By Staff
Kudos to Casey Mears for finally breaking the ice and earning his first Nextel Cup victory at Charlotte last Sunday night. I have taken some ribbing over the years for saying that Mears is a top-notch driver and if he drove for anyone like Chip Ganassi, he would be winning.
Well, after moving to the No. 25 Hendrick Chevrolet this season, I fully expected Mears to succeed. As the season progressed, not only did Mears not succeed, he teetered around the 35th position in the points, the cut-off for a guaranteed starting position. I thought maybe the No. 25 didn't get the same attention or equipment that the other three Hendrick cars received. Maybe the No. 25 curse was real.
Hopefully, Mears put all that to rest Sunday night. Sure, it was a gas mileage win, but Darian Grubb, his crew chief, put the team in a position to go the distance with the fuel in the car. Mears doesn't have to defend that win to anyone.
Mears became the fifth driver to win his first race at the 600 miler at Charlotte. He joins some very impressive company in that club. The other drivers are David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, and Matt Kenseth. What do those four guys have in common? All went on to win at least one championship. Boy, that gives Mears something to look forward to.
I dare say that we will probably not see a top-ten in another race this season like we did last week. Along with Mears, the top five was made up of J.J. Yeley, Kyle Petty, Reed Sorenson, and Brian Vickers. All playing the gas mileage game and won.
Speaking of Kyle Petty, if you didn't see his post-race interview, you missed out. Kyle defines the word "class" and that's all I'm going to say about that.
How much longer is Michael Waltrip going to submit himself to the disappointment of not making races week after week? Maybe big brother DW needs to have a heart to heart and convince Mikey to be a full time owner and turn the wheel over to another driver. What could it hurt? Can't get much worse.
Signs are growing stronger that Bobby Ginn might pull the upset and be the one who wins the Dale, Jr sweepstakes. It will be perceived as an upset, but I don't think so. Ginn has proven, in the year since he bought the old MB2 Motorsports team, that he is committed to winning. Junior could do a lot worse than moving, with Budweiser, to Ginn and team with Mark Martin and Joe Nemechek. Supposedly, the plan is for Junior's new team to assume Sterling Marlin's no. 14 points, with Sterling scaling back to a part-time schedule in 2008.
I think the picture gets clearer sooner rather than later in terms of where Junior lands next season.
The sixth race with the "winged car" is this week at the Monster Mile, Dover International Raceway. Hendrick drivers have a monopoly on COT wins so far this season, winning all of the previous five races. Like the non-COT races, Chevrolet has dominated the races with the new car.
My pick to win this week, breaking the Chevy streak and repeating as race winner, is Matt Kenseth. He won this race last season and has, by far, been the strongest non-Chevy team all season.