My take on the 2012 Cup Season

IMO, Allmendinger contending for the cup is a bit of a stretch.
 
#17D500winner said:
IMO, Allmendinger contending for the cup is a bit of a stretch.
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I count sixteen drivers with rosy futures this year . They can't all make the chase but hopefully most will. AJ and Kurt are the most likely not to make it IMO.
 
Stewart Fan said:
I'm not so sure. He's with a top team now for the first time ever so he may surprise a few people.
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When you say 'top team' ? Where would you rate Penske amongst Hendrick,RCR , Roush ,Gibbs ,Stewart Haas? 1,2,3,4,5,6.?
 
ted@economy said:
When you say 'top team' ? Where would you rate Penske amongst Hendrick,RCR , Roush ,Gibbs ,Stewart Haas? 1,2,3,4,5,6.?
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I personally throw all those teams under one hat, they're all very good and field competitive cars.
 
Nice article, but I don't expect much racing excitement from the car changes. I look foward to the day when the aero package becomes less important so guys can bang and bump again. I still remember '07 when guys started popping tires with the splitter and everyone took on the 'don't touch me' attitude, and it got out of control every year since.

I'm hoping the new blood turns things around. At Sonoma, a guy named Stewart took on the same attitude a kid named Keselowski did at Atlanta the year before, and even took it much further by taking out 4 cars when he felt he was being blocked. It will be a great day when agressive blocking is no longer tolerated on a NASCAR track.
 
ted@economy said:
When you say 'top team' ? Where would you rate Penske amongst Hendrick,RCR , Roush ,Gibbs ,Stewart Haas? 1,2,3,4,5,6.?
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Like KG said, I'd put them all together. I mean last year Brad K won 3 races and was competitive pretty much every week. Kurt could've been but his biggest problem was Kurt.
 
One of the goals NA$$CAR had with the introduction of the COT was to "level the playing field" so that smaller teams had a legitimate shot at winning races. To some degree, that goal has been achieved.

While there is still a huge gap between the superteams and the independents, the gap has been narrowed.

I like that!
 
Concerning the changes at the restrictor plate races, do you think will this effectively turn the race into a "water temerature" race? I would personally rather just see the two-by-two racing that resulted in an exciting final last year rather than a bunch of cars blowing engines.
 
robbybee said:
One of the goals NA$$CAR had with the introduction of the COT was to "level the playing field" so that smaller teams had a legitimate shot at winning races. To some degree, that goal has been achieved.

While there is still a huge gap between the superteams and the independents, the gap has been narrowed.

I like that!
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Well, they failed miserably. Introducing so much aero to the CoT has cost teams a ton of money. I believe that partnerships have evened the playing field more than CoT has. No races were won by a small team that had no affiliation with a large team. Perhaps RedBull, if you consider them a small team with a limited budget.
 
FenderBumper said:
Well, they failed miserably. Introducing so much aero to the CoT has cost teams a ton of money. I believe that partnerships have evened the playing field more than CoT has. No races were won by a small team that had no affiliation with a large team. Perhaps RedBull, if you consider them a small team with a limited budget.
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What about Regan Smith, or MWR? They won some races in the last few years.
 
MOEJOE said:
What about Regan Smith, or MWR? They won some races in the last few years.
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Regan Smith has the Hendrick frames (and engines?) and Tony's spare pit crew.

I forgot about MWR, but I still don't thing the CoT has changed much as far as small teams being more competitive.
 
Even with frames and engines from bigger teams , I think Moe Joe was talking about the intensive aero work that doesn't have to be done by a small team. You could even put the Wood Brothers in there.All they needed was a competitive engine ,driver and crew.
 
FenderBumper said:
Regan Smith has the Hendrick frames (and engines?) and Tony's spare pit crew.

I forgot about MWR, but I still don't thing the CoT has changed much as far as small teams being more competitive.
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If you're looking for the days of Smokey Yunick to come back, keep looking. Cause it ain't gonna happen. This last year we saw something like 4 drivers take their first Checkered FLAG in the sprint cup. And furthermore we saw teams win that normally don't.

RPM
FURNITURE ROW
MWR
PENSKE
 
In fact, if you look at the list of winners, there was more diversity in 2011 than the last several that I can remember. No one team or super team, ran away with it in the win catagory.
 
MOEJOE said:
In fact, if you look at the list of winners, there was more diversity in 2011 than the last several that I can remember. No one team or super team, ran away with it in the win catagory.
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Penske on your list of teams that don't usually win a race? Really?

The rest of your list proves my point. No stand alone small team won last year.
MWR - TRD.
Furn Row - RCR, SHR.
RPM - Roush, Yates.

Last year wasn't a case of little guys winning as much as it showed larger teams extending their tentacles deeper into the field. Rick Hendrick is VERY proud that one of HIS cars won the championship last year.
 
KingGlamis said:
That's a tough one. They're close. Not sure if their lack of success is due to Clint and Juan or the equipment and teams.
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Juan's made the Chase before. When he controls himself, he does well. McMurray's won a few big races but I've never considered him an elite driver.
 
FenderBumper said:
Penske on your list of teams that don't usually win a race? Really?

The rest of your list proves my point. No stand alone small team won last year.
MWR - TRD.
Furn Row - RCR, SHR.
RPM - Roush, Yates.

Last year wasn't a case of little guys winning as much as it showed larger teams extending their tentacles deeper into the field. Rick Hendrick is VERY proud that one of HIS cars won the championship last year.
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Penske didn't win hardly shat in 2010 did they? Oh well.

As far as "no stand alone small team won last year" statement. I would like you to tell me what stand alone team has good people and a good driver.

The way to win is to cooperate. Even in F1 things are going that way.
 
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