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View From The Couch – California

“Oh, yeah. I don’t know what happened. The 99 wasn’t very good last night, he was so-so and we were really good, and then the weather just swapped it.”
–Greg Biffle on the difference from Sunday to Monday.

It’s funny how cars can change overnight with different track conditions. Some of the changes were subtle. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch were probably the two fastest cars on Sunday night, but not quite as good on a sunny day. Carl Edwards was showing signs of speed when the rain came last night, but was faster than everyone during the day. Other drivers like Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch were completely lost during the day. So what else happened?

  • For the majority of Speedweeks, all the praise was saved for Hendrick and Gibbs. Last week the big story was how Dodge was finally ready to compete. Now headlines will note how the Roush cars are the ones to beat on the downforce tracks. Next week it will be another team or manufacturer, so let’s all keep things in perspective. It’s very early in the season.

  • I wonder how drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Reed Sorenson and Denny Hamlin felt when they woke up today? Usually when you wreck and have a poor finish, at least it’s over when by the next day and you can look towards the next weekend. Today they all had to get back in battered cars with the knowledge that they wouldn’t improve their finishes at all. It’s probably even worse considering how good the weather and track were on Monday morning and realizing that the wrecks wouldn’t have happened today. Well, that and seeing Casey Mears and Sam Hornish have the chance to go to Vegas early.

  • It wasn’t a huge success, but the two Yates cars had nice runs. Travis Kvapil used a two-tire pit strategy to sit in 2nd place for over 12 hours. So eleven and half of those hours were during a red flag, but Kvapil actually did have a nice run going before he suffered damage on his car. He spent 71 laps inside the top 15 before his accident. Teammate David Gilliland finished a solid 17th. Excluding restrictor plate races, Gilliland only had 4 top 20’s all of last year. Getting support from Roush-Fenway Racing at least has Yates pointed in the right direction.

  • It’s interesting that the big fear was that this was the year of Toyota’s big breakout. Take out the Gibbs cars and Brian Vickers and the Camrys look pretty normal. It’s still up to the teams to build good handling cars and have good drivers. None of the three MWR cars finished on the lead lap, Dave Blaney finished in the 30’s for the second straight race, and JJ Yeley had engine problems and finished 29th. Denny Hamlin has also crashed in the first two races and sits 31st in the standings.

  • After the race, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson had some interesting things to say about the CoT on intermediate tracks. First Gordon:

    I was very curious and anticipating a little bit more action out there. You know, right now I think what you’ve got is you’ve got some guys that are really hitting it with this car on this track and some that weren’t. So it kind of spread the field out a little bit.
    Plus, you know, track position on these big tracks is extremely important. Jimmie and I are both fortunate to capitalize on the points from last year. But going forward, we’re going to have to really make sure we qualify good.

    Interesting. It sounds a lot like the old car, which as everyone knows wasn’t always conducive to great racing. That point is emphasized by Johnson’s quote.

    The other thing, I noticed the cars were much more sensitive. Racing nose to tail, you’d catch someone, get to a spot, difficult to run behind him. If the guy in front of you was smart, just look in the mirrors, he could run your line, screw you up, you’d lose 20 car lengths. Seemed to me like the aero was more important in this car than the other car. It’s still the first downforce race we’ve had with it. I’m sure we’ll all make it better. As Jeff said, track position was extremely important even more so than in the past.

    As Johnson admits, it’s the first race and things will probably improve. But what does it say when the two of the top three finishers of the race aren’t convinced that this car will improve the actual racing.

  • One lingering thought about yesterday’s rain delay. A lot of sports will show classic footage to pass the time. Fox and Speed are in the same ownership family, how about rolling out some old races? If all else fails get Junior to host and just have an impromptu Back in the Day session.

  • The top nine spots in the Nationwide race went to Cup drivers. Tenth went to Stephen Leicht in the #21 Childress car. He’s only running a limited schedule, but Leicht has already won a Busch/Nationwide race and is in one of the top rides in the series. This is his third season in the second tier of NASCAR, but he is still only 21. Keep an eye on him this year and beyond.

  • We couldn’t even make it two races before the first Silly Season rumor dropped. According to Yahoo, Bobby Labonte would move to Richard Childress Racing in a new fourth car in 2009. Lee Spencer disagrees. I won’t go so far to say Labonte can’t or won’t wind up at RCR, but consider this: One of the articles quotes Kevin Harvick talking about expanding to a fourth car and hints at Labonte rumors. Spencer’s article has a direct quote from Childress denying the rumor. Things change with time, but I’m more inclined to believe Spencer, especially with her track record and the fact that Yahoo has been erroneous in the past (Jr and Truex to drive for Jr Motorsports, anyone?). I don’t like rumors, especially in February. Who knows what will happen in 36 races?

For more NASCAR news and opinion, check out Trouble in Turn2.

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