After Saturday’s night event at Daytona the Sprint Cup circuit will have reached the halfway point of the season. So far there have been a lot of surprises and unexpected developments on and off the track — which could be considered fortunate given that by and large, the racing itself has been tedious at times. In some ways it seems like the Daytona 500 was just a few weeks ago and in others, it seems like a decade has past since the season-opening event. The halfway juncture of the season calls for a quick glance back in the rearview mirror.

Three First-Time Winners
Brad Kesolowski, David Reutimann and Joey Logano have all managed to score their first Cup victories this season. What’s even more surprising in an era where it seems the Hendrick and Roush teams are destined to win a majority of races and titles, only one is affiliated with either organization.

Kesolowki sealed his win at Talladega by chop-blocking Carl Edwards while racing to the checkers. The move sent Edwards’ No. 99 Ford upside down and into the catchfence separating fans from the racing. Having reviewed all the still photos and video of the incident available to me, I truly believe catastrophic loss of life was just barely averted by such a narrow margin that I don’t see how NASCAR officials sleep at night. While overall the yellow-line rule NASCAR adopted at the plate tracks has served its purpose, there should be some different rules on the last lap, particularly when an overtaking driver is being forced out of bounds.

Then again, Regan Smith’s penalty that cost him a win at Talladega set precedent in that matter, so I don’t see rules changes as imminent.

Reutimann’s win came in the rain-shortened World 600. Yeah, winning a rain-shortened race is like kissing your sister, but a driver and team have to put themselves in a position to be able to capitalize on such circumstances. After all, any number of teams could have used the same tactics but did not.

I genuinely enjoyed watching the honest emotion Reutimann displayed waiting out the rain delay while talking with his Dad. He refused to even get out of the rain, preferring to wait beside the car sans umbrella to see how things played out. Reutimann was clearly anxious, uncertain and ultimately elated at how things worked out and he didn’t have to say a word to convey the myriad of emotions he was fighting to control.

In an era where displaying “genuine emotion” involves making a horse’s ass of oneself for some drivers, that was refreshing.

In an interesting side note, Reutimann and his Cup crew chief Rodney Childers will receive a nice little gift for scoring that win. Rob Kaufmann, Michael Waltrip Racing’s majority owner, is giving each a title to a 1967 Shelby GT500, one of the Holy Grails of muscle car collectors. Given the fact Reutimann races Toyotas you’d think maybe they’d given him the keys to a classic Toyota … oh, right, well I guess there’s no such thing as a classic Toyota. If Reutimann wants to trade his Shelby for a clapped out turbo Supra with a fart-can muffler I can probably broker a deal.

Joey Logano was the benefactor of another rain-shortened affair, this at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In doing so, the rookie became the youngest Modern Era Cup winner and the first rookie to win a race since Juan Pablo Montoya at Sonoma in 2007.

Prior to NHMS it hadn’t been a great season for Logano, though he’s been showing a few sparks of life of late. Even with last weekend’s win Logano is averaging a 21st-place finish in points-paying Cup races, having led but 35 laps all year. When it comes to winning rain-shortened races, it’s the crew chief’s strategy, not the driver’s ability, that counts most. And while Logano is a rookie, I’ve never heard any sane man question Greg Zipadelli’s competence atop the pit box.

Double File Restarts (Just don’t add, “Shootout Style”)
Apparently all those empty seats in the grandstands and declining TV ratings have finally caught someone at NASCAR’s attention despite the corporate line that, not only is everything fine, but all is, in fact, peachy.

The fans liked the double-file restart format in the All Star Race, expressing interest that it by utilized on w weekly basis. A few short week’s later that rule change was made. Usually it takes NASCAR longer than that to issue a press release saying they have some objections to puppy-torture. I mean, NASCAR listening to the fans and giving them what they want? Now that’s a welcome development! (Now if they’d just work on the stupid Chase format and those dog-ugly Cars of Tomorrow maybe we’d be onto something. Believe it or not, I remain at heart an optimist despite NASCAR’s prolonged attempt to beat the Pollyanna Principal out of me with logging chains with their obstinate stupidity.)

Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing
I’ll admit it, I thought Tony Stewart had thrown his career in the toilet and double-flushed it when he agreed to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and pair up with Gene Haas’ lightly regarded Cup team. Well, here we are, a few months later and he’s leading the point standings while his SHR teammate Ryan Newman sits seventh. I guess I’m the one that looks like an idiot now. Stewart has wins in the All-Star Race and at Pocono with four runner-up showings and we haven’t even reached the summer season where Stewart typically comes alive.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Doldrums
Heading into this season a lot of folks thought Earnhardt’s second year with Hendrick Motorsports was going to finally yield some satisfactory results. Certainly NASCAR and the networks were hoping and praying that Junior was going to at least compete for wins and make the Chase. However, Junior has about as much chance of making the Chase as I have of taking Heather Locklear to KFC on a blind date.

To date Earnhardt is averaging a 21st-place finish. He hasn’t even led a lap in the last eight races. It finally got so bad that team owner Rick Hendrick decided to replace long-time Earnhardt crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., with Lance McGrew despite the fact that Earnhardt had always said he’d retire with Eury still calling the shots.

The latest rumors involve Danica Patrick replacing Junior as the fourth Hendrick driver. And although I don’t think that will happen, such a rumor ought to have the team psychiatrist talking Earnhardt down off a ledge.

