I would like to thank John Beamer, one of the writers for F1 Pitlane, for contacting me recently to do an interview over at the site … to which, of course, I happily obliged. John is a great guy and they do a fantastic job over there, so I encourage you all to go give it a look and while you’re there, take a look at the interview.

A Stateside Perspective - NASCAR and F1

All season long, the only name people want to talk about in championship discussions has been Kyle Busch. When we want to talk about the evolution of the sport, again, Kyle Busch’s name is one of the first that comes to mind. If we’re talking about who can give Jeff Gordon a run for his money as the most hated driver in the sport … yup, you guessed it, we’re talking Kyle Busch.

So, basically, all the way from talking about the possibility of winning three championships in one season to his desire to test a Formula One car later this year, this season has been all about Kyle … but, the same cannot be said for older brother, Kurt. It’s funny when you think about it, really. It wasn’t all that long ago that Kurt Busch’s career was getting off to a pretty much identical start to the Kyle’s, yet Kurt now seems to be nothing more than a footnote at the end of Sunday’s races.

I mean, have we forgotten that Kurt is the one in the family boasting a Cup Series championship on his resume’? Was Kurt not originally one of the garage area’s “bad boys” himself? Heck, some of my fondest memories from earlier this decade include the battles between Kurt and Jimmy Spencer, which eventually led to a black eye on the Busch family … or, at least Kurt, anyway.

Just for turds and giggles, let’s take a look at Kurt and Kyle’s careers by comparison through their first 128 starts:

Kyle Busch - (9) Wins, (40) Top-Five’s, (62) Top-Ten’s, (4) Poles
Kurt Busch - (9) Wins, (26) Top-Five’s, (46) Top-Ten’s, (2) Poles

It should also be noted that Kurt’s 128th career start came in 2004, the same year that he later went onto win his first and only Sprint Cup championship. Coincidentally, Kyle currently leads the series point standings this year. Kurt’s performance since then has slipped dramatically, particularly since joining Penske Racing in 2006. Since making his first 128 starts in the series, Kurt has competed in another 148 events, tallying up (8) wins, (31) top-five’s, and (61) top-ten’s, though he has since won (9) more pole awards.

By now, most of you are probably familiar with the many rumors surrounding the status of Casey Mears and the no. 5 team over at Hendrick Motorsports for 2009. Several sources are indicating that Rick Hendrick may have notified Casey last week that his tenure with HMS was coming to an end at the conclusion of this season, and already, the rumor mill has been lit up once again with all sorts of speculations.

The most intriguing, and for once, make-sense of these rumors comes from Lee Spencer over at Fox Sports, where she throws out the notion that Hendrick may be looking to promote Brad Keselowski from the Nationwide Series ranks, where he currently drives for Hendrick affiliate, JR Motorsports. Keselowski, who earned the first NNS win of his career earlier this season, could be Hendrick’s long-term solution to the Joe Gibbs Racing phenom, Joey Logano, but if these sources hold true, Hendrick would likely take a much different approach.

Whereas we could see a fourth team car implimented by JGR next season just to get Logano a full-time ride, Hendrick would approach it from a different angle, engaging Keselowski into a driver/mentor program, pairing him with the guy that’s done just that for a living since retiring from full-time action in 2006 … you guessed it, Mark Martin.

I never thought I’d see the day that Mark Martin would get behind the wheel of a Hendrick-branded car, but I’m seeing it now. ESPN is reporting that Mark has already confirmed that he will depart DEI after this year. In an odd twist to the story, though, they are also reporting that Martin will join the no. 5 team in an effort to make one last full-time run at the championship. That part of it I’m having a tough time buying off on for a couple of reasons. Aside from ESPN’s shakey and somewhat unreliable NASCAR reporting this year, I really feel that if Mark was going to take on another full season of racing, it would’ve been last year when he was well in position to make a bid for the Chase before finally stepping out of the car at Bristol.

Of course, we haven’t thrown nearly enough names into the fire to get the spicy rumor mill that we’ve grown quite accustomed to this year, so nascar.com decided to make sure we all took notice to the comments made by Juan Pablo Montoya on Sunday.

“Is it really true that Casey Mears is out of the 5 car?” was the first thing he said when confronted by reporters following the Toyota Save/Mart 350 at Infineon.

