4415 replies to this topic

[robnyc]

With these new rules in place the chase is everything really and JJ blew everyone away in it. Out of 35 races in the year having 6 less top 10s than your teammate is nothing really, keeping in mind and how many times drivers wreck or get wrecked by others in this sport. On the other hand having 4 more wins tell you a lot more.

[WildmouseX]

well again that's questionible, jeff had a 5.1 average finish in the chase, and any year so far, except this one that would have won it for him - JJ just managed to pull off a 5.0. - both drivers really had an exceptional year, and they were realy ontop of each other all year.

[robnyc]

Originally posted by WildmouseX
well again that's questionible, jeff had a 5.1 average finish in the chase, and any year so far, except this one that would have won it for him - JJ just managed to pull off a 5.0. - both drivers really had an exceptional year, and they were realy ontop of each other all year.

I have a feeling you have a slight bias opinion towards Jeff. They were both on top of the game yes but you have failed to mention what even the same Gordon said.. "JJ blew us all away in the chase... " He was unbeatable.
Gordon felt that even if he won, it wouldn't have been right because clearly the 48 team was the best team in the chase and he would not have like to win a championship at the expense of his top competitor running into problems.

[WildmouseX]

Originally posted by robnyc


I have a feeling you have a slight bias opinion towards Jeff. They were both on top of the game yes but you have failed to mention what even the same Gordon said.. "JJ blew us all away in the chase... " He was unbeatable.
Gordon felt that even if he won, it wouldn't have been right because clearly the 48 team was the best team in the chase and he would not have like to win a championship at the expense of his top competitor running into problems.

well to tell the truth, back in my younger days i was a hard core Earnhardt fan, sr. of course, and had a general hatered for gordon... since dales death though, i've become more a fan of the sport as a whole and route for good races and appreciate all the drivers pretty much the same (although i still tend to favor RCR drivers in my merchendiseing purchases)-. - JJ blew away most everyone in the chase, i'm just makeing sure that no one over looks the fact that jeff also blew everyone away in the chase except JJ. i personaly wouldn't say JJ blew jeff away, a 5.0 average finish in the chase isn't a ton better then a 5.1 - especially when you consider that he had more wins, cuz that means he had some finishs in the back to get that average ........ that whole 48/24 shop did absolutely nothing wrong all year (cept when they both got busted for cheating) - this was the first chase year that you couldn't have 1 mulligan, because neither of them had a bad race durring the chase.

i'm just really amped that this year the cup was determined by two cars that were nose to tail all year long, and over shadowing that battle by declareing jimmy to be dominate isn't right. 30 top tens out of 35 races is unheard of, especially in this day and age - and for a season like that to end in second place is a real testiment to the kind of season we saw all year long - and i think that needs to be the story that is focused on here.

[robnyc]

Gordon was just the most consistent driver. He drove safe, smart and avoided trouble (wrecks) and mechanical mishaps.
But when his car was top notch, same as JJ's, JJ got the best of him. IMO, JJ has become a better race car driver then Jeff. I witnessed in the chase many more quality passes from JJ on Gordon than the other way around. With the top equipment Jeff had at his disposal he must have been challenging JJ for those 4 wins he got in the final rounds, but he came short in all of them. What he did was collect top 10s (lots of them), but who wouldn't with that top equipment. I go back to what I said earlier, winning in NASCAR is the most important thing because it is the hardest thing to do when so many other driver can win also. It means that you were the best driver out of 43 cars racing that day. Montoya's season without that win at Sonoma would have been categorized as simply average but because he won by beating the likes of Harvick, Gordon & Stewart he exceeded his expectations as a rookie with no stock car experience.

[WildmouseX]

speaking of monty......

From the time he stunned F1 last summer by signing with Chip Ganassi Racing for a career in bulky stock cars, Montoya has never looked back and never doubted his decision.

He won a Busch Series race in Mexico and the Nextel Cup event at Sonoma, butted heads with other drivers and settled nicely into the NASCAR community.

