Frontstretch Poll for Week of August 21 - 19 Team

[KurtBuschFan]

Let's hear what you think.

[Chris]

well...
I think the matter speaks for itself.  The proof is in the results.
People have tried to pawn it off on "Ray took Mayfield's car and gave it to Kahne,.. etc"
Excuse, excuse, excuse...

It's a plain as the nose on your face as far as I can see,...
It was the driver,.. plain and simple.
When you take a guy and put him in the SAME car, SAME team, SAME equipment and he posts a top 10 finish the first time out... looks like the CAR/Team/Equipment is NOT the problem.

Mayfield been in that car ALL season and had ZERO top 10's... Sadler gets one right out of the box.  And he didn't do it by any fancy "pit stops", with no fuel, 2 tires, etc... No 'trickery' shall we say.  He run at or near the front all day.
SO yeah,.. 100% Mayfield was the problem... NO other answer for it.
It's a plain as night and day.

[LeeAnne331]

I would definitely say it was the driver.  Sadler showed us how the 19 car can in fact perform and after 1 race he was able to bring it back into the top 35.  He ran a similar setup to Kahne, as did Riggs and it was succesful for all of them.  It's great to see all three of them running well.  I've only been into NASCAR for three years, but I really haven't seen Mayfield producing such great finishes and each year has been worse....I know he made it into the Chase the past 2 years but even at that he wasn't really competitive.  Hopefully Sadler can turn this team around and they finish off this season with some momentum.

[paulfan]

I think Jeremey could not get the hang of driving a coil bound car. 

[Chris]

You know thats a VERY good observation I had not even considered...
I know (and I can't disagree) with folks that make the statement that Mayfield just did NOT forget how to drive a car from this year to last...

True he has never posted 'great' results,... but I had never thought 'coil binding' is a MAJOR thing that has come up this season and teams or drivers that have figured out how to drive a car that way are performing well.
Obviously it fits Kahne very well.... Maybe for Mayfield it'll be a career killer??

I think the CoT will throw in a whole NEW set of monkey wrenches

[skool]

People, People

If it was 100% the driver, where is the stellar results of Sadler at Yates? It's not like RYR is second rate equipment. In fact, in my opinion, RYR (at least used to be) better equipment than Evernham. Ford vs. Dodge? C'mon! Ford has been smoking Dodge overall.

Don't forget, Mayfield has been in 2 out of 3 Chases. Sadler has not. It was pointed out during FS's weekly Mirror Driving segment this week, that after all that has been said between Mayfield and Ray, Ray is going to be hell bent to prove, or to make it seem, that Jeremy was 100% of the problem, if for no other reason than to draw attention away from the accuasations that Jeremy made and his relationship with Erin Crocker.

As I pointed out, if that is in fact what Evernham does/is doing, that just proves Mayfield's position in the first place that Ray had his attention more focused elsewhere, other than on a Cup team that had already made the Chase 2 out of 3 times. Seems to me that the Cup team in the Chase would be the bread and butter of the team, not the developement of Erin Crocker. But....as we all know, pu ........women have a way of making a man not focus on what is most important. Especially if the pu....I mean woman, is young and the man is older.

Just food for thought. 

[Chris]

But....as we all know, pu ........women have a way of making a man not focus on what is most important. Especially if the pu....I mean woman, is young and the man is older

Roflmao @ Skool
Come on man... tell us what you REALLY think...
Nothing like just putting it out there and telling it like it is... HAHAHHAHAA

[skool]

Well, I mean, c'mon! Every guy out there on this board knows exactly what I'm talking about. Not only that, but I'd wager to say that that is closer to the truth than most people realize in the case of Ray vs. Jeremy

(Don't know if I posted this before or not, but this was taken by me in June at the Milwaukee Mile Truck/Busch races. the Cup teams were in CA. That is Erin and Ray coming from the motorcoach area. I didn't even realize that was Ray until about a week ago when I saw his picture on NASCAR.com. )

[paulfan]

According to Phillipe Lopez in an interview he said that coil binding settup caused more problems and caused more personnel shakeups than any other issue this season. (paraphrased).  This particular set up is a razor edged sword, if you miss it you run bad but you have to try it because all the cars that are using it are beating you.

IMO Everham had it figured out (an engineering heavy team) and Jeremy just couldn't get it to feel good to him.  Jeff Gordon also had issues with driving this setup while Kyle, Jimmy and Brian are hauling the mail.

RYR (not engineering heavy and 'old style' crewchiefs) never did get the setup and Elliot Sadler needed it to be competitive.

Nascar tried to control this setup when they outlawed bump-stops.  Now it looks like they will wait and let the car of tomorrow make it irrelevent.

[Chris]

Nascar tried to control this setup when they outlawed bump-stops.  Now it looks like they will wait and let the car of tomorrow make it irrelevent.

Yeah.. You are right dude...
It'll take 3 years to get it "all" done away with however....
I don't know WHICH tracks coil binding comes into play the most.  I'm guessing it's the 1 1/2 mile tracks (but I could be totally wrong).  The way Nascar had the implimentation set up.... coil binding could be a major factor for the next several years.


Next season the CoT will just be used at short tracks, road courses, Phoenix, N.H. Dover, Darlington, and the last race at Dega.

In 2008 they add the "Big" tracks... Cali, Michigan, Daytona, Pocono, Indy and the other Dega event....

Finally in 2009 they add the "rest of the events".. which is mostly the 1 1/2 mile tracks.  Atlanta, Lowes, Texas, Chicago, Kansas, Vegas, Homestead.

[paulfan]

Fillipe said that the set-up does not work good on bumpy tracks.  He said that turn 1 at Pocono was really bad and that almost all the cars that came to Darlington with that set-up changed after the first practice

[Dustcloud]

Part of me wants to pick choice C.

I'd say as far as talent, Sadler and Mayfield are about the same place. they're not really top drivers, all things considered - but they're *almost* top, some of the best the series has to offer. and looking at the previous two years, neither has been "bad." As pointed out, Mayfield's a two-time chaser and but for a late-season meltdown, Sadler should have been in at least one. I'd say on the tech side, Mayfield had the advantage on Sadler somewhat.

So it doesn't surprise me to see Sadler come into that car and run it about how Mayfield was last year or the year before. Mayfield's impressive drop in points WAS a surprise all year that no one talked about really until Mayfield came out and let the public know WHY he thought it was happening, right or wrong, harsh (for sure).

But eh. I'd peg the 19's troubles on unprofessionalism as much as anything. I imagine Mayfield wasn't that pleased to see his chase-making team get hacksawed, from a manner of speaking. then Evernham (for whatever reason) is apparently not paying a lot of attention. The cars have a few bad finishes, and Mayfield feels its not being addressed. (And really, I don't remember the 19 just plain running bad last year very often). While I have absolutely no inside info to back it up, I'd venture a guess that Mayfield let it all get under his skin, hurting his ability to just work well with his team, his teammate and Evernham - resentment and a good pout can put a lot of strain on such things. So when you put Sadler in, a guy with none of this baggage, it's a lot easier and more relaxed all around.

Besides, while I'd hate to think such negative things, Evernham's not above tricks. I would not be at ALL surprised to find that, with all the attention this feud has been getting, he made sure Sadler got the BEST car that team had to offer just to try to make Mayfield look even worse by comparison - especially if Mayfield was right to an extent about the source of at least some of his team's woes.

but again, this is all just conjecture on my part.