March 20, 2008 - Junior Setting Pace At Hendrick

After the first five races of 2007, four-time series champion Jeff Gordon sat atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with three top fives and four top 10s. Jimmie Johnson, Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and the man who would go on to capture his second-straight series title at season’s end, sat third in points, 72 markers behind Gordon with two victories, three top-five finishes.

Hendrick’s other two drivers, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears, were sixth and 26th, respectively, and Busch had just captured the first Car of Tomorrow victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, his fourth career triumph.

But oh how things have changed at the HMS complex in Concord, N.C. This season, Gordon is 14th in points after the series’ first five events and has an average finish of 18.6 (compared to last season’s 5.8) and two top-five finishes. Johnson sits one spot better in 13th with an average finish of 17.8 — last season it was 12 — and one top five that came in the season’s second event.

Mears, too, is fairing worse in 2008. The Bakersfield, Calif., native who joined HMS last season and notched his first career Cup victory in the Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day weekend is now 33rd in the point standings, precariously close to falling out of the precious top 35 in owner’s points, thanks a string of less-than-stellar performances to kick off his sixth season in Cup competition.

So where is the bright spot for Hendrick Motorsports this season? It has come in an unlikely form, in the driver who many said needed to “put up or shut up” when he made the move to Hendrick this season: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

When Earnhardt announced his move to HMS last June, there was mixed opinions on how one of sports’ biggest figures would perform. Some predicted he’d win the 2008 title; others said leaving the team his late father created wouldn’t make a difference. Still others said the racing world would finally see what kind of talent Earnhardt really has while behind the wheel of what has been NASCAR’s premier team.

So far this season, Earnhardt has led his new teammates from the get-go, capturing the all-star Budweiser Shootout at Daytona in February. From there, Earnhardt has notched three top-five and four top-10 finishes in five events. His average finish is 14.4, which reflects his lone finish outside of the top 10 — a 40th — when he was collected in Mears’s violent crash on lap 22 of the Auto Club 500 at Fontana. His performance has boosted him to fifth in series points, a boost from 17th, his position a year ago.

Of course, we’re only five races into the season, but I doubt anyone would have predicted that Earnhardt, the new guy on the block, would be the only Hendrick driver within the top 12 in points.

March 13, 2008 - Too Many On Pit Road

While much has been made of the penalty the No. 99 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team received for the missing oil tank reservoir cover after the Las Vegas race, another penalty the team nearly received has been all but overlooked.

During what was to be a routine pit stop on lap 215 of the UAW-Dodge 400, the No. 99 crew had a tire roll across pit road after a non-network cameraman standing in the team’s pit interfered with the crew’s attempt to secure the tire.

According to the NASCAR rule book, “During a pit stop, if a tire is not controlled and/or travels more than halfway across the pit road, a lap or time penalty may be assessed. If, in the judgment of NASCAR officials, a team made every effort to control a tire and circumstances beyond their control cause the tire to travel across pit road, a lap or time penalty may not be assessed."

NASCAR officials did not penalize Carl Edwards or the team for the mistake since the cameraman hindered the crew. Edwards went on to capture the victory, which may not have been possible had he been penalized for the tire incident.

That tire incident at Las Vegas highlights a general overcrowding problem in the pits at NASCAR races. In recent years, NASCAR has cut back on how many people are allowed in the pits during a race by using the “hot pass” and “cold pass” system, but even so, there are way too many people on pit road, most of whom have no real need to be there.

I can only speak from my experiences at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. During a race, the average team has at least nine to 10 crew members crammed in a pit stall with a large “war wagon” and other pieces of equipment. Directly behind the pit stall, there is a walkway roughly three feet wide that is to remain a clear, open path during a race. Between the walkway and a tall, black iron fence is another area where teams store tires, coolers, chairs and more equipment.

All of that equates to a pretty tight pit area. But in addition to the crew members, there are race fans with hot passes milling around, wives and girlfriends of the drivers and crews, NASCAR and speedway officials and members of the media, some of whom travel in bunches to lug around cameras, cables and equipment for television reporters.

Trying to stay out from under foot is impossible. If you try to stand directly in the pit stall, you’re in the way of crew members who are trying to do their jobs. If you stand at the back of the pit stall near the fence, you’re crammed in among tires, girlfriends and race fans and you’re still in the way. If you happen to spill out into the walkway area, you run the risk of being run over by crew members wheeling stacks of tires and cartloads of racing fuel if a NASCAR official doesn’t come along and shoo you out of the way first.

As I said, this is how it is at Lowe’s. I’m told other tracks — Martinsville and Bristol, for instance — are even more cramped.

But even if you don’t mind being crammed into tight spaces, having that many people packed on pit road is a safety hazard. Crowds may hinder safety workers trying to get through the pits if a crew member is injured. And what happens if there is a fire in the pits or there is another type of dangerous situation, like a car spinning out of control toward pit wall? The more people there are in the pits, the more people there are likely to be injured if some freak accident happens.

NASCAR needs to remedy this issue before something more tragic than a tire rolling across pit road happens. It’s only a matter of time.