promise and potential have evolved into someone who could literally dominate the Truck, Nationwide & Cup series all at the same time.
Two that with Kyle, Toyota is here to stay, in a year they went from barely qualifying to steady top five finishes and now a win, it was a slower process than in Trucks & Nationwide but like Kyle, we could see them winning at all three levels, now.
Third, something needs to be done about the tire issue, its obvious Goodyear has some problems and it will follow the series from track to track until better tires are made or a new agreement with a different tire maker is signed and this is a safety issue than could hurt or kill someone, so it needs to be made fast like this week at Bristol or before the following race at Martinsville.
So sticking with tires (no pun intended), we've all heard Tony Stewart's rant about Goodyear and yeah its Smoke again blowing off steam but he has some valid points. Goodyear only does racing tires for Nascar, no other form of racing, coincidence? And yeah this week the tires were bad, not the blow outs like in Vegas but blistering tires, Kevin Harvick's crew caught a bad tire during a pit stop, it looked like Elliot Sadler had some bad tires during last of the three caution flags that he drew. And most obvious was as Kyle tried to do the celebratory burnout, he struggled at first because the tires were so hard.
Now I have my own personal issues with Goodyear, back in early 2000 I bought a set of Eagle GTs for my 1996 Mazda 626 LX, they were pretty expensive tires $ 600 for the set but I drove a lot back then and figured get the best I could afford. Well 25,000 miles later while the car was having a brake job the technician found bubbles in one of the tires and said that meant the tire was coming apart, and was a bad tire not because of my (then), aggressive driving. I replaced the set with Kellys (all I could afford), and never had a another problem.
If you read the tire reviews at Tirerack.com you'll see a large number of complaints on current retail Goodyears, I just bought a set of Yokohamas for my 2005 Mazda 6 and they are as good as the original Michelins (OEM), that came on it but at a better price.
Anyway you know its bad when a veteran driver like Mark Martin talks about tire uncertainity during the pre race radio coverage, so lets hope this gets cleaned up before someone gets hurt.
Back to Toyota and Kyle, what can you say about the choices that Joe Gibbs racing have made over the last few months? I mean wow it seems like its them vs Roush Fenway for the lead and Hendrick and RCR are playing for third place. But its early in the season yet and Jeff Gordon (who ran a respectable, consistent race but just got beat by better cars), and Jimmie Johnson (who battled from being back early, made good use of the lucky dog twice and finished respectably), are too good to stay out of the winners section for much longer.
And then there's Dale Jr. it seemed he had a potential winning car, well it seems he's had a winning car every race so far, but he's not driving it like a winner. When you see guys like Jeff Gordon or Kevin Harvick, jockeying for position, not satisfied with the 4th place, moving up and down, trying to get an angle on another car to make that precious pass, you know that's a guy who wants to win. I don't see that with Dale, with Dale I see a bus drivers mentality, a guy happy to be in the right lane going five miles under the limit and driving everyone around him nuts, literally.
My girlfriend pointed out that again, he had bad restarts and again almost got people crashed, this is Cup racing, you can't be spinning your tires like that, bad rubber or not, respect the other drivers and respect the sport, that means drive like the checkered flag is the only thing that matters. I don't care for Tony Stewart as a person, but I respect him as a driver because I know he wants to win (those late laps move prove that), and will do what he needs to to get to victory lane, that's what this sport is all about.
And with his finish it made a 1-2 Toyota finish, first foreign car to cross first since 1954 and that was a Jaguar. I hope the domestic cars took notice because that won't be the last checker for Toyota.
And speaking of checkers, how about the dominance of the 18 car at Atlanta, Bobby Labonte got 5 wins in the ATL with that car and now Kyle brings it home again, I think a new page has been turned with this victory, both for him and Toyota and we'll look back on this race and when things changed in racing.
Next week is Bristol and the defending champ is, yeah Kyle, it also marks a year since the COT was first introduced in Cup racing, so with that short track, it should be interesting, weather shows for it to be your usual cool Northeastern early spring day, should be good, as long Brian France does something about the tires.
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7 months ago
Interesting article. You seem knowledgeable. I find the tire issue troubling. I look forward to your take on next week's developments.
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