Posted on March 24, 2008

As We Head to Martinsville

by Ron Fleshman About The Author	Email   Print

This season really is confusing. First off, we've gone through the first few races and we still do not have a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the winner's circle. In fact, none of the super team's cars have even really challenged for a win. Who would have thought that? The fact that Carl Edwards has won two races and Jeff Gordon has won none is just the icing on the cake. I was wrong. There has been some serious catching up.

You could see it at Bristol. Although Jimmie Johnson and Gordon started on the first row, it became obvious as the race unfolded that a lot of cars were much better. Tony Stewart was the class of the field. The Childress Chevrolets were the 1-2-3 finishers, but they were very fortunate in the end. A bad decision on tires left them in the perfect position to get the laurels at the end. It didn't hurt that Kevin Harvick gave that nudge to Stewart that sealed the No. 20's fate, but as Richard Petty is famous for saying, that's racing.

What have we learned over these first five races? One could say that Joe Gibb's Toyotas are fast. that's a no-brainer. That's a no-brainer, but they still only have one win. On the other hand, the technology hasn't transferred to Michael Waltrip's cars or bill Davis' for that matter, not to mention Red Bull. The Ford teams have looked strong with Roush-Fenway's entries winning two and the newly formed Yates Racing's teams being competitive. It's a better competitive season than 2007 and TV rating show that people like some competition.

the only thing that bothers me is the NASCAR antiquated Top-35 rule. As it stands now, the Wood Brothers may go broke trying to field a car and the Pettys are in trouble too. That rule simply does not respect speed, but protects sponsors. It's time for a change. When teams can swap points among their teams so that favored drivers can compete without regard to speed or ability, it's time to take a look at what we're doing.

The Woods have long been a part of the history of the sport and a lot of bad decisions have left them in the position of maybe going out of business, but the cars have always had the speed to make the field, but the silly Top-35 rule has kept them out. Isn't it time to let the fastest 43 qualifiers race? It makes perfect sense, but that would go against NASCAR logic, I guess.

Everyone is predicting that the Hendrick cars will shine at Martinsville next week, and I do not have a good argument to dispute that. They have a track record at the paper clipped shaped track, but we've been hearing that since Daytona. I really think that nothing is certain in NASCAR's top series these days. It's wonderful, to tell you the truth. for the past two seasons, you knew who was going to finish in the top five, you just didn't knwo the order. This season, you simply don't know. That's as it should be, but a lot of fans are just waiting for things to go back to the way they were. Of course, the legion of Dale Jr. fans are hoping that this is the race. The dedicated fan stands at Bristol proved that more Junior fans exist than we ever thought possible, but I have a feeling that one of the other Hendrick drivers will run away with this one. If not, this will be the first season in many that the season has gone this long without one of the Hendrick Chevrolets winning. We may have us a wide open championship race. I hope.

You can contact Ron at ron.fleshman@verizon.net

The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher.  All comments other than website related problems need to be directed to the author.  Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.

More by this author:

Click here to discuss this story at our forum!