It's that time again - the March tripleheader weekend at Atlanta. Entering the weekend NASCAR's three big league touring series have seen some action and some controversy - though the term "some" can be construed as an understatement.
Some miscelleneous observations entering Atlanta -
--------------------------------------------------
The soap opera that is NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow continues to bubble with continuing trouble and doubt about the entire concept. Frankly, it will be a miracle if the concept ever sees a competitive lap in anger, this despite some rather pathetic spin in the concept's favor.
--------------------------------------------------
The other soap opera remains the struggle of Dodge, a program out of control almost since it started and showing no sign of improvement, with questions worth asking about the leadership of John Fernandez and questions worth asking about where the One Team concept went. Two Dodge young guns are solidly in point contention but the bulk of the program remains racing for 20th at best when all five of Dodge's teams should be racing for top ten spots and race wins.
-------------------------------------------------
I do not gamble and certainly do not endorse it, but bet the proverbial mortgage on Mark Martin winning the Craftsman Truck race at Atlanta. Between the strength of the Roush #6 and the extra practice time Mark gets from Nextel Cup practice, it is like when Mark ran BGN - the extra practice time of his WC program gave him so much extra realtime track knowledge that it became almost impossible for him to lose BGN races that were companion events with WC. The same thing is at work with his Truck program right now.
So bet the proverbial mortgage on Mark Martin in the Atlanta Truck race.
-------------------------------------------------
Speaking of Trucks, a get well soon goes out to Bobby Hamilton, who after the Atlanta race will step out of his #18 Dodge Truck for awhile to get a health problem cured - a problem discovered when he went to the dentist to get a wisdom tooth treated. He should be back behind the wheel soon.
--------------------------------------------------
For Nextel Cup qualifying, the story was Bill Lester, who picked up six MPH from practice - a pick-up beyond astonishing - and became the first black driver in a Nextel Cup event since Willy T. Ribbs' ill-fated drives for the moribund DiGard team in 1986.
As the weekend counts down, there will likely be more subjects to discuss as the NASCAR season heats up.
No comments:
Post a Comment