Joe Soriano
O.J. LewisCan Kenseth add to Daytona win?
February 18th 2009 06:22
Even though it was shortened due to the weather Matt Kenseth’s win at the Daytona 500 was huge. While it’s just one race, Kenseth’s 17th career win puts him in good position to possibly knock down Jimmie Johnson and claim the 2009 Sprint Cup championship.
Yes I know it’s rare that the Daytona 500 winner rarely wins the Sprint Cup championship, and you have to go back to 1997 (Jeff Gordon) to find a driver who won the first two races of the season, but Kenseth loves the races out west, and he loves the second race of the year. Four of his wins have been in the second race of the year.
And in California, he has finished inside the top 10 in seven consecutive races, including two wins. He has an average running position of 8.3.
If he can hold of Johnson in this race, he will be well on his way to a championship. The reason being is that Johnson also excels in California. Johnson has three wins, four runner-up finishes and one third-place finish at Fontana. Last August, Johnson led 222 of 250 laps there.
Another driver who is always dangerous at Fontana is Jeff Gordon. It’s been a while since Gordon has won any Cup race and you have to go back to 2004 since his last win in Fontana. But it is one of the few places he gets a lot more cheers than jeers as the fans here love him ever since he won the initial race at the track. He’d love to break his long slump with a victory here.
As for some of the other top finishers at Daytona, you can’t expect Michael Waltrip, who finished 7th, to stay up. He’s continued to be an inconsistent driver, doing okay occasionally at the Super Speedways (all four of his career wins have been at Daytona or Talladega) but not finishing much elsewhere. He’s never finished in the top 10 in points in his 24 previous seasons.
AJ Allmendinger, who pulled in a third-place finish at Daytona, is a real wildcard. Unceremoniously let go from Red Bull late last year, the young driver was just happy to find rides for the rest of the year, and also glad to find a pretty decent ride after the merger between Petty and Evernham race teams. He only has one other top ten finish in his career — ironically a ninth place finish at Kansas in his last race for Red Bull. His run at Fontana, where he’s been in the top 20 in both previous starts, should be a good indication about how good this kid really is.
The other story that developed a Daytona involved AJ’s ex-teammate in Brian Vickers. As most race fans are well aware, as Vickers tried to block Dale Earnhardt Jr., their tires clipped and Vickers wrecked, sending him to a 39th place finish. Earnhardt finished 27th. Both blamed the other. But the general consensus was that the wreck was junior’s fault, and some speculate it was an intentional maneuver.
A lot of race analysts say Junior could have avoided it, but Vickers also probably shouldn’t have been as aggressive in his block.
The speculation that it was intentional spin by JR. stems back to Talladega in 2006. The final laps, Junior led with Johnson second and Vickers third. Johnson and Vickers were Hendricks teammates at the time and the expectation was that when Johnson was ready to make his move to pass Junior, Vickers would go with Jimmie to give him a push. On the last lap it happened, only Vickers made a terrible error in judgment when he got behind Johnson and clipped Johnson’s tires. Johnson spun up to Junior, wrecking them both and Vickers won the race. The incident caused a lot of friction between Johnson and Vickers, who had been good friends up to then, as well as Junior and Vickers.
So last Sunday was that in Junior’s mind? Maybe But more than likely it wasn’t. Still, for the sport it’s definitely nice to have a rivalry developing, and it will be interesting to watch these two this week and all year, as I tend to think both could be contenders in the Chase.
Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500 and should make a strong bid to win in California
Yes I know it’s rare that the Daytona 500 winner rarely wins the Sprint Cup championship, and you have to go back to 1997 (Jeff Gordon) to find a driver who won the first two races of the season, but Kenseth loves the races out west, and he loves the second race of the year. Four of his wins have been in the second race of the year.
And in California, he has finished inside the top 10 in seven consecutive races, including two wins. He has an average running position of 8.3.
If he can hold of Johnson in this race, he will be well on his way to a championship. The reason being is that Johnson also excels in California. Johnson has three wins, four runner-up finishes and one third-place finish at Fontana. Last August, Johnson led 222 of 250 laps there.
Another driver who is always dangerous at Fontana is Jeff Gordon. It’s been a while since Gordon has won any Cup race and you have to go back to 2004 since his last win in Fontana. But it is one of the few places he gets a lot more cheers than jeers as the fans here love him ever since he won the initial race at the track. He’d love to break his long slump with a victory here.
As for some of the other top finishers at Daytona, you can’t expect Michael Waltrip, who finished 7th, to stay up. He’s continued to be an inconsistent driver, doing okay occasionally at the Super Speedways (all four of his career wins have been at Daytona or Talladega) but not finishing much elsewhere. He’s never finished in the top 10 in points in his 24 previous seasons.
AJ Allmendinger, who pulled in a third-place finish at Daytona, is a real wildcard. Unceremoniously let go from Red Bull late last year, the young driver was just happy to find rides for the rest of the year, and also glad to find a pretty decent ride after the merger between Petty and Evernham race teams. He only has one other top ten finish in his career — ironically a ninth place finish at Kansas in his last race for Red Bull. His run at Fontana, where he’s been in the top 20 in both previous starts, should be a good indication about how good this kid really is.
The other story that developed a Daytona involved AJ’s ex-teammate in Brian Vickers. As most race fans are well aware, as Vickers tried to block Dale Earnhardt Jr., their tires clipped and Vickers wrecked, sending him to a 39th place finish. Earnhardt finished 27th. Both blamed the other. But the general consensus was that the wreck was junior’s fault, and some speculate it was an intentional maneuver.
A lot of race analysts say Junior could have avoided it, but Vickers also probably shouldn’t have been as aggressive in his block.
The speculation that it was intentional spin by JR. stems back to Talladega in 2006. The final laps, Junior led with Johnson second and Vickers third. Johnson and Vickers were Hendricks teammates at the time and the expectation was that when Johnson was ready to make his move to pass Junior, Vickers would go with Jimmie to give him a push. On the last lap it happened, only Vickers made a terrible error in judgment when he got behind Johnson and clipped Johnson’s tires. Johnson spun up to Junior, wrecking them both and Vickers won the race. The incident caused a lot of friction between Johnson and Vickers, who had been good friends up to then, as well as Junior and Vickers.
Brian Vickers caused a wreck that took our Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the final lap of 2006 race at Talladega
So last Sunday was that in Junior’s mind? Maybe But more than likely it wasn’t. Still, for the sport it’s definitely nice to have a rivalry developing, and it will be interesting to watch these two this week and all year, as I tend to think both could be contenders in the Chase.
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