Just like in the Daytona 500 two weeks ago, we had a couple early wrecks that took out some serious players in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday.
At Phoenix International Raceway, Carl Edwards had one of the stronger cars in the field but was caught up in an early crash. It also took out of contention a couple of the Richard Childress Racing teams that I thought would be serious players.
After we got through the early wrecks, we settled in for some racing. Once again, we had a record number of lead changes. They weren’t all from cycling through cautions, either; they were from passing on the track.
In the end, it was Jeff Gordon heading to Victory Lane.
Gordon is in his 19th season as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver. He is a four-time champion in our sport. Now he has won 83 races. With all that said, I saw more energy, emotion and excitement in his postrace interview than ever before.
That victory snapped a 66-race winless streak. It was the longest winless streak of Gordon's career. I think he is realizing how hard these wins are to get now. Last year, when they asked a number of drivers who the most talented driver on the circuit was, Jeff was very quick to say Kyle Busch. You heard Jeff on his radio after the taking the checkered flag ask his crew, “Can you believe it? We beat Kyle Busch.”
When you look at what Kyle accomplished again this weekend, you’ll see why Jeff made that statement. Kyle won the NASCAR Camping World Truck race Friday evening. He led every single lap in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday. Then Jeff passed Kyle for the lead with only a handful of laps left on Sunday. So Kyle had two victories and a second-place finish in three Phoenix races last weekend.
Folks, that is pretty darn phenomenal.
I think Sunday also shut up the critics who keep saying the offseason changes at Hendrick Motorsports were all about Dale Earnhardt Jr. Remember, this is the entire 2010 No. 5 team of Mark Martin now teamed up with Jeff Gordon. It has nothing to do with Dale Jr.
The move that team owner Rick Hendrick made was clearly a move to improve the performance of three of his four teams. Now, after qualifying Friday, we all were scratching our heads because of the four teams, only one of them, that of Gordon, qualified in the top 20.
What became really evident early on in the race was that the Hendrick cars were better race cars than they were qualifying cars. I read some of their quotes, where they said all four teams try different things in practice to cover more territory. They all then combine their information and come up with the best race setup for all four cars.
Jimmie Johnson even said it in his postrace interview. He said they are basically testing Friday and Saturday to find the right setup for Sunday.
Despite all his woes on Sunday, Dale Jr. was able to bring home a top-10 finish. If that team can ever get its act together, I look for the No. 88 to make some noise this year. That said, that team, or any for that matter, cannot survive with loose wheels and pit-road speeding penalties. They simply have to get that all out of their system to be legitimate contenders for wins and possibly the championship.
