Midweek Musings: Stewart-Haas, Double-File Restarts and Martin Truex Jr's Future

by mnmike on Jun 10, 2009 2:47 PM EDT

For those just waking up from their annual Pocono beauty rests, here's a few things that happened last weekend.

Tony Stewart won his first points race as an owner. While Smoke's season has been impressive, let's take a step back. He's getting credited with being the first owner/driver to win since Ricky Rudd won in 1998. Technically that's true, but Stewart bought in to an existing team with sound infrastructure already in place. This wasn't like Robby Gordon or even Michael Waltrip building a team from scratch. All credit to Stewart for landing sponsorship, aligning with Hendrick and going out and driving the wheels off every week, but it's hardly the same as Rudd or an independent driver/owner turning the trick.
NASCAR implemented double-file restarts at Pocono. The decision itself seems like a simple and logical move to get the lead lap cars closer together at the front of the field. Whether the change is positive or negative is not the point. What I struggle with is whether any midseason rule change is good or bad for the sport. Excluding safety concerns, no other sport installs or changes rules in the middle of a season. If a 2pt conversion or instant replay is a good idea, it has to wait until the next season to change. NASCAR changes rules whenever they think it's necessary. On the positive side someone could say NASCAR is proactive. If something is a good idea, why wait for next year? Of course people could also say that officials are simply reacting to the latest controversey (i.e. freezing the field on cautions) and making the rules up as they go. I'm stuck in the middle on this one. Any thoughts?
Silly Season has been slow to gain speed, but according to SI.com, Martin Truex might be the first big piece to fit in place. According to Tim Tuttle, Truex's initial option was possibbly Hendrick's #5 car until Mark Martin opted for another fulltime go in 2010. So the top two options for the biggest free agent prize are (Stewart)-Haas-CNC Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing. Who would have imagined that last sentence a year ago? Maybe next year we'll be hearing gossip about Jeff Gordon weighing his options between Petty Enterprises and Phoenix Racing.

Poll

Where will Martin Truex Jr wind up in 2010?

Michael Waltrip Racing

18 votes

Stewart Haas Racing

23 votes

Buys out Teresa and forms MTJ Racing

7 votes

Other

3 votes

51 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Tony as owner/driver

I agree with your comments regarding Stewart. He is not the only owner of his pre-exsisting team. He is getting more than cars and engines from Hendricks, he is getting their notes.

by tneve22 on Jun 10, 2009 3:39 PM EDT reply actions

I’m glad you brought up the fact that this was a mid-season implementation of this rule. The positive side is that they can work with it and get better at race strategy before the Chase starts, but I think you touched on the negative side in that this should have been instituted for next year, not mid-season as it kind of makes the previous 12 or so races not count as much – think of how some teams could have finished if this rule was instituted at the beginning of the season. What they could have done was instituted it in the Nationwide series, worked out the growing pains from an officiating point of view while teams could work on it from a strategy perspective and then impliment the polished product at the start of the 2010 season.

by 4ever3 on Jun 10, 2009 10:05 PM EDT reply actions

Tony and Double File Restarts

1) Regarding Tony – right on! I agree with your praise of him. He’s a good racer and apparently now a good manager. But he has a tremendous head start giving the pre-existing structure and the Hendrick connection. They do hang their own bodies, though, so they deserve credit for that. Since they do that, any notes they get from Hendrick would be of limited value, I would think.

2) I think the change to double file was good. I really don’t think it would have made any significant change in the points to have started earlier, and the racing is better. Since I don’t see it as a game/points changer, I applaud them for implementing it now.

by TakintheCheckers on Jun 11, 2009 8:19 AM EDT reply actions