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It's Not Do or Die for Junior at Dega
4/21/08: SOZ Studios, MI - By Dennis Michelsen "DMIC" (RaceTalkRadio.com)
The race at Talladega is a week away but everyone is wondering if this is a do or die week coming up for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hey folks…Junior is sitting pretty in points in third place. Even more important Junior is a comfortable 202 points from falling out of NASCAR's version of the playoffs. But while this is not do or die time for Junior, other teams are getting to that time of the year where they need to make their move. Let's take a look at the top three teams that can't be happy with their performance to date in 2008.
Chip Ganassi
Is it the open wheel experiment or has Chip Ganassi just fallen behind with his Cup teams? Last season at this time Ganassi had two teams in the top twenty in points. His top team with rookie Juan Pablo Montoya was sixteenth in points just 68 points from the top 12. But this season while his top team is 61 points out of the final playoff spot and seventeenth in points, his other two teams have fallen off the face of the NASCAR Earth! David Stremme's replacement Dario Franchitti has failed to keep his car in the top 35 and Reed Sorenson is dangerously close to joining him on the outside looking in every Friday! Despite appearing to have the financial resources to compete with the big boys, Ganassi's teams play second fiddle at best every week.
Gillette Evernham Motorsports
After a quick start to the season this team has been slip sliding backwards. Three top ten finishes to open the season had the All State Milfs excited about Kasey for more than their love of his butt. Four of the last five races the team has failed to finish in the top 20. Their last two efforts on mile and a half tracks is even more of a concern to GEM fans. Elliot Sadler's season has been equally frustrating since Daytona with only one finish better than 15th. Rookie Patrick Carpentier has missed three of the first eight races and failed to post a finish better than 28th all year. Once again it looks like this team is not capable of being consistent enough to challenge the top four teams at the Cup level.
Penske
The season started so promising at Daytona for Roger Penske with the one-two finish in the year's biggest race! Even rookie Sam Hornish Jr finished 15th! Ryan Newman has had two finishes worse than 30th since Daytona and Kurt Busch has not cracked the top ten again. Hornish Jr showed that his Daytona run would not be indicative of his performance this season and he is close to falling out of the top 35! What started as a promising season for The Captain is turning to another year of being in the Cup level's second tier of teams.
Big Four Dominance Worse
NASCAR hoped that the new Car of Tomorrow design would even the playing field a bit in Cup racing. But after eight races it appears that the Big Four are as dominant as they were one year ago. Last year at this time 34 of the 40 top five finishes were by drivers racing for Hendrick Motorsports, Roush-Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing, or Joe Gibbs Racing. Four of those top fives were by Mark Martin racing for the now defunct Ginn Racing. This year 35 of the 40 top five finishes came from drivers with the Big Four. Two of those top fives were by Ryan Newman. Three of the five top five finishes by teams outside of the Big Four occurred at Daytona! Only sixteen drivers have posted two or more top ten finishes and twelve of those drivers race for the Big Four teams.
While some have said this is a do or die week for Dale Earnhardt Jr to end his winless drought, there are other teams with a more urgent crisis heading to Talladega. Daytona opened the year with optimism that more teams would be competitive at the Cup level than ever before. But after eight races the cream has risen to the top as expected. Instead of teams like Penske South, Red Bull Racing, and Gillette Evernham crashing the part the Big Four are stronger than ever. The next chapter of the 2008 season will tell us which teams will need to make big changes for next year.
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