Surprise... Surprise

[Checkeredflag]

Didn't he kind of do that with the Busch car - Reutimann ran fine in the car last season, but the races Mikey was in, it was a backmarker.  Now Reutimann is in that car full time this year.

Unfortunately it also means we have to suffer through those awful Aaron's commercials trying to sell us on the driver change.

[KurtBuschFan]

I do NOT think Mikey will do this volunterly.  His sponsors will have to MAKE HIM....
Reason he won't... It would be ALL to obvious to EVERYONE (including himself) if he put in a different driver and THAT driver starting making races, running well, etc..... it would show FOR SURE that Mikey was DONE as a competitive driver and it was PAST time to hang up the helmet.  I don't think he is ready to face that fact yet,.. so he'll keep trying to drive until the sponsor put him in a corner.

And that's sad....he's gotta know he's struggling to make the races...and it's not just because of the Top 35 or their screw up in Daytona.  He needs to just suck it up, swallow his pride and give someone else a crack at qualifying the car.  He hasn't been that competitive for quite a while now.  He's got 4 career wins in 676 starts.  All four of those wins were restrictor plate races...where it could be anyone's race as long as they stay outta trouble.  That's gotta tell him something.

[Chris]

And that's sad....he's gotta know he's struggling to make the races...and it's not just because of the Top 35 or their screw up in Daytona. 

Yeah,.. they could use ANY system to determine the field,... Mikey would still miss it.
His just not fast enough to make the field.  He's consistently slow and you can find both he and Jarrett near the bottom of the practice and qualifying speeds every week.

If Jarrett keeps it up,... he may be in trouble AFTER Bristol.  Even with making all 4 races so far.  His results have been so POOR, he is in 33rd in the points.  He has TWO races to get up in the top 35 far enough to be able to STAY there the rest of the season...
He has some GOOD cars close behind.  J Green likes Bristol,.. K Kahne had bad luck and crashed two weeks in a row,...Riggs is the same way.  And Vickers.  Heck he missed TWO races,.. and is only about 100 points back of Jarrett.  Blaney has been running well,.. just poor finishes.  You also got Petty, Menard and Schrader tossed in there.
LOTS of opportunity for just THREE drivers to pass him and make him have to qualify on time in week #7.
If he ever gets out of the top 35, and then misses a race,.. he'll be in the same boat as Mikey.  He'll MISS more races then he races in the remainder of the season.

(NOTE##)... I'm just going off of the "driver" points because the owner points from Atlanta has not been updated yet.  Since Schrader runs the #21, and Wood drove it one week,.. the points for that car could bump Jarret down one spot further,  Wood gave it a decent ride that week.  At the very least that car would be right on Jarrett's heels.

[KurtBuschFan]

And that makes me sad for DJ because I've always liked him.  Honestly he was doing better with Yates...

[flamehothead]

IMO most of the drivers that were switching over to Toyota thought they would run well for the simple fact that the Toyota in the Truck Series ran well. I know they are two totally different animals but they thought that Toyota had done their Homework and was ready to start the season off Strong but I think they need to pay better attention in class LOL.

[KurtBuschFan]

Well but Toyota doesn't do well all the time.  And the cars are set up different...completely different than the trucks.  I'll be interested in how Toyota does with the CoT though because the front end of the CoT is similar to the front end of the trucks.

[Chris]

Yeah.. good points KBF
DOn't think it'll make much difference THIS weekend at Bristol however,... but when they got off of the real short tracks where aero comes into play,.. might see something then..??

[flamehothead]

I agree, Good point KBF. We might see the teams that also own a Truck do a little better because they already have the Splitter on them and ya never know, We might see a couple of Truck Series Crew Chiefs at a Cup Race.

[Tyyrus]

Well I kinda agree with Chris...as I said previously...I don't see a lot of advantage of Cotoday..in Bristol other than to prepare the Teams as to Damage Control (Spliiter & Wing Resusitation) prior to the Aero Tracks where these new Devices will be paramount in Car Handling and Drivability . Hell I can hardly wait till 1st Practice Friday..and the Time Trials...Baby !

[HUDSON HORNET]

Sweet Dreams And Flying Machines, --- In Pieces On The Ground.

BRISTOL  BODY AND FENDER REPAIR
FREE LOANER CARS WHILE YOU WAIT

Bring in your Car of Today
Have it back by Tomorrow

[KurtBuschFan]

Well yeah we won't truly see how well the CoT works until after Bristol.  We'll see how it is at a track where aero is important.  I just don't see why they didn't wait to debut it until after the first 5 races were over.