The Summer 500 at Pocono - aka The Pennsylvania 500 - got off to a decent start with Denny Hamlin's second straight Pocono pole, but that and other on-track stuff has been overlooked of late due to a plethora of Silly Season stories, the latest of which is the soap opera that is Robert Yates Racing. The story goes that David Gilliland, the surprise BGN winner at Kentucky earlier this year, has been offered one of two Yates Fords for 2007. The other half of this story concerns Yates development driver Stephen Leicht, supposedly slated to get the other Yates Ford for 2007.
Some will object that pairing two rookies as teammates without a veteran to guide them is a recipe for disaster. As it is, it might be. But the regular comment that a rookie needs a veteran driver to guide him is a cliche that dies hard despite some evidence to the contrary, such as the failure of Kenny Irwin under the wing of Dale Jarrett when both drove for Yates in 1998-9. There is also the comparative washout of Jamie McMurray at Ganassi/SABCO under the wing of Sterling Marlin.
The whole veteran-bringing-rookie-along approach always sounds like a good idea but it often doesn't work because the veteran sees the rookie as a rival, not a partner. So if Yates teams up two rookies, he may have as good a shot at turning his program around as he would pairing a rookie with a veteran.
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There is also the question that the sport ought to be asking - why is it not requiring young drivers to spend periods encompassing several years in the minors - BGN, Trucks - before bringing them to the Winston Cup level. With recent talk about a shortage of capable driving talent and rumors of drivers such as Ward Burton, Bill Elliott, and Mark Martin either coming out of retirement or coming back after lengthy periods away from the sport, the sport needs to reexamine how it develops young drivers.
What could be wrong with requiring young drivers to run fulltime in BGN and/or Trucks for five or six years, before ever making a start in a Winston Cup car?
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Is Tony Stewart's Lindsey Lohan act already tiresome? "He's a jerk," said Carl Edwards after the Summer 500 - a very rare expression of opprobrium by one driver toward another, and one certainly appropriate here. Stewart for his part said one thing after the race, then said another on Monday. First he criticized Bowyer and made the preposterous assertion that "If the Three car were still here" the sport would not have problems with the young guns. Come Monday, though, Stewart belatedly admitted what was too obvious to deny - he was responsible for the wreck on the frontstretch.
Fans shouldn't boo Stewart, though - they should sit on their hands and say nothing.
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Denny Hamlin's Pocono sweep has made him early favorite for the Brickyard. The Brickyard, though, has enough difference that Hamlin's Pocono setup may not work quite as well. Certainly over the years Pocono winners haven't automatically been Brickyard favorites, as to date only Jeff Gordon in 1998 and Bill Elliott in 2002 won Pocono and then won the Brickyard.
Pocono's Winston Cup season has thus ended this year, but 2007 will be here before you know it, and there is plenty of racing before then to see.
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