The following is a repost from September 6:
Fontana came and went and Richmond beckons, and suddenly there may be a shot for Kasey Kahne to make NASCAR's playoffs, much to my surprise and that of some others. Given Kahne's struggles after winning the Michigan 400, struggles that dropped him out of the top ten in points, winning Fontana no doubt caught more than a few off guard.
Even so, Kahne faces an uphill struggle to make the playoff cut, but his success does bring to mind a larger issue within the realm of Dodge Motorsports. Kahne's five wins so far this year, combined with Scott Riggs' surprising rally from disaster at Speedweeks and the performance bounce coming from Elliott Sadler, have helped salve the wounds that have festered at Ray Evernham Motorsports in the last few weeks, wounds opened in the rancorous divorce of Jeremy Mayfield from the organization.
One would think Evernham Motorsports has proven its critics wrong with its stellar performances. But the blogger MD80891 has authored some detailed analysis of the Evernham organization that raises questions about how good that team really is. Note: his Evernham writings are to date not in his blog but in his varied message board submissions at the site that hosts his blog; searching out his message board posts is worth the effort, because he details serious flaws in the Evernham organization.
A larger issue is also the whole of the Dodge Motorsports fleet. The fundamental lack of leadership in the Dodge effort has been an issue since it began its Winston Cup endeavor, but as the Chase closes in with the very real possibility of not a single Dodge entry - not to mention the dismal showing of the Dodge fleet other than Kahne at Fontana despite Reed Sorenson's wildcard fuel effort - the issue of Dodge's mismanagement of its racing program remains an important one.
Simply put, Dodge's teams are not on the same page and they desperately need to get back on the same page. Having entered the Truck Series in 1996 under the One Team banner, Dodge finds itself being beaten in the head with it by Chevrolet in Winston Cup - the contrast of Chevrolet's competitive depth to the heroic anarchy of Dodge's uncoordinated little fiefdoms is pretty ugly viewing, especially as one considers that for all their mismanagent, Dodge's teams still have the talent to beat the Chevrolets.
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On competitive depth, another rather ugly stat is worth keeping in mind - four Chevrolet teams, the Roush Ford team, and the Dodge efforts of Evernham and Penske have won the races so far, and it has been since last year's Autumn 500 at Talladega that someone else won a Winston Cup race. There is another irony here, in that that team - Robert Yates Racing - hastily hired the driver whose victory in BGN at Kentucky Speedway in June has already been elevated in the sport's history as one of the all-time great upsets, and the result has been awful. The Yates organization's most successful crew chief, Todd Parrott, abruptly came back in August to help out the Yates effort, but the result so far has been dismal.
Parrott left a Petty Enterprises organization with which he was beginning to get turned around what has this decade been a slow-motion perfect storm of misery, misfortune, and mismanagement - and all he may have jumped into is a fast-forward perfect storm of misery, misfortune, and mismanagement. Maybe staying at Petty would have been the wise choice, Todd.
UPDATE: Parrott may wind up returning to Petty Enterprises if the Yates #88 disbands as Doug Yates has admitted is an option for the RYR organization for 2007. Of course it's hardly anything resembling a done deal, but that it would even be publically considered is more than a little disturbing.
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The team likely looking most intensely forward to Richmond is DEI, which won here in May. RCR is also a good bet here, having won at Phoenix and flexed ample muscle at Richmond in May. Of course Jeff Burton has to be watched, as it's Chase or cut bait time here and he's been the unsung hero of RCR's turnaround the last year-plus.
Given that they are all but the only Ford team out there, Roush Racing will be loaded for bear at Richmond.
So Richmond will be an interesting event - whether it will be a good race remains to be seen.
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