"I really do feel part of the community," he said. "I really like to embrace the entire experience because it's so cool. It's so different from any other series I've ever been in, but it's so cool and something I tell people you've got to come and see for yourself.

"You see those ads, 'People say NASCAR is not a sport. It's a way of life.' Those ads are right. We spend 40 weeks of the year with the same people around, and you just build up really great relationships along the way."

-----------------------

Aside from performance, Montoya settled into the motorhome community and made his share of friends. It showed at his benefit last Thursday night in Miami, where the NASCAR community was well represented among the 600 guests at a gala to raise money for issues troubling his native Colombia.

Montoya and his wife, Connie, estimate they raised US$1 million at the event, which was attended by NASCAR chairman Brian France, Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and a slew of other drivers.

"It was amazing all the people who showed up," he said. "The Pettys, my teammates, you name it. It just meant a lot for them to come and support it, and it really shows what NASCAR is all about. I think in Formula One, you couldn't ever do something like that."

------------------

Montoya's Q&A with AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer:
Q: What was the biggest surprise of the season?
JPM: Probably winning a race, and actually running good in a lot of places that we really didn't expect. I think there were a lot of weeks where we were pretty good. I thought it was going to be an average season, and it was more than average.

Q: Hardest driver to race?
JPM: Um, I don't know. Most of them are pretty sensible.

Q: Come on, this is our last week together. Tell me who the hardest driver to race was?
JPM: Yeah, I am not going to tell you that. Most of them are pretty sensible.

Q: Which one is not sensible?
JPM: I'm not going to tell you. Next question.

Q: Who was the most helpful driver?
JPM: I would say probably David Stremme. Yeah, Stremme. He was all year long, he was a good teammate and then all year long he was good.

Q: If you could do one thing over?
JPM: Um, I wouldn't. I am pretty happy. There is nothing that is one thing I say 'Oh, I should have done that.' No. Nothing.

Q: Where does this year rank in terms of your career?
JPM: It's got to be up there, because coming to stock cars and getting my first win and winning rookie of the year, it's been good.

Q: Personally, where does it rank?
JPM: Oh, probably the happiest I've been in a long time.

Q: Why?
JPM: I'm just enjoying racing again. I love working with Chip and the guys, and just the whole experience has been really good to me.

Q: Will you make the Chase next year?
JPM: We'll try. I think we are going to be a little more capable. It's really depending on how fast our cars are going to be. I think we are in the position with the experience I have now, we can probably make it. But we can also probably miss it. We can be on the bubble, and I don't know if I would really like to be in the Chase if you are just on the bubble. Because then after two races you are nobody again.

Q: So this is it for Juan's World. Do you want to do it again next year?
JPM: If you want, to. Yeah. If people liked it, yeah.

http://www.jpmontoya...st_full_season/

[AyePirate]

The one thing that struck me about this season is how Jimmy Johnson just absolutely put the hammer down during the races leading up to and including The Chase. Part of me wonders if crafty Chad Knauss found a legal advantage or an illegal one that the scrutineers couldn't detect. During The Chase it was like the 48 had another gear over everyone including the 24. However, the way the Hendrick shop is structured that even Knauss found an edge Letart/Gordon would get it too. I saw something on SpeedTV that stated that the real difference is that during the race Jeff Gordon makes the calls on what changes to make during the race to the 24 and that Chad Knauss makes the calls on the 48 and Jimmy concentrates on driving. Gordon does it by seat of the pants feel and Knauss makes his adjustments based on data from testing, shaker rigs and other simulations . Knauss believes that his data is more trustworthy than feel kind of like eyewitness testimony being unreliable compared to forensics. The Chase indicates that whatever the 48 did is the way. After getting waxed by Johnson/Knauss two Chases in a row Gordon will have to make a major change in approach in 2008.

