Catchfence

LOUDON,NH – Storylines were the emphasis in NASCAR VP Jim Hunter’s comments on the Chase entering the opening race of 2009′s edition. “You have Mark Martin……you have Tony Stewart owning two cars……putting both in the Chase……you have so many storylines for the Chase.” Hunter could only be pleased with the big storyline that this Sylvania 300 wound up publishing – the champion organization of Chevrolet getting a huge challenge not just from the representative of Toyota’s title contender but also from a Chevy team pretty much left for dead for much of the season but whose resiliency we frankly hadn’t guessed at.

For all the laps led by Juan Montoya this season, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing is an outfit taken lightly by most. Montoya has been known as a loose cannon and the way he raced at New Hampshire Motor Speedway showed why, as some of his moves were noticeably reckless and he was left talking some smack about Mark Martin after Martin basically short-braked him on the last restart. It all left Montoya just 55 points out of the lead but perhaps having the most momentum of any Chaser.

Being a loose cannon, though, may hurt him later in the Chase – it helps explain why he’s generally struggled in stock cars and why he generally gets little respect in the sport. Nonetheless Montoya emerged as one of several winners in the New Hampshire 300 – aside of course from the winner OF the race, Mark Martin. Martin credited Alan Gustafson for taking “a driver who can’t drive Loudon, and won.”

Among the other winners of the weekend was the once-maligned track itself. Though the low groove in Turn Two appears to be gone as far as raceable grip goes, the track has steadily built a reputation for racing that has erased the memory of all those criticisms heaped onto the speedway in the 1990s and the first half of this decade. The criticisms sounded foolish then and recalling them today, they sound more foolish. The smorgasbord of racing that typifies NASCAR weekends at Loudon came through with the Modified 100 that had a lot of lead changes and also a lower level of ferocity based on how shaken everyone was from June. The Trucks took off and Kyle Busch took that one, and now the Winston Cup cars put on some spirited battles, notably in a mid-race sidedraft between Montoya and Denny Hamlin as well as the finish.

—————-

But there were losers as well -

RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS – Not only did their lone Chaser, Kasey Kahne, blow up, but a very good effort by AJ Allmendinger collapsed in two late spins and Reed Sorenson crashed again, making his tenure at the team tenuous at best. Allmendinger’s late spins were particularly galling because they wiped out a strong effort; it was also galling because the last-lap spin set up yet another controversy over how the sanctioning body officiates things.

NASCAR – Waiting and waiting to throw a yellow amid this field freeze rule is anything but new – NASCAR never threw a yellow for last-lap crashes in the 2004 Firecracker 250; no yellow flew in the much-condemned finish of the 2007 Daytona 500; the Truck 250 at Talladega saw a last-lap melee but no yellow. This incident in particular raises questions because an incident like this in 2003 involving Dale Jarrett brought on the field-freeze rule. And it all illustrates the need to find a better way to maintain safety while settling matters with the running order determined not by some scoring loop but by the start-finish line.

Also in the safety department NASCAR still has a problem with pit road after Kurt Busch tagged David Ragan into a spin in the pits while Denny Hamlin apparantly hit a crewman.

AERO-SENSITIVITY – VP Jim Hunter was asked, Kyle Busch was asked, yet even with their attempts at explanation the actual answer still seems clear – there is something fundamentally wrong with the whole approach the sport has to combating aeropush. Kyle Busch noted how aero-sensitive his Truck was on Saturday, and aero-sensitivity has been the biggest bane of the sport for now decades. And of course what we saw with the Modifieds at Loudon showed how behind the 8-ball the sport is at dealing with aero-sensitivity in fendered racecar classes. The day the Winston Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series are talking not about aeropush but about how much suction effect the draft has – as the Modifieds always do at Loudon – is the day the sport has finally figured it out.

DALE JUNIOR – He can blame David Reutimann, but watching that incident in-person Junior looked out of shape and starting around even without getting tagged. He has become a driver who no longer knows how to win but only how to lose.

ROUSH-FENWAY RACING – Richard Petty’s 2010 partners didn’t exactly acquit themselves at a track the Roush cars normally do well at. Greg Biffle finished 10th but he could have finished 30th and gotten more notice for it. Carl Edwards never got untracked and looks less and less like the season’s biggest winner last year. No one else in the Roush camp made much noise, either.

THE START-AND-PARKERS – Mike Wallace, Joe Nemecheck, Michael McDowell – whom we haven’t seen basically since his tumble at Texas – Dave Blaney, and Tony Raines were listed out with maladies such as brakes, electrical, transmission, and overheating. A better bet would be to scratch out the listed reason for the DNFs and replace them with one word – QUIT. The other touring series are filled with start-and-parkers – Winston Cup is developing that situation.

With all the winners and losers, it was a slam-bang start to the Chase and a slam-bang finish to NHMS’ NASCAR season. While the Chase bids adieu to New Hampshire until 2010, it hits the next nine weeks hoping to live up to its opening salvo.