Mark Martin is Nifty at Fifty
A pleasant surprise this season’s is Mark Martin’s resurgence. Martin has wins at Phoenix, Darlington and Michigan after a rough start to the season left him mired in 34th in the standings. He now finds his No. 5 Hendrick Motrsports entry 11th and as any car out there.

But who is that old guy celebrating in Victory Lane, grinning like a mule eating briars? Back in the day when Martin was winning bunches of races his attitude was like Eeyore playing pin tail on the donkey at Winnie the Pooh’s birthday party. “Oh my, oh me … I may never win another race again.”

Shine on brightly you crazy old man.

Roush Exultant, Roush Despondent
It’s hard to kick off the season any better than Matt Kenseth did with wins in the first two races, including the organization’s first Daytona 500 triumph. Since then, Kenseth has just two top-5 finishes while failing to crack the top 15 in the last four races.

His teammates haven’t fared much better. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, weekly contenders in the past and potential title winners, have yet to find the winner’s circle, while everyone’s sexy pick to make a Chase run, David Ragan, sits 30th in points with just one top 10. All the while, the troubled No. 26 team and driver Jamie McMurray have been their typical selves with three top 10s and a 22nd-place rating.

Richard Childress Racing Mired in the Mother of All Slumps
And we thought Roush Fenway’s season has been tough … Richard Childress Racing used to be considered one of the premier teams on the circuit. While it’s been through difficult years before, this one has to rank right up there with the worst.

Kevin Harvick’s flagship team hasn’t had a top-10 finish since Atlanta, leading just nine laps all year. Thus he finds himself 27th in the point standings. Historically-steady Jeff Burton is 16th in the standings with zero wins and just over 100 points out of a playoff birth.

Casey Mears is 20th in the rankings with a team that has finished in the top 5 the last two seasons. Clint Bowyer, in a start-up operation, may be RCR’s lone hope at 15th in the standings, 94-points out of Chase eligibility.

Last year Childress’s three teams finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the standings. Cue up Bruce Springsteen because RCR is riding that downbound train.

Detroit on the Ropes
I don’t write about the economy. I don’t have any ideas on how to end this recession. I’m more concerned about prices at the supermarket than prices on the stock market. But never in my considerably long sojourn here on earth would I have considered that both GM and Chrysler would declare bankruptcy in a single year and that the federal government would have to step in with astronomical amounts of money to keep those two corporate giants just barely afloat.

The repercussions of that bailout are just beginning to be felt in the NASCAR garage. GM and Chrysler have, by and large, ended support for the Truck and Nationwide Series. Everyone knows that cuts are coming in the Cup garage as well, though it is uncertain how deep and painful those cuts will be. Already some teams, most notably Richard Petty Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, claim that checks owed them from the car companies haven’t arrived and they’ve had to lay off employees because of it.

I know times are grim. I admire Ford for making a go of it without federal assistance and I think GM will come through this mess a leaner and better car company. The delectable Challenger proves to me that Chrysler can still hit one out of the park the next time they sit down with a clean sheet of paper to design a car. But until this mess straightens out any NASCAR team that depends on the Big Three for continued viability had better be planning a fire sale.

Jeremy Mayfield’s Saga Continues
This is perhaps the saddest and most confusing story of the season. When NASCAR announced its new drug testing policy you figured eventually some driver was going to run afoul of it. I just figured it was going to be some would-be child star rising up through the ranks and intoxicated by the temptations his new wealth and celebrity offered him, not a battle-hardened warhorse like Jeremy Mayfield.

The claims and counterclaims NASCAR and Mayfield have made are dizzying.
NASCAR swears up and down the pike that it has nailed Mayfield stone cold dead to rights using methamphetamine, perhaps the most scurrilous and loathsome substance anyone has ever snorted, shot, smoked or rubbed into their belly. Mayfield claims that his false-positive result was caused by a combination of a legitimate prescription drug and some allergy medicines.

I know the chemical makeup of meth pretty well. While some of you dabbled in illegal pharmaceuticals in your misspent youth, to my shame I dove in headfirst. (And through the grace of God emerged a free man, alive, and with my soul untouched though I have horror stories I could tell you that would curl up your shorties.) I have serious doubts about the results of Mayfield’s drug test coupled with serious reservations about any driver stupid enough to even try meth ever racing again.

There’s no rehabilitation for that kind of fool, sort of like there’s no cure for stupid. But as an American whose relatives have died to protect our freedoms and who would take up arms to defend them if called upon, I believe due process is the most essential freedom we possess and I see Mayfield’s case as being railroaded, not given a chance to defend himself beyond a reasonable doubt. Good intentions are not an excuse for bad results. It’s better 10 guilty men go free than one innocent individual punished for a crime he did not commit.

Wednesday a judge issued a temporary injunction lifting Mayfield’s suspension until the matter can be heard in court. But it just might be that the damage to Mayfield’s career and fledgling team is already irreparable. There’s not going to be a lot of sponsors who want to be associated with a driver accused of being a drug addict — even if Mayfield is exonerated. As one of those cynical folks that thinks NASCAR could screw up a Smurf’s picnic, I’d ultimately like to see the drug testing program run independent of the sanctioning body with redundant double and triple tests done in the wake of a positive drug screening. People’s livelihoods and financial futures are at stake here.

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