Monday, June 19, 2006

Michigan 400 Postscript

Rain and Kahne fell mainly on the plain that is the locale of Michigan International Speedway, and when what turned out to be the Michigan 300 came to an end Kasey Kahne had his fourth win of the season. It turned out to be a pretty spirited duel up front as the lead bounced around several times a lap at some points; it didn't quite resemble Pocono's Lap 75 with its three clean passes in three consecutive corners, it was closer to older-style cushion racing where the highside car could use the "hill" of upper banking to gain speed. And the end result was some very good racing.

But the issues of the manufacturers at this speedway located within earshot of those manufacturers began bubbling up again amid word that John Fernandez of Dodge may be on his way out and toward Chip Ganassi's team, a development that has renewed concern that at least one NASCAR manufacturer will quit the sport.

The potential dilemma for NASCAR is several fold. There is legitimate reason for manufacturers to be upset, because of costs that are hundreds of millions of dollars beyond reason, because of rules biases both historic and recent (the most egregious being the reduction of Dodge engine cylinder width in mid-2002), and because of the ill-conceived Car Of Tomorrow project that has yet to entice any genuine support beyond a few drivers because of costs and poor testing.

The dilemma gets worse as Toyota ramps up for its 2007 debut. While questions about organization deserve to be asked, organizational miscues can't be counted on to stop a Toyota juggernaut well known for further pricing racing beyond reason; it certainly has not stopped Toyota in Trucks, where after a rough first year the Toyota juggernaut eventually got going to where now the only way to stop Tundra wins is for the other brands to bring in Truckwacker drivers like Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte. At Michigan, though, even the Truckwackers weren't enough to stop Johnny Benson and Bill Davis Racing from the win.

The ultimate dilemma comes down to this - if manufacturers leave, what is the potential damage? Losing manufacturer money is never a positive development for the sport, and the nightmare scenario is that more than one manufacturer leaves and in effect Toyota winds up competiting against itself, to where there are Toyotas winning races and no other brand can even finish on the same straightaway. We've seen what Buschwacking has done to BGN racing, where there is virtually no competitive depth and the only thing keeping the series going is Buschwacker outfits - can Winston Cup afford such a scenario if between Toyota and everything else, other manufacturers have to leave?

Or more precisely, what will NASCAR do to avert a nightmare scenario such as this?

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Kahne's win was his fourth of the season and fourth on intermediate superspeedways. There are eight such races left on the 2006 schedule - Chicagoland, the Yankee 400 at Michigan, Fontana, Kansas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Texas, and Homestead, and given the strength shown by Kahne on such tracks it isn't beyond reason to expect him to bag at least four more such wins.

The Chevrolet squadron, though, showed an unusual muscle for Michigan this time around, as the Hendrick fleet got into a spirited tussle with Dale Junior for the lead. Notoriously hard on Chevys over the years, Michigan this time didn't look quite so hostile.

Jeff Gordon showed no lingering effect from his Pocono crash and posted his best effort in a number of weeks, while Jimmie Johnson looked more like someone protecting a point lead.

Tony Stewart's title hopes took a hit, and any concern for Stewart's shoulder should be assuged by how hard he was swinging the hammer onto his banged-up fender in the garage area.

The series takes a break from ovals and hits the road course at Sears Point, where Tony Stewart is the heavy favorite; he'll need a win and a poor finish from Jimmie Johnson, though, to cut into the point lead.

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