[WildmouseX]

well back when gordon was winning championships left and right with ray, they were the same way... that was back when jeff wasn't as experienced as his crew chief and just took his word for it.... even when he was with robby lumis, robby and he had the same experience so he would agree with him easy -- but letart is still a noobie, and jeff might not compleately trust him with that yet........ jeff also came up in the school where seat of the pants data was all they had to go on, this new fangeled computer data stuff has been growing since jimmy first came in.... get a few more titles under jimmys belt and give him some little punk that started sweeping floors when he was a rookie and it'll probably be the same way.

if the 48 figured out an advantage, you can bet it goes on the 24 as well - in that shop people from both teams work on each others cars side by side - so it's next to impossible for one to pull something the other doesn't know about. - like earlier in the season when they both got busted for cheating with the exact same thing.

jeff and jimmy have two distince different driving styles, jimmy just goes after who ever is in front of him reguardless of if his car can handel it, or if he needs the position for anything, gordon drives the car to the position it will go to without getting too far out of shape and holds it there unless it's imparitive he gets a better finishing posisiton for points.

[Dudley]

Originally posted by robnyc


that dude is on drugs. JJ won 10 races, hello.. no one even came close to that # of victories. He is saying that the chase was the only reason JJ beat Gordon. Yeah alright...

Except the chase IS the only reason. If you didn't zero the points, Gordon won.

Whether it's a good thing JJ won or not is irrelevent, he only won because of the chase.

[Sandeep Banerjee]

Even though both teams have an open-book policy, how a new thing learned by both teams is of advantage to them depends on how it effects the driver ultimately, and Jeff has said last year that his driving style is markedly different from Jimmie, so that could've been a big reason in the sudden upward swing of the #48 bunch in the later part of the season.

Still, the chase sucks, for lack of a better word. I'm old school, I prefer a season's champion, not a playoff champion. During the period that Knaus and Letarte were suspended, the #48 team was much more badly affected than the #24, and the Chase was nothing but a get-out-of-jail card for the hole the #48 team dug themselves in during that period.

[Youichi]

Originally posted by Dudley


Except the chase IS the only reason. If you didn't zero the points, Gordon won.

Whether it's a good thing JJ won or not is irrelevent, he only won because of the chase.

He won, because he scored more points under the current points system, Full stop.

You can't say he wouldn't have raced differently if all the points counted (i.e. the old system). Under the chase system, once a driver is in the chase, it pays him to go all out for wins, and not care about anything else, the team strategy is completely different from the old points system.

I'm not a fan of either driver, I've not bee watching NASCAR long enough, but I don't think you can fault JJ for racing the system, any more than all you could fault Alonso in '05/'06 for "playing the points-game" to defend his WDC lead. All drivers race under the same points system, and they all knew in Daytona what the system was, JJ go most points and is Champion.

[whitewaterMkII]

well, one thing the new points fixes,IMO, is that the driver that won more races ended up as the champion.
I'd much rather follow a race series where winning, rather than being consistent, is rewarded.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Yeah, but i want all the races to matter. That's what I like about auto racing, they all matter.

[Georg_Kuyumji]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
Yeah, but i want all the races to matter. That's what I like about auto racing, they all matter.

Yes. A playoff system in Motorsport ist just Bull. In Basketball, Tennis, or Soccer Tournaments it is fine because these are direct competitions between two Teams or two Athletes. But in Motorsport it makes one Race Track more important then the other with alot of competitors in the middle who are just out of place, it is just a pathetic method to make an artificial Show not a Sport.

Imagine the GP of Monaco not beeing as important as the GP of Hungary. Playoffs in Racing is BS.

[AyePirate]

Originally posted by Georg_Kuyumji


Imagine the GP of Monaco not beeing as important as the GP of Hungary. Playoffs in Racing is BS.

or Daytona not as important as Homestead..

[WildmouseX]

nascar has a look back at this year's special paint schemes., click on the pic of homer on the 00

www.nascar.com