I’ll admit - I’m not too privy to the details of Montoya’s current contract with Chip Ganassi Racing, but that deal’s about to expire, then Juan is a name that has floated under the radar with flying colors, and would certainly add a little more flavor to the silly season gossip. He’s already holding his own over at Ganassi - even in the midst of working with three different crew chiefs during the first 16 races of the season. You have to wonder what the former Formula One star could do in some Hendrick furnished equipment!

So, is Mears on his way out of the Hendrick camp? Yeah, I think he is. It’s a notion that we’ve toyed around with all season long - even before the recent rumors - and, to me, the deck is stacked against him on this one. It’s a make-sense move for HMS to let him go. Bringing Keselowski up through the ranks would allow them to concentrate their championship efforts on the trio of Gordon, Johnson, and Jr. next season … and, even a longshot deal like Montoya would expand their merchandise and fan base even more.

Now, where he could wind up is anyone’s guess. The fourth car over at Richard Childress Racing would be my first inclination, but there are several other possibilities still lingering out there. Even with Greg Biffle expected to announce a re-signing with Roush-Fenway Racing this weekend, a potential slot could still open up there if Jack were to release Jamie McMurray from the organization, as many people were speculating on just a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, issues still do not appear to be resolved between Ryan Newman and the Penske Racing organization, and I’ve even heard talk about Casey headed somewhere like Haas CNC Racing, or even a return to Ganassi.

Yes … Silly Season is still a mess.

*Credit photo to Newscom.

For the third consecutive week, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crowned a first-time winner, and this time in came in the form of former F1 Series driver, Scott Speed. In only his sixth career start in the Truck Series, Speed drove away from the field after a late restart in the race, and cruised on into Victory Lane to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover, topping his best previous finish, which was 8th at Kansas.

Jack Sprague held off his Kevin Harvick Inc. racing teammate, Ron Hornaday, to finish second, while Travis Kvapil finished fourth, and last week’s race winner, Matt Crafton, finished fifth. Kyle Busch had the dominant car all night long, but transmission troubles sidelined him late in the race, and he went onto finish 27th. Todd Bodine came into the race as the series points leader, but a blown tire that sent him hard into the Turn 3 wall on lap 170 relegated him to a 27th place finish, dropping him four spots in the standings. The points lead was handed over to Rick Crawford after putting together a solid 9th place run.

Speed took the lead of the race when he passed Bodine for the position on lap 150, and opened up a lead of more than 3.5 seconds before the lap 170 caution saw that lead disappear. After the restart on lap 179, Speed ran away from the field, leaving Sprague trailing by more than four seconds before he finally slowed it down on the final lap as he made his way towards Winner’s Circle.

Following the race, Speed, who later revealed that he’d had his toenails painted blue prior to the race, stated, “Today we had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it. The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Everytime I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge. I’m just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport.”

Speed’s victory is the first on the season for Bill Davis Racing, whose camp also consists of veteran drivers, Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Image details: Dodge Challenger 500 served by picapp.com

Yup, you read the title correctly … Kyle Busch, first in the Sprint Cup standings, second in the Nationwide Series standings, sixth in the Craftsman Truck Series standings, and winner of 8 NASCAR points-paying events in only 27 races run this season … THAT Kyle Busch is now already making plans to put together a test session over in Japan with Formula One.

This past Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Kyle told the media, “We’re working on a test session right now at the end of November or beginning of December sometime, going to Japan and doing a little exhibition sort of deal and see what it’s like. We’ll take the Cup car over there, too, I think. Just kind of run around there at at either Twin Ring (Motegi) or something like that and show them what the Cup cars are like, and try to get in the Formula One car, too.”

When asked if this was an indicator that he has any interest in competing in the series, Kyle said, “We’ll see how good I test, first.” 

Entering into their sixteenth season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Bill Davis Racing has yet to find the keys to success to put them on a more competitive level with NASCAR’s elite. The organization hasn’t won a race at this level since 2002 – the season that Ward Burton captured the Daytona 500 – and even worse, they’ve only had 12 top-ten finishes over the last 5 years.

Business wasn’t always so bleak for this race team, however. In 2001, Burton finished 14th in the points standings for Bill Davis, but then dropped down to 25th in ’02, and the two parted ways in 2003, replacing Ward with Scott Wimmer. Burton’s 2002 performance would be the last time a Bill Davis Racing team finished the season inside the top 25 in owner points.

