Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Mar. 11, 2015
Volume IX, Edition XXIX
Wednesday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
by the Frontstretch Staff
NASCAR Issues Penalties Following Las Vegas
Kyle Busch Trades Casts for Boots As He Continues to Heal
On Tuesday, injured racer Kyle Busch had a checkup with his doctor in Charlotte to check the progress of his recovery. There, doctors removed the soft casts that encased his right leg and left foot and replaced them with boots, or as Busch's wife, Samantha called them, "Terminator Boots." It is another step in Busch's eventual return to racing. Read more
Testing Concludes at Charlotte Motor Speedway
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Professor of Speed
by Dr. Mark Howell
Poor Jeff Gordon.
If the 2015 Sprint Cup season is supposed to be Gordon's "swan song" in NASCAR racing, someone better tell him that his noble white waterfowl looks more like a wounded duck.
Maybe saying goodbye isn't all it's quacked up to be….
Such is the problem when so much excitement is placed on a single season; the single season rarely goes as expected. It's like when a couple tries to plan the ultimate wedding experience for their family and friends. That's usually when the exotic, far-off locale and the exquisite menu quickly turns into a monsoon and food poisoning suffered by all.
Not that Gordon's first three races of 2015 have been completely horrible. It's just that the positive aspects have been overwhelmed by negative ones. A pole position at Daytona was a great way to kick off the season and Jeff put his No. 24 Chevrolet out front for 87 laps in what looked to be another Sunday of Hendrick Motorsports dominance. His good start turned into a messy finish as an overtime/last-lap wreck on the backstretch gave Gordon a 33rd-place finish to end his final Daytona 500.
The only bright spot for Jeff Gordon at Atlanta the following week was when track management awarded him a commemorative Bandolero car prior to the start of the weekend's activities. Gordon's torch seemed officially passed when folks noticed that the names over the windows were those of Ella and Leo – his young children who may (or may not) follow in his gas-pedal-stomping footprints.
Given that Jeff qualified 35th and finished 41st after wrecking along the backstretch (again) on lap 258, his last race at Atlanta seemed anything but historic. Not that such an ignoble finish is unusual: when "King Richard" Petty ran his final race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1992, he crashed his famed No. 43 Pontiac in flames, dropped an F-bomb on network television, and wound up finishing 35th.
All that on the same afternoon when some kid named Jeff Gordon was making his first ever Sprint Cup start. Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same….
I had high hopes for Jeff last weekend at Las Vegas when he qualified on the pole for the Kobalt 400. Two pole positions in three races, and his first ever at Vegas? Maybe Gordon's karma was changing; maybe he would give NASCAR Nation the performance it hoped to see. Watching a driver struggle in what is regarded as the twilight of his driving career is always painful, but it looked as though Gordon rolled the dice in Sin City and hit the exact combination he needed for success.
Such good fortune, however, was fleeting. As "Happy Hour" drew to a close on Saturday, the Chevys of Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick collided. Patrick was able to keep her 21st-place starting spot, but Gordon was forced into a backup car and put at the rear of the field – from feast to famine just as practice drew to a close.
On lap 24 of Sunday's race, as fans waved white towels given to them by Las Vegas Motor Speedway in honor of Jeff Gordon's last race at the track, I could not help but see them as symbolic of "Wonder Boy's" 2015 Cup season thus far. Was this a sign of surrender to the racing gods? Would Gordon's last season turn into a "here's-your-hat, what's-your-hurry" kind of farewell tour? Better days must surely lie ahead.
I remember being on the road with NASCAR back in 1992 during Richard Petty's farewell tour. "The King" led a total of five laps that year, managing to complete only 83% of the scheduled laps during 29 events. Each stop was a little holiday as tracks and fans paid homage to "King Richard" for his stellar career – a career that helped put NASCAR on the global radar.
Leaving Michigan International Speedway that June, I rolled south down the interstate behind Petty's transporter. As cars approached or passed and recognized the famous name and the equally-famous colors, headlights would flash, horns would honk, and fans would wave wildly from windows. Petty was one of several drivers heading directly to Indianapolis for a test session as plans for a future Cup race there were being finalized.
That future Cup race, come 1994, would be won by a young kid named Jeff Gordon.
Petty's final season in 1992 was more celebration than competition. As the 2015 Sprint Cup season unspools with each passing event, one can only hope that the same is not true for Jeff Gordon. NASCAR's elder statesman has much to prove and much to accomplish, including a legitimate shot at one more Cup title.
He just needs some good luck and better timing to make it a reality.
Dr. Mark Howell is a contributor for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at mark.howell@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:
Tuesday's Answer:
Q: In 1993, Geoff Bodine purchased AK Racing from Alan Kulwicki's estate (managed by Felix Sabates) and became an owner-driver when he moved from Bud Moore's No. 15 to his own No. 7 in September. Needless to say, Bodine struggled early on. Phoenix was no exception as he failed to make it to the first pit stop. What happened?
COMING TOMORROW
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