Sports Commentary
Fifteen years ago, the notion of one NASCAR team fielding more than one entry each week was viewed with skepticism. Multi-car teams didn't take over the sport until the late 1990s. Owners fretted about dividing their resources and hiring two drivers who could work together without being endlessly concerned about one being promoted at the expense of the other.
This notion seems quaint now that Jack Roush (Roush Fenway Racing) puts five cars on the track each week. Now owners fret about it being impossible to compete with less than three. Since elite teams boast somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 employees, "dividing resources" isn't much of a concern. The best single-car team in the sport right now belongs to Robby Gordon, who has a cooperative arrangement with Gillett Evernham. He's 23rd in the Sprint Cup point standings.
In terms of producing champions, the more the better. The last champion who didn't have a teammate was Dale Earnhardt in 1994.
Top-to-bottom strength has been elusive, though. In 2005, when Roush's Ford drivers grabbed five of the (then) 10 slots in the Chase, Roush still couldn't pull off a championship. Tony Stewart, representing Joe Gibbs' team, won it. Each of Richard Childress Racing's three drivers -- Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer -- made the 12-driver Chase last year, and five races into the current season, all three are nestled in the top 12 again.
The best teams, at present, are actually the ones that are big, not gigantic.
Roush Fenway has five teams. Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Inc. have four. Teams with three are RCR (Childress), Joe Gibbs Racing, Penske Racing, Ganassi, GEM (Gillett Evernham) and Michael Waltrip Racing. Petty Enterprises, Team Red Bull, Bill Davis Racing and Yates Racing have two.
Seven teams have at least one driver in the top 12, but all but two have glaring weaknesses.
Judged on the basis of the Sprint Cup point standings, RCR has an average position of 5.33 with Harvick third, Burton fourth and Bowyer ninth. Gibbs has Kyle Busch in first, Stewart in seventh and Denny Hamlin 15th, giving his team an average of 7.67.
The secret? Childress and Gibbs have no weaknesses.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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The reason Hendrick's average is 16.25 is because Casey Mears is 33rd. Roush Fenway's average is 17.2 because David Ragan is 21st and Jamie McMurray 36th. Penske's average is 17.67 because Sam Hornish Jr. is 35th. Gillett Evernham (24.0) has Elliott Sadler in 20th and Patrick Carpentier in 46th (he's made the field only twice). Ganassi (27.33) has Juan Pablo Montoya in 19th, Reed Sorenson in 25th and Dario Franchitti 38th.
The season is young. Only 14 percent of the races have been completed. For those who have disappointed so far, numbers are getting important. Thirty-five teams have guaranteed spots in the starting fields. Twelve will make the Chase.
Everyone will be watching Hendrick's four entries this week. The team that produced the champion (Jimmie Johnson), the runner-up (Jeff Gordon) and victories in half the races last year hasn't won yet. The next race is at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where a Hendrick driver almost always wins. In the last 10 Martinsville races, either Johnson or Gordon has won eight. Johnson's won three in a row.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., the team's best performer so far, hasn't ever won at Martinsville, but then again, he hasn't ever competed there in one of the Hendrick entries. He has had seven top-five finishes, including five in a row at one point (2002-04).
For the rest of the spring, a great deal of attention will be focused on the underachievers. By summer, those who continue to languish will become footnotes to the season, discussed mainly on the basis of whether they can keep their rides or find others elsewhere.
There's time, though, to nip the rumor mill in the bud. Drivers like Mears, Montoya, Sadler, Ragan, McMurray, Sorenson, Paul Menard, Regan Smith and J.J. Yeley had best get cracking.
OFF-WEEK OBSERVATIONS
-- For the first time -- it happened only three times all last year -- a "native" won the Nationwide Series race. Competing for Childress, Scott Wimmer won at Nashville Superspeedway. Since Carl Edwards, Bowyer, David Reutimann and Ragan all compete full-time in both series, it's imprecise to refer to the Nationwide Series drivers who don't compete in Sprint Cup as "regulars." They're "natives."
-- As high-visibility newcomers become better acquainted with stock cars, their performances will improve. One reason is that they couldn't get worse. Hornish is 35th in the standings, Franchitti is 38th, Carpentier is 46th and Jacques Villeneuve is gone.
-- The critical issue for making the Chase isn't necessarily the number of races left. It's this question: Can Yeley (now 31st) make up 209 points on Martin Truex Jr. (currently 12th) over a span of 21 races?
-- Jimmie Johnson is 13th, Jeff Gordon 14th, Denny Hamlin 15th and Carl Edwards 16th. Edwards is the only two-time winner, but he was penalized 100 points after the second victory. All four are likely to make the Chase. If so, which four above them don't?
-- If Hornish's team falls out of the top 35 in owner points at Martinsville, it would leave Michael McDowell, who inherits Reutimann's points when he debuts at Martinsville, as the only rookie with an automatic starting-field slot. Reutimann, who has been Michael Waltrip Racing's most consistent performer, takes over for retiring Dale Jarrett in the No. 44 Toyota, and a subpar performance in Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 could drop his new team out of the top 35.
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