Despite its racing, Rockingham still on endangered list
Posted: Monday February 24, 2003 1:11 PM
Watching Sunday's race, one thought kept running through my head: This place is so much better than virtually every other track, yet it's in serious danger of losing a date. I can understand and appreciate that it's a business decision, but it would be much easier to stomach if the date wasn't in all likelihood going to go to a track that isn't half as thrilling as The Rock. (And maybe the grandstands wouldn't have been so empty Sunday if the weather weren't so miserable. It's still winter in the northern hemisphere, and North Carolina ain't exactly the tropics.)
Sunday's race was great. You had two guys banging doors down the stretch, weaving in and out of lapped traffic, trying to conserve their tires while at the same time trying to drive the wheels off their cars. The beauty of Rockingham is that it's odd. It's kind of D-shaped, so Turns 1 and 2 are totally different than 3 and 4, and the frontstretch just sort of arcs around in an asymmetrical way. (There's really no method to its layout, but you can say the same thing about Fenway Park.)
And most importantly, you can run around it high or low. It's not one of the one-groove tracks that seem to be popping up everywhere. The driver has to figure out the best way around depending on how his car is handling at that given point in time. What we saw was racing, not follow-the-leader. So give credit to Dale Jarrett. He's finished in the top 5 at The Rock 12 times in his last 17 starts. And he beat the hottest driver out there (see below), who just happened to be driving what looked to be the best car out there.
Kurt Busch -- Kurt Busch. Kobe Bryant. Both are young. Both have the initials K.B. Both look very soulful, the kind of guy who can show some serious moves on the floor while jamming to Nelly or whatever it is the kids listen to these days. OK, perhaps I've gone too far with that one; Busch is rather pasty, even by NASCAR standards. But each of these guys is on a serious roll. Kobe is dropping 40 on everyone in sight, and Busch is on one of the most incredible runs in recent history.
Parity is a fact of life in NASCAR. This isn't 1968, when Richard Petty could win every race while eating a corndog with one hand, holding a Big Gulp in the other and steering with his knees. So here's a guy who, racing in some pretty tough fields, was 11th in points after the Kansas City race last year, who then finished the year 4, 12, 1, 1, 3, 6, 1. He's started 2002 with back-to-back seconds. During that jag he's won a short track race after starting 36th, dominated a flat-track race (Miami, which he won by more than two seconds) and nearly won a restrictor plate race (Daytona). He is NASCAR's Kobe.
Jimmie Johnson -- After dominating Daytona, the Chevys took it on the chin at Rockingham. Johnson finished eighth, the only Monte Carlo on the lead lap. And things don't look to get much better next week, as we'll discuss later.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- You know the "I'd rather be lucky than good" adage? Well, Junior hasn't been either in his first two races. He was unlucky at Daytona and bad at Rockingham. It's not always his fault, but he still runs into way too many things. Sunday it was Jeff Gordon, who messed up his front end and consigned him to a 33rd-place finish.
The Army -- Everyone has an off day. First, three paratroopers ended up in the hospital after trying to land at the track in ridiculously high winds as part of the pre-race ceremonies. One guy landed on Junior's hauler; another missed the track altogether and wound up in the parking lot. Then the race started and Jerry Nadeau spun and got lapped twice in the U.S. Army No. 01 Pontiac.
Rusty Wallace vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Ah, the brouhaha. Last week, you'll recall Junior said he didn't like working with Rusty (at least at Daytona), in part because their sponsors are rivals in the corporate arena. This week, Wallace accused several Chevy teams -- and Earnhardt, by extension -- of cheating at Daytona. I talked to DEI bossman Ty Norris at Daytona, and one thing he went on and on about was how DEI has dominated plate racing without resorting to gimmicks or quick-fix cheats. Interesting, yes, but face it, this isn't the kind of thing where one guy is going to swear vengeance on the other one. It was a slow week, smack talking-wise.
Sterling Marlin vs. NASCAR -- Last year NASCAR refused to let the Daytona 500 end under caution, costing Marlin a win. This year, they reversed course and decreed if the race went yellow within the last five laps, there would be no red flag thrown. The to-ing and fro-ing got to Marlin, who was also peeved at being black-flagged in this year's 500. "I guess the stars all have to be lined up just right, and the moon has to be shining full and some sort of voodoo witch needs to come and cast a spell for NASCAR to make a decision about anything anymore," Marlin said. Since NASCAR isn't going to fire back, this feud looks pretty one-sided. Nothing more frustrating than an enemy who won't fight back.
Larry Wallace, engine builder extraordinaire who made his name building motors for Rusty Wallace and Roger Penske, isn't working this year. Penske didn't re-sign him, but there's a no-compete clause at play. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, he could wind up with newcomer Toyota when he makes his return.
Georgia native Buckshot Jones, last seen developing subdivisions in suburban Atlanta, will run the Atlanta race in a car owned by Michael Waltrip. He'll be using the same car he tried to run at the track last year, when he was foiled by the rain, which washed out qualifying. As potential winning propositions go, this one ranks fairly low.
"The downforce, with the way it's pushing down on these cars, it's an old school feel." -- Kurt "Kobe" Busch describes racing at the Rock. Old school? Maybe he is hip after all.
Good news! A bevy of readers passed last week's test and spotted the error. The Mark Martin ads are for Gatorade, not Ford, which should have been obvious since Jimmie Johnson's in there, too. I'll spare you my excuse. (It centers around a loud press room and what I suspect to be the early stages of myopia.) A few of those of you not suggesting I find a new line of work weighed in in favor of those Stacker 2 ads, which just don't do it for me. There's a bit of overacting going on. A good director, a master of understated subtlety like the guy who did The Hours would be good.
Anyways, Steve wins the prize for sending in his question the most times, so he gets it answered: Who has won the most races without ever winning a championship? It's Junior Johnson, who won 50. Keep those questions -- on any topic you'd like -- coming.
And my question for you is: If they held a battle royale featuring every current Winston Cup driver, what would happen?
It's hard to pick against Kobe Busch. (Uh, I mean Kurt.) In the five years Las Vegas has played host to Winston Cup race, Jack Roush's drivers have won three and finished in the top five three other times. Plus, it's Busch's hometown track, and there's that serious aforementioned roll he's on.
But in his two Cup races in Sin City, he's been just fair. As a rookie he started ninth and finished 11th, and last year he started third and finished all the way back in 20th place, the last car on the lead lap. So I'm picking against him.
Who do I like? Well, eliminate the Chevys. Last year Jimmie Johnson finished sixth, making him the only Monte Carlo in the top 15. In fact, Chevys have only three top fives in five years. I don't know what it is about this place, but they just can't run there.
So I think I'll stick with a Roush driver. I'm tempted to say Jeff Burton, but I'm not 100 percent sold that he's ready to get off his schneid. So I'll pick Mark Martin, who looked pretty aggressive at The Rock.
Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com. Click here to send him a question.
