Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Gordon outsmarts field at ‘Dega Debacle
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

He hung out in the back all day. Got a pit lane violation, went to the back, but within the final couple of dozen laps, four-time champion Jeff Gordon started to move to the front.

In what appeared to be a Hendrick runaway with Jimmie Johnson out front, was turned around with a bold move by Gordon on the final lap. He moved alongside Johnson on the high side, only to be blocked. Instead, he wound up right in front of a closing Tony Stewart who gave him a good enough shot to punt the No. 24 ahead of a hard charging pack of cars and into the winner’s circle.

Gordon led only one lap on the day, but obviously, it was the most important one. Johnson wound up second with Dave Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman rounding out the top five. Stewart got shuffled back to finish eighth along with Casey Mears and Kurt Busch in front of him.

Most of the race was a snoozer and yes, there were two major wrecks, both started with flat tires, one by Bobby Labonte and the other by Michael Waltrip. Half the field had some kind of damage and three of the DEI/Childress engines blew up (Martin Truex Jr, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Burton)well before the end.

Many of the Hendrick and Roush-Fenway cars hung out at the back of the pack for most of the race, trying to avoid ‘the big one’. For some it worked, but for Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray, they were caught up in wrecks, ending their race early.

The weekend’s results finds Gordon out front, but only by nine over Johnson and 63 over Clint Bowyer. The rest of the pack, starting with Stewart at 154 are pretty much toast with any kind of reasonable title shot….unless the ‘dynamic duo’ slip up with six to go.

The latest win for Gordon was his fifth of the year, sixth at ‘Dega and 80th career trophy. Did I mention he won both ‘Dega races this year? At this point, it’s a safe bet to say the ‘big cup’ will go to Gordon, Johnson or Bowyer.

On the Craftsman truck side of things, Todd Bodine took the pole and a very narrow three-a-breast win over Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson at ‘Dega on Saturday afternoon.

Ron Hornaday left the Alabama track with only a 14 point lead over Mike Skinner with the rest of the field fighting for the remaining top spots.

Cup Qualifying Mess - If the results of the Cup qualifying from Talladega doesn’t wake up NASCAR officials to the idea of their qualifying system being a joke…it never will.

Who’d a thunk the top 11 qualifiers would be ‘go or go homers’, but they were. Imagine AJ Almendinger, Boris Said and Scott Riggs telling their sponsors they qualified 9th, 10th and 11th respectively, only to be sent home because of this top 35 garbage.

I’d have to say it’s a safe bet that never in the history of racing have members of the top ten in qualifying been sent home in such a large field. Imagine besting 40 other cars and not be allowed to compete. This whole deal is wrong, wrong, wrong!

This whole idea of provisional’s started towards the end of Richard Petty’s career when it appeared the ‘King” wasn’t going to make races. They came up with this special champion’s provisional and the idea expanded from there to the current top 35 in points are guaranteed to make the show. It’s all junk.

To me, the fastest 42 cars and one provisional, either highest in points or ex-champion should make the show. If Jeff Gordon stumbles during qualifying and is slow, he goes home. They are professionals. They are supposed to be able to be fast at the drop of a hat and be professional about it. If not, you go home.

Only NASCAR takes this provisional stuff to the current extreme.

In NHRA drag racing…this year alone, legends John Force and Kenny Bernstein weren’t fast enough…they went home. Earlier this year, when the King of the Outlaw Sprints Steve Kinser wasn’t up to snuff, he went home.

I’ve talked about this many times before, but Saturday’s qualifying wound up a joke with all eight non-qualifiers being quicker than the bottom of the starters pack. What do you think? Drop me a line.

From Rumorville - Nationwide Insurance was named last week as the new sponsor of what we’ve known for decades as the Busch series. They have ponied up about $10 million a year for the next seven to sponsor NASCAR’s No. 2 series. First, it will take some getting used to as far as saying something like, “Hey, did you catch the Nationwide race?” But bigger problems arise already for one major current Busch sponsor, namely Geico. The insurance company that has spent major dollars on sponsoring a car and countless commercials will have to pull up stakes after 2009, as not to conflict with the new major sponsor. Sound familiar? More silly stuff.

You can also look for Scott Riggs to move over to the Hass race team in either the No. 66 or No. 70 for next year and beyond. It appears a special phone call from Rick Hendrick himself to Scott swayed the young man to make the move from GEM Racing. Hass does use the Hendrick power plants and more.

Across the Pond - Rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton went into the penultimate round of F-1 racing in China with a 12 point lead over teammate Fernando Alonso. The young Brit took the pole and was leading the rain soaked race when, while pitting, drove off the track and into a gravel trap, throwing away what appeared to be a sure win….and title.

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen went on to take the win over Alonso and Felipe Massa. The F-1 gang heads to Brazil in two weeks where the top three, Hamilton, Alonso and Raikkonen are only separated by a scant seven points.

Did you know? What current Cup crew chief has the most career wins to his credit? Greg Zippadelli with 32 wins leads the group with Todd Parrot (29) and Chad Knaus and Jimmy Fennig tied with 27. Retired chiefs Tim Brewer (53) and Ray Evernham notched 49 before hanging up their clipboards.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the action from Lowe’s Motor Speedway and more racing news from around the globe.