Chicagoland Observations
By Bob Margolis, Yahoo! Sports
Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway:
• After a 20-race winless streak, Tony Stewart gets his first win of the season out of the way – and all he can think about is heading out on vacation and drinking a case of Schlitz beer.
And now that Smoke has the monkey off his back, the rest of the field had better start worrying about him going on a winning streak. It looks like this team's intermediate program is right on the money.
• While Stewart was saying in his post race interview that his victory drought wasn't that big of a deal to his team, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was telling a different story.
When asked how it felt to see Stewart finally score a win this season, Hamlin said, "I know they were kind of stressed-out like we were to finally get a win."
Hamlin scored his first victory of the season two weeks ago at Loudon.
• Stewart said the media made a bigger deal out of the rift between himself and Hamlin than it really was. If that was so, Tony, then why did team owner Joe Gibbs make a special trip to Chicagoland on Saturday to speak to both of you? Just to give you both a pep talk?
• Stewart and Kasey Kahne flew to Stewart's Eldora Speedway in Ohio following Happy Hour on Saturday for the World of Outlaws "King's Royal" event that night. Both Stewart and Kahne own WoO teams. Kahne's driver Joey Saldana finished fifth, while Stewart's driver Paul McMahan finished sixth.
By the way, expect to see Budweiser on Kahne's No. 9 Dodge next season.
• All three RCR cars finished in the top 10. Kevin Harvick was fourth, Jeff Burton finished seventh and Clint Bowyer was 10th. Both Burton and Bowyer struggled for the first two-thirds of the race, and Bowyer even went a lap down. Harvick led 54 laps and looked almost unbeatable at the midpoint of the race.
They may not be winning every week, but the RCR cars have more than their share of finishes in the top 10 since the start of the season. You can expect all three will be in the Chase come September.
• Just when we're all ranting and raving about how well DEI is doing, its three teams all had a miserable weekend.
Paul Menard blows an engine during practice and Martin Truex does the same during the race. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. has his power steering fail, relegating him to a 19th-place finish.
I doubt if it will sway Kyle Busch's opinion about signing with DEI. Most observers expect that announcement to come in a couple of weeks.
• Juan Pablo Montoya once again was the highest-finishing rookie (15th). He leads the ROTY points over David Ragan, Paul Menard, David Reutimann and A.J. Allmendinger.
• Despite his somewhat disappointing ninth-place finish, prerace favorite Jeff Gordon remains the points leader by 303 over Denny Hamlin. Gordon's average finish in 19 races this season is 6.6, and he has finished in the top 10 a whopping 17 times.
• Once again, it was the same familiar faces running near the front and the same set of names at the back. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has reached a critical stage. Less than half the cars that started the race (19) finished on the lead lap.
• Can someone please tell me why Kurt Busch can't win a race? The 2004 champion's winless streak dates back to the spring 2006 Bristol race. Has he forgotten how to drive? I doubt it.
• I wonder what keeps Greg Biffle going every weekend, especially when he's had to endure two consecutive mediocre seasons, including this one. Surely he too hasn't forgotten how to drive. And how in the world is he ever going to make it through his lame duck season at Roush Fenway next year?
• As Chicagoland races go (they’re usually pretty boring), this one was one of the best. Now that this so-called cookie-cutter track has some seasoning, there are two distinct racing grooves, making it a much better race track.
• Kyle Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and a handful of other drivers used the high line to their advantage all afternoon. Even after Earnhardt's power steering failed, he continued to flirt with disaster, running a mere six inches from the outside wall. He had a top-10 car until his mechanical failure.
• Maybe Goodyear could have brought just a slightly softer tire to this race and it would have made the racing a whole lot better. Drivers struggled with a slippery race track, and getting close to another car made it even more treacherous.
• Will someone please find a lucky charm for Bill Davis' No. 22 Toyota team and deliver it ASAP? Dave Blaney finally has got this Nextel Cup deal figured out and now all he needs is some better luck to win one or two races.
• Has Mark Martin's part-time schedule finally caught up with him?
• Jimmie Johnson led 82 laps and may have been the only driver that could have challenged Stewart, but a tire failure ended his day. It dropped the defending Cup champion down to seventh in the points. It was his third DNF of the season.
• Didn't TNT's "five and five" race coverage for five of its six races make for the worst television broadcasts you've ever experienced? It was absolutely unwatchable.
I will miss Kyle Petty's analysis. He's been a real treat. If you think he's great to listen to on television, believe me, he's an even better interview at the race track.
• OK, ESPN. It's your turn with the Cup broadcasts. Please don't disappoint us.
Postscript
The Nextel Cup teams get a well-deserved weekend off next weekend, their final one of this season. Then it'll be the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, one of NASCAR's "majors."
History tells us that the winner of that prestigious race often wins the Nextel Cup title the same year.
Veteran motorsports writer Bob Margolis is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR reporter.
