Bristol:1-2-3 All Chevy's I See, But Where's Hendrick?

At Bristol, Chevrolet held on to historic finish and dominated the three spots, but guess what, not one of those top three spots where of Hendrick motor sports and did I say it was at Bristol, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson's race. 

Last year at this time of the year Hendrick Motorsports was dominating the Field of NASCAR, especially in the car-of-tomorrow races. 

But now Hendrick still, does not have a win, and the top two drivers, Gordon and Johnson are hardly being able to muster up a top ten finish. 

However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been more impressive.  Perhaps it was the little switch-a-roo that he made to Hendrick, that made him more impressive. 

Kyle Busch, who raced for Hendrick last year, was the one to get Hendrick his third win in a row last year and nobody was going to question Hendrick's dominance on the sport.

So where is Hendrick now?

Personally whatever has happened, I think, was great for NASCAR. 

Instead of Hendrick having basically complete control over the standings, like what happened last year, this season has teams mixed up more than ever before. 

We have Rousch Fenways winning, Richard Childress cars winning, and even Joe Gibbs cars.  I don't know about you but, last year I never got a chance to hear these names at all. 

I am sure it feels nice to have some drivers win that I never heard of before.  At least this time we did not hear Tony Baby about the tires, like I wrote about last week. 

The tires where actually really though out though.  Just to enlighten you, the tires had two layers one that would get flat, but the inside one that would stay fully pressured and stay that way until the change had to be made. 

And the car of tomorrow handled surprisingly well when Jimmie nearly spun out.  It really should be called the car of today.

But in final, Bristol told me something about NASCAR that had not ever seen in a long time.  Hendrick can be beat!  The sport keeps on changing for the better.

To the car of today, to the ever increasing diversity of drivers winning races, NASCAR is at the high point in its lifetime as one, true, American sport.

Predictions for next week:

1.  Dale Earnhardt JR.

2.  Tony Stewart

3.  Kyle Busch

4.  Jeff Gordon

5.  Jeff Burton

Surprise?

Elliot Sadler