Ten NASCAR Questions for 2009

Question 1:
Four straight for Team 48?
 
Will anyone be able to stop Jimmie Johnson?  The odds-on favorite for the Sprint Cup in 2009 has to be the Team Lowe’s Chevrolet. Who can mount the best attack on the Hendrick juggernaut of Johnson & Knaus?

Preliminary contenders have to be the 18 and the 99. Kyle Busch had arguably the most successful "regular" season in 2008, suffering all of his bad luck at the worst time, during the Chase.

Carl Edwards stayed steady all season, mounting a serious charge on Johnson during the Chase.  All pre-season signs point to a likely three-way fight for the Cup in 2009.

 
 
Question 2:
What will happen to RoushFenway's fifth team?
 
Back in 2005, NASCAR announced its 4-car cap per owner. At the time, the only owner over the cap was Roush with his 5-car stable. NASCAR gave RFR until 2010 to get under the limit.

The 09 season hasn't even started yet, and there are already reports on NASCAR.com that RFR is lobbying hard to keep their fifth team, worried that cutting a team, or at least moving it to another owner, may drive out a sponsor, something NASCAR desperately needs to hang on to especially during these tough economic times.

NASCAR's position is that the rule is the rule, set to help keep the sport open to new owners and new teams, and the economy doesn't change that.

Most rumored scenario has RFR's fifth team becoming Yates Racing's third (or fourth, if you count the new alliance with HOF Racing).

Time will tell, but hopefully NASCAR and RFR can put aside their sometimes confrontational past and work out an agreement that will keep everyone, especially the sponsor, happy and in the sport.
 
 
Question 3:
Will the testing ban impact racing on the track?
 
In a cost-cutting measure, NASCAR suspended testing at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks (tracks that host the national & regional touring series) for 2009.

With only about a year and a half of race experience with the COT, not being able to test at the tracks it'll race on will certainly slow any progress being made to have the cars race better and put on a better show.

That being said, it's not that testing of any kind is not being done.  Wind tunnel, 7-post shakers, non-NASCAR tracks, even automotive testing grounds and airfields are seeing an increase in NASCAR traffic, as teams scratch and claw for any advantage.

I don't believe the racing will be worse in 2009 compared to 2008. I do think improvements to and familiarity with the COT will be slowed, not being able to test on the series' tracks.

 
Question 4:
Merger Mania? Helpful or delaying the inevitable? How will the "new" teams perform? Will the wholes be greater than the sums of their parts?
 
If there is anything that the recent mergers and alignments (Richard Petty Motorsports, Earnhardt-Ganassi racing, Yates & Hall of Fame Racing) have in common, it's that they all involved struggling operations looking to stabilize structurally and financially to improve performance.

Each had the same circumstances in common: the lack of full (or adequate) sponsorship
for all their cars, coupled with poor on-track performance. Pooling resources by merging/aligning helps stabilize the organizations financially; this  makes things less stressful when your team isn't scraping by week-to-week to make it to the track.

Merging/aligning also gives each organization a much needed shot-in-the-arm, an infusion of new ideas, and fresh approaches that may prove to be the spark to help the teams break out of their ruts and achieve their full potential.

 
Question 5:
Will Stewart-Hass Racing contend out-of-the-box?
 
Arguably the biggest "silly season" move of 2008 was Tony Stewart leaving
Joe Gibbs Racing, the only Cup team he's known, leaving the only Cup crew chief he's known, Greg Zippadeli, to become part owner of Hass-CNC racing, sliding behind the wheel of one of their entries.

The speculation began: Can Stewart turn around the
fortunes of Hass-CNC, a struggling two-car outfit, funded largely out of the
owners' pockets, into a successful, championship contender? If so, how
long would it take?

Stewart brought some much-needed sponsorship help to
SHR, taking some of the burden off of Hass & Hass Automation. Stewart
picked the best and the brightest he could snag to join his new endeavor,
plucking Ryan Newman from Penske, snagging Army from DEI, and management from
across the garage to ensure the success of SHR.

With financial stability, a pair of winning drivers, not to mention the strong relationship/alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, it shouldn't be long before we see the 14 and the 39 running at the front.

Question 6:
Who will feel the economic downturn the most: Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Trucks?
 
Every aspect of NASCAR (from the Sprint Cup Series down to the regional and local touring series) heavily rely on outside sponsorship to operate week in and week out.

With sources of funding drying up, teams are scrambling to pull resources and shore themselves up to ride out the economic storm. 

Companies have less to spend on sponsorships, so monies are shifting to where they can get the most bang-for-their-buck: the premier level national exposure of Sprint Cup. 

While everyone is going to feel the pinch of tightening purse strings (evidenced by the layoffs following the 2008 season), it’s the smaller teams that may find it most difficult to stay afloat. 

With less access to resources, fewer levels of support, fewer suitors willing to align/merge, the smaller, single-car teams, especially on the lower tier series will find the going even more difficult.

 
 
Question 7:
Will we see full fields at every race in all three series?
 
An offshoot of the economic downturn is the worry of having less than full fields show up for races during the course of the season. The terms "field-filler" and "Start & park" are now common place around the NASCAR garage again.

The decrease in the number of fully-funded, full-time teams, the elimination of teams via mergers all point to the possibility of starting a race with less than the maximum number of entries.

One or two fewer cars on the track won't impact the racing, which is the bottom line...will it affect the product on the track? It is just a sign of the
difficult economic times, plain and simple, not a signal that NASCAR is in trouble.

 
Question 8:
Who will be the first to break their winless streak? Who will get their
first breakthrough win?
 
Several high profile drivers went winless in 2008: Gordon, Kenseth, and others. Who will be the first to snap the streak and get to Victory Lane in 2009?

On the same note, who is the favorite to breakthrough and get win No. 1 in 2009? The Davids (Reutimann and Ragan) are the likely choices, with strong showings in 2008. Also, you can't count out guys like Regan Smith, who nearly snagged a win at Talladega last fall.
 
  
Question 9:
Will the schedule realignment prove successful?

For the 2009 season, the Sprint Cup schedule will have a three-way date swap between Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, and Talladega Superspeedway.

• Atlanta’s second 2009 race will take the Labor Day weekend slot Auto Club Speedway had in 2008.
• The second race at Auto Club Speedway’s will move to Talladega’s slot in the Chase: race No. 4.
• Talladega’s second race will shift to Atlanta’s second race slot: Chase Race No. 7.
ACS struggled to sell out the Labor Day weekend since snagging it away from Darlington several years ago. 

Atlanta has been plagued by weather issues and sagging attendance numbers for it’s second race.  On the surface, it appears to be a “win-win-win,” putting the races in better positions to be successful. 

Atlanta gets an earlier date for it’s second event, and the Labor Day tradition returns to the Southeast.  ACS (And the LA market) gets a race in the Chase, and Talladega moves later in the Chase, making the wild-card race even more suspenseful.

Question 10:
Will NASCAR make it to 2010?

Much like the changes from 2008 to 2009, NASCAR will most likely have to remain flexible and adapt to the economic and competitive environments that develop during 2009. 

Ideally, conditions will improve, sponsor monies will return and some of the folks let go after the 2008 season will be able to return to work in the NASCAR community sooner rather than later. 

Teams will continue to gain more and more experience with the COT, improving the handling and in turn, the racing.  Will the COT in the Nationwide Series remain on track for release in 2010?  Only time will tell.