In 2005, the team only ran the no. 22 car of Scott Wimmer full-time, starting their no. 27 team in only 10 races with Mike Skinner behind the wheel. In ’06, they scrapped the 27 team completely, but decided to bring it back as the no. 36 last season in the inaugural debut for Toyota into the Cup Series putting Jeremy Mayfield behind the wheel. Mayfield would later be relieved of his driving duties with just four races left in the season, replacing him with the combination of Skinner and Johnny Benson. It didn’t really matter at that point, though. 2007 was a complete catastrophe for the entire organization, as the two race teams combined for a total of only 50 of a possible 72 starts. The 36 team failed to record a single top ten all season long, while Dave Blaney – now driving the no. 22 – finished 31st in points, making him the only Toyota to finish last season inside the top 35.

2008 is looking a little better, though, with the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing to the Toyota mix and some extra horsepower behind the Camry engines, and it’s shown so far in the pre-season practice sessions. The 36 team has gone back to the no. 27, and Davis has brought in former IndySeries star Jacques Villeneuve to drive the car full-time. The organization will be looking for a win or two at some point in the season – particularly at the superspeedways with Blaney and the road courses with Villeneuve – but, more importantly the primary focus has to be making sure that both teams finish inside the top 35 in owner points and getting things in line for the 2009 campaign.

Cup Series Roster:

22: Dave Blaney – He looked extremely well at quite a few races last season, and was really the main guy to give us an early glimpse of the muscle that Toyota was capable of providing. He won the first pole award for Toyota at the race in New Hampshire and scored a total of 4 top ten finishes, including a Toyota-high 3rd place finish at Talladega in the fall. With the exception of the Joe Gibbs cars, he’s also the only Toyota driver that will begin the season inside the top 35 in owner points, which will guarantee him starts in the first five races of the season. He’s also looked great so far in the Daytona Speedweeks, and if he can keep his nose clean, should contend for at least a top five spot in that race. In my mind, with the changes that have been made to the engine package of the Toyota’s, Blaney’s a shoe-in to remain in the top 35, and I wouldn’t be extremely surprised to see him finish up somewhere around 20th in points. As overlooked as this guy’s always been throughout his career, it could be him – not Villeneuve – that actually gets Bill Davis Racing on the map.

27: Jacques Villeneuve – The former F1 Series Champion got his start in professional racing back in 1990 racing in the Italian and Japanese F3 Championships and has raced in the F1 Series since 1996, but until the end of 2007, he’d never sat behind the wheel of a stock car. Last year he competed in 2 Sprint Cup Series races, finishing 21st at Talladega and 41st at Phoenix. This year he joins 3 other former open wheel stars in one of NASCAR’s most highly anticipated rookie classes of all-time, but he’s going to have a long road ahead of him due to the fact that his car is not currently in the top 35 in owner points, which means he’s going to be forced to qualify his car every week based on time alone. That could be a huge factor on Jacques’ first full season in the Cup Series, and ultimately I would expect him to spend the majority of the season flirting with the bubble for the top 35 spot.

Driver Roster: C
Off-Season: B
2008 Outlook: C+

Juan Pablo Montoya came to NASCAR with visions of winning in short order. I think it’s fair to say at this point in time, he’s a little behind schedule. And that’s to be expected. Montoya is without a doubt, a very talented driver, but as others have learned, being excellent in one race series doesn’t necessarily translate over to NASCAR. Steve Kinser comes to mind because he tried to make the transition from sprint cars but decided to leave NASCAR after only 5 races because he was averaging 35th while driving for Kenny Bernstein.

On the other hand, there are numerous drivers that have left open-wheel racing and have succeeded very well. Tony Stewart is a prime example of that, and it shows that it can be done, but Montoya I think has more “attitude” problems than anything else at this point. He’s making enemies on the track ,and it can be very difficult come race day if you have no friends that could give you that break when you’re trying to get a lap back. Kurt Busch learned this the hard way, after having both on and off-track incidents that finally led to him leaving Rousch Racing in 2006.

Is Montoya too aggressive? Probably in terms of what he thinks his race car can do. These are not Indy or F1 cars, and stock cars have nothing in common with the type of cars he’s used to driving. But he’ll learn in time, and I predict that in a couple of years, he’ll be challenging for the Nextel Cup.