Winds of Change: Are they blowing to fast?

No this is not thoughts on the politics of today. But of a under reported trend in the cup garage.

If a crew chief has a microphone or tape recorder shoved in front of him, the standard blurb is "NASCAR has us in box and we can't do anything." If you belive that for a minute you're one of Brian's casual fans. These crew chiefs are making six figures and rumors are some are now making seven figures. You don't make seven figures by punching the time clock on a 40 hour week.

By the end of last year every now and again you heard from an un-named employee what "generation" COT they were driving. It's my belief that by Homestead most teams were on thier 3rd generation car and some were already on thier 4th testing as they were out of the chase. I wasn't paying close attention but I could have sworn that on speed last week that someone has a 7th generation COT. Seven generations in under 24 months. Is that foolhardy or desparate?

This was the year of expectations. Carl won 9 races last year, alot of us was positive we'd see David Ragan in vicotry lane and even David Reutimann in the chase (which still might happen). RCR had all three of it's cars solidly in the chase and expanded to 4 teams. We thought that Carl would challenge Jimmy for the Championship this year.

This was to be the year of saving teams money with no testing. What a farce. Some teams have been out testing as much as last year. It's easy to spot who tried to save money and isn't out there testing thier cars.

Those that root for drivers and those that root against drivers, have had a field day with words like overrated, falling behind the curve, need to get glasses or flashing lights. I've even commented several times this year on how this car will show who's hit it and who's in for a 20th place finish because that's all the car could run.

Jeff Burton clearly stated last week that "RCR as a whole is not getting the job done". Did they fall behind or were they complacent thinking other teams would slow down thier rate of advancement? It wasn't his intention to throw RCR under the bus but clearly state the obvious that an organization that had all three cars in the chase last year will struggle to put even one in this year.

Since California on February 22nd Jack Rousch hasn't seen vicotry lane for any of his teams. Toyota has only been able to drive to victory lane with Kyle Busch (David Reutimann and Joey Logano was pushed due to rain). Dodge has gone to victory lane twice. Once with Kurt who dominated the field at Atlanta and once with Kasey after RPM had to "re-tool" a car to fit the new Dodge motor. Chevy which has 9 wins have all been in Hendrick equipment.

Jeremy Mayfield tried to sell the point in the pre-season that it's easier for an owner to be comptetive this year because of the no testing ban and everyone is in the same box. Boy was he ever wrong. Buying someone else's prior generation car already puts you behind 2/3 of the field in any race. Not one new team has been able to run in top ten this year. They can quailfy top ten but when it comes to having that car perform in traffic with 41 other comptetitors the car falls to the back like a parachute was installed.

Without a doubt I think that NASCAR has the best drivers in the world. If they didn't then why would so many open wheelers want to come to NASCAR. But what is it when the best drivers in the world struggle week in and week out with something that seemingly doesn't change. I think there is so much change going on under these cars that not a single driver can perform on consistent basis. We see drivers have strong runs and then struggle mid-pack the next week. And then we see drivers that seem like they've never driven a COT and look completely lost. Even at tracks where you know "X" driver loves and has a seemingly advantage over the field they struggle to break into the top ten or even twenty.

I know that there is not supposed to be 5 drivers that dominate a season. But I also know the talent and proven winners haven't been able to perform at any sustained acceptable level this year. I wouldn't say that there are any more wrecks this year than any other year. Goodyear hasn't had a race as bad as Indy last year.

Does this make the racing better this year? I don't know. I look at the top 12 and the only surprise I see is JPM who has settled into 11th based off of consistency. But it's 600 points from 1st to 13th. Is that good racing? Has the teams drive for that extra .10 of a second taken something out of the product on the track. Is eleven different winng drivers better than the popular top ten drivers? The chase was created after Matt Kenseth cruised to the boringest of Winston Cup championships by consistently finishing with 25 top tens and only only one win. In that year there were 18 different winners.

While there have been plenty of feel good stories there have been those stories that I wish didn't have to be written. I'm not sure if I'd qualify this year as a great racing year. I know it's far from over and the winds could shift at any moment. But will they be any better than what they are now?