NASCAR Seasons: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

December 30, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

We are just 48 hours from a new year….and a week away from the unofficial start of the new season.

In just seven days, teams will be arriving in Daytona to begin the first week of Preseason Thunder.

Drivers heading to session one include reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin.

One driver who is also scheduled to be there, but more than likely won’t, is Robby Gordon, who will be off in Africa participating in his fourth Dakar Rally (his third running his own team). Robby became the first American to ever win a stage at the Dakar last year, and this year he is listed as one of the favorites to win the whole thing. I am the first to admit, while I am not much of a fan of Robby in a stock car, I am addicted to Dakar, and check his standing in the race first thing every morning. One year ago, Robby finished the rally eighth overall. This year he will be gunning for the win…and will have two H3 Hummers on the course instead of just one. Gordon is optimistic about his chances in 2008.

"This year the Hummer is much more durable and the chassis is much more prepared for the changing conditions," said Gordon. "Our crew is better prepared. Our chase vehicles are better prepared. We've also added a second team, and just like NASCAR, two heads are better than one."

Getting back to NASCAR, it has been quite a year. We saw some amazing things, but while there were many, many highs over the course of the season, we also had some lows.

It is hard to believe we will mark the one year anniversary of Bobby Hamilton’s passing on January 7th. Nine days later, we lost Benny Parsons. Several familiar faces in the NASCAR family lost family members: Kenny Wallace lost his father-in-law; Richard Childress lost his brother Larry; Jerry Nadeau lost his father Gerard; Morgan Shepherd lost his mother Bettie; The France Family lost two members this year: Dr. Bruce Kennedy, husband of Lesa France Kennedy, was killed in a plane crash just a month after she lost her father, former NASCAR Chairman Bill France Jr. Jack Roush lost his mother, Georgetta, and Jeremy Mayfield lost his father, Terry.

For all of the losses, there were smiles and laughter as well, as the season rolled through nine months of racing.

We kicked the year off with one of the most, if not THE most, exciting Daytona finish in history. On the last leg of the last lap, it appeared as if Mark Martin was finally going to win his first Daytona 500. However, as cars began crashing behind him, Kevin Harvick in the newly sponsored yellow 29 car, caught and passed Mark as they crossed the finish line, leading Mark to yell, “I had him! I had him”! If only they had thrown the yellow flag as the crashes began.

Harvick won by .005 seconds, the ninth closest finish since electronic timing of races began. Daytona was the site of another exciting finish in July, when Jamie McMurray won the second race of his career, beating Kyle Bush to the line by .002 seconds, the second closest finish since electronic timing of races began.

Hendrick Motorsports came out of the gate swinging and by the end of the year they had won more than half of the races that were run all season. Jeff Gordon won six events and set a modern-era record of 31 top-10 finishes, but even that was eclipsed by his teammate. Jimmie Johnson became the sixth person in the modern era to win back-to-back championships by winning ten races, scoring a record 1663 points during the chase, and having an average finish in the last ten races of 5.0. (Oh yeah, Casey Mears and Kyle Bush scored one win apiece, bringing the HMS win total to 18 for the season.) They also scored six of those wins in a row in the middle of the chase, making them the first team since Petty Enterprises (1967) to score six consecutive wins.

Juan Pablo Montoya proved he wasn’t just a stock car wannabe. The former open wheel champion scored two wins in his rookie season. He scored his first win in the Busch Series race in Mexico City, his second in Sonoma in a Nextel Cup race. Both races were on road courses, although Montoya did well on ovals as well. He ended the Cup season with one win, three top 5’s, and six top 10’s, and took home the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title over David Ragan. This year, he will be joined by fellow open-wheel veterans Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve.

However the biggest story of 2007 was obviously the drama surrounding the sports most popular driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr. On May 10th, Junior set the NASCAR world buzzing when he announced that he was ending an eight year career with the company his father had founded. Citing what was the NASCAR equivalent of “irreconcilable differences”, he stated it was time for him to move on from DEI, and find a new team.

"I am 32 years old – the same age as my father when he made his final and most important career decision – and the time for me to compete on a consistent basis and contend for championships is now," said Earnhardt.

Rumors abounded over where Junior would go. Would he drive for Richard Childress, and if he did, would it be the 3 car? In the end, the decision sent almost as many shock-waves through the NASCAR fan base as did the initial announcement: Junior was going to drive for Rick Hendrick. For millions of Earnhardt fans, HMS was seen as the enemy: someone to vehemently root against. The idea that Junior would even consider going to race with the likes of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson simply mystified many of his fans (and still does to this day if the e-mail I received from my column two weeks ago was any indication).

The only link to the old will be his new number. He was unable to take the 8 with him, but Rick was able to make a deal with Robert Yates Racing to buy the number 88 from them. Other than having an 8 in his number, all the rest will be a part of Junior’s past: Bud is being replaced by Amp, Coke is being moved aside in favor of Pepsi. It will be a totally new season for Junior in 2008. It will be interesting to see what comes of his decision.

Junior isn’t the only driver making a move in 2008. He supplanted Kyle Busch in moving over to HMS. As a result, Kyle is now moving over to Joe Gibbs Racing. That ousted J.J. Yeley, who is now moving to Hall of Fame Racing. That booted Tony Raines, who is still without a ride.

Dario Franchitti will be taking the 40 car, which relieved David Stremme of his ride. Stremme has signed to run a few Nationwide Series races, but is still looking for a full-time Cup ride. Jacques Villeneuve will be taking over the 27 car, which had been occupied by Jeremy Mayfield (as the 36). Mayfield moved over to the 66 car at the end of this season, bumping Jeff Green from the car. Green is still looking for a ride in ’08. Sam Hornish will be climbing into the 77 car at Penske Racing, which hasn’t been raced since Travis Kvapil vacated it in 2005.

One stat that many fans probably never expected to happen: not a single driver born in the Tar Heel state won a race. North Carolina was 0-36 in Cup series races in 2007, the first time since NASCAR was founded that it has happened.

A few more quick facts from the year gone by:

• There were four first-time Bud Pole winners: Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, J.J. Yeley, and Martin Truex, Jr.

• There were also four races won from the pole: Jeff Gordon did it twice, Johnson and Bowyer did it once each.

• There were four first-time race winners: Bowyer, Truex Jr., Montoya, and Mears.

• Four drivers led their first Cup Series lap ever: David Ragan, Montoya, David Reutimann, and Patrick Carpentier.

• There were 16 different race winners.

• Five of the races finished under caution and seven ended with a green-white-checkers.

  No new qualifying track records were set during the 2007 season.

I am excited to see what the year to come will hold. I hope you are too.

A safe and happy New Year to all of you. I look forward to seeing you back here next year.

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The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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