Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick lead field challenging for title
I thought we saw some good racing Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. I think we saw the benefit of having a wide race track with multiple grooves. You also have to tip your hat to Goodyear for bringing a great race tire to the track. Then you saw our recent pattern continue.
Denny Hamlin has served notice once again that he and that No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team are the ones to beat in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. That car just looked so good and smooth again Sunday. I don’t think I saw it bobble all race long. The team had unbelievable Toyota power under the hood.
Joe Gibbs Racing to me, seems to be getting stronger each and every week. At the same time, I have to tell you that I really like what I am seeing out of that No. 2 Penske Racing car of Kurt Busch. The addition of crew chief Steve Addington, formerly of Joe Gibbs Racing, has brought a new swagger to Busch’s team. That bunch at Penske is making a lot of folks slowly but surely believe they are title contenders.
It just seems when that No. 2 car rolls into the track these days, it is fast right off the truck, Busch qualifies well and the team races really well. Go check the statistics. Kurt Busch has led more laps than any driver this year. Again, a lot of that credit has to go to Steve Addington.
The really fun thing for our sport is there now seem to be multiple cars that will give Jimmie Johnson a run for his money when we get into September and the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The other thing I am excited about is now we are getting some signs that we don’t need to overlook the Roush Fenway Racing cars as this season goes on.
Lots of folks continue to hold out hope that the Fords will return and get better as the season unfolds. So if Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle can hold steady and continue to improve, then maybe they can make some noise when it counts. The other Ford to keep your eye on is the Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 9. Sure Kasey Kahne hasn’t made it into the top 12 in the standings yet, but I have a good feeling about that one.
I talked to team owner Jack Roush over the weekend while at Michigan. He believes that going to this new engine full time is going to give all the Fords more consistency. You have to believe the Ford camp has to be excited about what they are seeing.
You also can’t overlook that Richard Childress Racing is putting really good race cars on the track week in and week out. I know Kevin Harvick didn’t have the day he was looking for on Sunday, but many times he looked pretty dang racy. On top of that, he comes out of Michigan still leading the points.
That being said, he and his team have to win races. There are some really good race tracks coming up, places where Kevin has won. Indianapolis and Chicago come to mind. He and his RCR team need to take advantage of places like that and make things happen.
There has been a lot of talk that NASCAR is considering changing the Chase next year. One of the points of discussion is adding a road course into the Chase. To me, it would bode well if we could because it would eliminate a lot of complaints that there are too many cookie-cutter tracks in the current Chase lineup.
I like it that you have to run Talladega. I love it that you have to run at the shorter tracks. So why not raise the level of difficulty by adding a road course? That way your champion has truly been tested on all types of tracks. So putting a road course in the Chase is a great idea. To the folks that disagree with that, I want to remind you that back in the 1980’s, we used to finish our seasons at Riverside, also a road course.
I love road-course racing, like this weekend at Sonoma. I like it when our sport goes into other parts of the country that we normally don’t spend a lot of time in. To me, racing at Sonoma fits that bill.