By Bob Margolis, Yahoo! Sports
Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway:
• After a 20-race winless streak, Tony Stewart gets his first win of the season out of the way – and all he can think about is heading out on vacation and drinking a case of Schlitz beer.
And now that Smoke has the monkey off his back, the rest of the field had better start worrying about him going on a winning streak. It looks like this team's intermediate program is right on the money.
• While Stewart was saying in his post race interview that his victory drought wasn't that big of a deal to his team, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was telling a different story.
When asked how it felt to see Stewart finally score a win this season, Hamlin said, "I know they were kind of stressed-out like we were to finally get a win."
Hamlin scored his first victory of the season two weeks ago at Loudon.
• Stewart said the media made a bigger deal out of the rift between himself and Hamlin than it really was. If that was so, Tony, then why did team owner Joe Gibbs make a special trip to Chicagoland on Saturday to speak to both of you? Just to give you both a pep talk?
• Stewart and Kasey Kahne flew to Stewart's Eldora Speedway in Ohio following Happy Hour on Saturday for the World of Outlaws "King's Royal" event that night. Both Stewart and Kahne own WoO teams. Kahne's driver Joey Saldana finished fifth, while Stewart's driver Paul McMahan finished sixth.
By the way, expect to see Budweiser on Kahne's No. 9 Dodge next season.
• All three RCR cars finished in the top 10. Kevin Harvick was fourth, Jeff Burton finished seventh and Clint Bowyer was 10th. Both Burton and Bowyer struggled for the first two-thirds of the race, and Bowyer even went a lap down. Harvick led 54 laps and looked almost unbeatable at the midpoint of the race.
They may not be winning every week, but the RCR cars have more than their share of finishes in the top 10 since the start of the season. You can expect all three will be in the Chase come September.
• Just when we're all ranting and raving about how well DEI is doing, its three teams all had a miserable weekend.
Paul Menard blows an engine during practice and Martin Truex does the same during the race. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. has his power steering fail, relegating him to a 19th-place finish.
I doubt if it will sway Kyle Busch's opinion about signing with DEI. Most observers expect that announcement to come in a couple of weeks.
• Juan Pablo Montoya once again was the highest-finishing rookie (15th). He leads the ROTY points over David Ragan, Paul Menard, David Reutimann and A.J. Allmendinger.
• Despite his somewhat disappointing ninth-place finish, prerace favorite Jeff Gordon remains the points leader by 303 over Denny Hamlin. Gordon's average finish in 19 races this season is 6.6, and he has finished in the top 10 a whopping 17 times.
• Once again, it was the same familiar faces running near the front and the same set of names at the back. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has reached a critical stage. Less than half the cars that started the race (19) finished on the lead lap.
• Can someone please tell me why Kurt Busch can't win a race? The 2004 champion's winless streak dates back to the spring 2006 Bristol race. Has he forgotten how to drive? I doubt it.
• I wonder what keeps Greg Biffle going every weekend, especially when he's had to endure two consecutive mediocre seasons, including this one. Surely he too hasn't forgotten how to drive. And how in the world is he ever going to make it through his lame duck season at Roush Fenway next year?
• As Chicagoland races go (they’re usually pretty boring), this one was one of the best. Now that this so-called cookie-cutter track has some seasoning, there are two distinct racing grooves, making it a much better race track.
• Kyle Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and a handful of other drivers used the high line to their advantage all afternoon. Even after Earnhardt's power steering failed, he continued to flirt with disaster, running a mere six inches from the outside wall. He had a top-10 car until his mechanical failure.
• Maybe Goodyear could have brought just a slightly softer tire to this race and it would have made the racing a whole lot better. Drivers struggled with a slippery race track, and getting close to another car made it even more treacherous.
• Will someone please find a lucky charm for Bill Davis' No. 22 Toyota team and deliver it ASAP? Dave Blaney finally has got this Nextel Cup deal figured out and now all he needs is some better luck to win one or two races.
• Has Mark Martin's part-time schedule finally caught up with him?
• Jimmie Johnson led 82 laps and may have been the only driver that could have challenged Stewart, but a tire failure ended his day. It dropped the defending Cup champion down to seventh in the points. It was his third DNF of the season.
• Didn't TNT's "five and five" race coverage for five of its six races make for the worst television broadcasts you've ever experienced? It was absolutely unwatchable.
I will miss Kyle Petty's analysis. He's been a real treat. If you think he's great to listen to on television, believe me, he's an even better interview at the race track.
• OK, ESPN. It's your turn with the Cup broadcasts. Please don't disappoint us.
Postscript
The Nextel Cup teams get a well-deserved weekend off next weekend, their final one of this season. Then it'll be the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, one of NASCAR's "majors."
History tells us that the winner of that prestigious race often wins the Nextel Cup title the same year.
Veteran motorsports writer Bob Margolis is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR reporter.