Sprint Cup Headline News, Commentary and Race Coverage

Looking For Sprint Cup News?...... Visit our home page for the latest news and rumors in the Sprint Cup Series along with commentary, weekly columns and race coverage






Click on button to go to
Home Page
Insider Racing News


Tickets Make Great Gifts

SoldOutEventTickets.com
F1 Tickets
MotoGP Tickets


Insider Racing News
Copyright © 2000-2010. All Rights Reserved.

Sprint Cup® and NASCAR® are registered trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. This web site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NASCAR®. The official NASCAR® website is "NASCAR® Online" and is located at.. www.NASCAR.com


Tired of Seeing Jimmie Johnson Win? Join the Club

An Opinion


March 23, 2010

By Allen Madding

Allen Madding
Most of the teams competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are certainly tired of finishing behind the Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 Chevrolet -- driven by Jimmie Johnson. Penske Racing seems to be attempting to do something about it.

Since the beginning of the season, Kurt Busch has led 441 laps of the 1555 laps run in the first five events of the season in the Penske No. 2 Miller Light Dodge. Johnson has led 203 laps so far in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Johnson has won three races, the Auto Club 500 at California, the Shelby American at Las Vegas, and the Food City 500 at Bristol this past weekend.

Busch scored his first win of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta, ironically the race sponsored by Kobalt Tools, the tool brand of Lowe’s the primary sponsor of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet that Jimmie Johnson drives.

Five races into the season, Busch has led more laps in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition than Johnson, but on three occasions Johnson has led the most important lap -- the last one -– the money lap. But, there is one old adage in racing: if you start leading a lot of laps, you are going to eventually start winning some races. Busch seemed to fulfill that prophecy at Atlanta.

A late race debris yellow at Bristol left Busch and the Penske No. 2 team relegated to a third place finish. But one has to consider, before Carl Edwards gave Brad Keselowski a punt at Atlanta, Penske had two cars in the top ten. Keselowski finished 13th in the Food City 500 at Bristol. Penske Racing has stepped up its game over the winter, and the results are becoming quickly apparent on the race track.

While many fans are filling blogs, facebook, and twitter postings expressing their dismay with Johnson’s dominance in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Kurt Busch is quickly becoming the dog nipping at his heels. Busch only recorded two wins and ten top five finishes last season. In the first five races of the 2010 season, Busch already has one win and two top five finishes. Even more notable, Busch led a total of 738 laps in 2009 for the season. He is already over half that mark in five events this year.

There are four distinct types of tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, Superspeedways (like Talladega and Daytona), intermediate tracks (like Atlanta and California), short tracks (like Bristol and Richmond), and road courses (like Watkins Glenn and Infineon). The bulk of the schedule is intermediate tracks.

To date, Kurt Busch won at Atlanta, a 1.54-mile intermediate race track, finished sixth at California on a 2-mile speedway, and he led the most laps this weekend at Bristol, a .533-mile short track. This seems to indicate the folks at Penske Racing have stepped up their intermediate program and their short track program. Throw in the fact that Busch led 33 laps in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 and Kurt Busch and the Penske No. 2 Miller Light Dodge team appear to be well on their way to disturbing Jimmie Johnson’s stranglehold on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Victory Lane.

You can contact Allen Madding at .. Insider Racing News
You Can Read Other Articles By Allen Madding

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Finding cures for children with catastrophic
illnesses
through research and treatment

return to top
Google
 
affiliate_link