Burning Issues: Taking 'stock' of NASCAR at Indy

This weekend, NASCAR Nation is in Indianapolis for what is arguably the second biggest weekend of the season. While the Daytona 500 is the still the Super Bowl of stock car racing, the Brickyard 400 brings its own distinct and unique aura of excitement that can be contained in a normal race weekend, without having to spread it out over two weeks — or require a month of testing to prepare for.

The Rushville Rocket, Indiana native Tony Stewart, is the defending champion of the event, and with his announcement last week that he will leave Joe Gibbs Racing to start his own venture with Haas CNC Racing at season’s end, it became the dominant story in the sport. Naturally, this is one of the most important happenings of the season — if not the last five years. It isn’t often that a two-time champion jumps ship from the team he has been together with since its inception to buy into a fledging operation that barely sits inside the top 35 in owner points.

Aside from that, there are a few other burning issues that have been thrust to the forefront of our racing conscious during the last six months which promise to have implications long after the season has ended:

Tora! Tora! Tora!  To call Toyota’s recent dominance a surprise after a lackluster inaugural season in 2007 — that was punctuated by a Michael Waltrip cheating scandal and a number of Toyotas on the trailer going home every weekend — might be a bit of an understatement. However, what is remarkable is the fact they’ve run roughshod over the competition in all three series.

Johnny Benson is leading the Craftsman Truck Series (by all of one point) and has wins along with three other Toyota drivers, two of which compete on a limited schedule and one being a rookie. Toyotas have won 14 of 21 races in the Nationwide Series and all but one was a Joe Gibbs Racing entry; albeit manned by a JGR driver in Kyle Busch, driving a car that is assisted by ... you guessed it, Joe Gibbs Racing.

The Sprint Cup side is no different. Busch has a league-leading seven wins to date and shows no signs of slowing. So what can be done to stop this juggernaut? NASCAR announced on Wednesday that steps were being taken to slow down the Nationwide Toyotas by making them run a slightly smaller intake spacer in an effort to cut into the reported 20-25 horsepower advantage they enjoy over their closest competitors. Might this mechanical hamstringing be employed in the Truck and Cup side as well? Time will only tell, though when Hendrick Motorsports were running rampant through the first half of ’07 (and the last third for that matter), it was never suggested that gobs of Chevrolet horsepower were responsible for their winning.

The advantage clearly lies within the marriage of a company with deep pockets and a desire to succeed in NASCAR, and one of the model multi-car teams in the garage. The only other question remains is ‘When will Joe Gibbs Racing field a full-time Toyota Tundra in the Truck Series?’

How Soon Is Now?  The Nationwide Series remains the breeding ground for finding the ‘Next Big Thing’ in the Sprint Cup Series. Where the Craftsman Truck Series has taken on the appearance of a senior’s tour, the Nationwide ranks are still the final step in the process before a driver hits the big time. The next two stars whose paths seem to have put them on a convergent path are Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy Joey Logano and JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski.

With Stewart’s departure from Joe Gibbs Racing, the most glaring open seat in NASCAR is the No. 20 car for 2009. Logano would have probably moved into Cup full-time come 2010, but with one win and four top 10s in all of five starts, most feel he is the logical choice to fill the vacancy left by Stewart’s expanding waistline.

Keselowski does not have a Cup car to jump into in 2010 (in a full-time capacity, anyway) but with news that Hendrick Motorsports — who fields cars for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Sprint Cup Series while providing engines and technical assistance for his Nationwide program — has a part-time ride open in 2010 shared by Mark Martin in the No. 5 car, many believe that will be his ride-in-waiting. There hasn’t been this much hoopla surrounding two drivers since Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth were both coming of age in the then-Busch Series in the late ’90s; these two seemed destined to be following in their footsteps.

Talk To Me You Silly Little Freak  Silly Season, the time of year where rumors swirl, reports are confirmed or denied and new driver and team lineups are announced, has begun in earnest. With the Stewart domino having fallen already, it set the wheels in motion, with marquee drivers and big-name teams scrambling to react.

Ryan Newman is leaving Penske Racing South after seven full seasons and a Daytona 500 win, while Chip Ganassi Racing has recently disbanded the operation of 2007 Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti — while tentatively (very tentatively) working to re-sign Reed Sorensen.

Martin Truex Jr., miffed over the 150-point fine and six-race suspension handed to crew chief Kevin Manion in the midst of a Chase run, seemed most likely to be on the move to greener pastures. However, with the announcement that Martin will leave DEI to replace Casey Mears in the No. 5 HMS car, it looks as if Truex will return to DEI. After all, Martin’s departure means DEI will actually be able to pay Truex what he’s seeking. Does this give him a better chance to win than if he were in some of the other available rides out there? In all likelihood, it’s probably a wash. The No. 12 Penske car has won as many races as the No. 1 car has over the past calendar year, and it needed a green-white-checker finish with a big push from a teammate to pull that off.

Greg Biffle is committed to his Roush-Fenway ride after re-signing a few weeks ago, and the Gillett-Evernham bunch, along with Stewart-Haas, would entertain adding new teams under their respective umbrellas. Although with time running out, that seems like less and less of a possibility.

So while the real issues of the day — soaring energy prices, an economy teetering on the brink and an impending Presidential election — dominate the headlines, our motorsports world has its own as well. The recent announcement that General Motors’ re-organization will directly impact their motorsports programs in the coming year means there will no doubt be more to discuss in the coming months. That, coupled with the continued struggles of the other Big Three manufacturers, signals that the face of auto racing in North America could be changed drastically in the coming months.

The task at hand above, however, should give everyone enough fodder to chew on for the coming weeks and months, helping to set the stage for the 10-race playoff format known simply as “The Chase,” which begins following the September event at Richmond. Until then, stay tuned!

Or in the case of a Toyota Nationwide engine, de-tuned.

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