A year of big changes for NASCAR
McClatchy Newspapers motorsports writers David Poole and Jim Utter (Charlotte Observer), Sarah Rothschild (Miami Herald), John Sturbin (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) and Jim Pedley (Kansas City Star) voted on the year's 12 biggest stories in NASCAR. That's Racin's review of those stories concludes this week with stories four through one on the list:
4. Y'all come
For the first time in the history of NASCAR's top series, no driver born in North Carolina won a race in 2007. That's not the only indication that times have changed, either.In a sport that once was something of a closed society for good ol' boys, stock car racing's gates now seem to open wider than ever before.
Only two race winners, Virginians Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin, were from the sport's historical hotbed in the Southeast.
Juan Pablo Montoya is from Colombia, but that's the South American country and not the state capital of South Carolina. When he won at Infineon Raceway, he became the first foreign-born driver to win a Cup race since Earl Ross, from Canada, won at Martinsville in 1974.
Montoya also is a former Indianapolis 500 champion whose open-wheel experience included a stint in Formula 1. When the 2008 season begins, three other Indy 500 champions -- 2006 winner Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villenueve -- will be in full-time Cup rides and former F1 driver Scott Speed will be driving in the Automobile Racing Club of America series preparing for his own NASCAR foray.
But the trend doesn't stop with drivers from a variety of backgrounds.
Another infusion of new blood -- and new money -- came from investors without previous backgrounds in racing who've decided to buy into the sport.
Jack Roush brought in John Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, with his Fenway Sports Group. Ray Evernham became partners with George Gillett, whose holdings include ownership of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens. Michael Waltrip sold partial ownership in his team to Robert Kaufmann, a New York native now living in Europe.
3. Tomorrow becomes today
In the weeks before the "car of tomorrow" raced for the first time at Bristol in the season's fifth race, there were some people in the Cup garage who still actually believed NASCAR would back off its plans to make it the new standard vehicle for the sport.
The opposite happened, of course. NASCAR not only ran the new car in all 16 of the races it had planned to do in 2007, it accelerated the rollout schedule and decreed that it will be used in all races in 2008.
The new car is taller and wider, with an array of safety features that were a major part of NASCAR's impetus for developing it. But NASCAR also wanted to get control of how teams build -- and alter -- their cars. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all were hit with 100-point fines after their teams tried to "push the envelope" on rules governing the car.
The most tangible impact of the new car, however, can be seen in the season's results. Gordon scored the most points in the year's 36 races and Johnson won the championship with his performance in the Chase to the Nextel Cup. Want to guess which two teams scored the most points in COT races in 2007? Jeff Gordon had 2,482 while Johnson had 2,406. Tony Stewart was third with 2,285.
2. They're all Chasing Jimmie
Jimmie Johnson swears he has no idea what happens to his team every summer, but thanks to NASCAR's four-year-old Chase for the Nextel Cup format, apparently it doesn't really matter.In the first half of the 26-race regular season, Johnson had 1,907 points and trailed only teammate Jeff Gordon. In the second half, he had 1,532 points and 13 other drivers had more in that span.
But Johnson did win the final two races of the regular season, giving him six victories to that point in the season. For the first time under the Chase format, that equated to six 10-point bonuses for each of those victories, and even though Jeff Gordon led the standings through 26 races he only had four wins to that point. So Johnson led by 20 points as the Chase started.
Halfway through the Chase, Jeff Gordon was once again out front and seemingly in position for a fifth career title. But Johnson won four straight races, the first time that has happened since Jeff Gordon did it in 1998. That streak propelled Johnson to his second straight title and to a record-setting Chase performance. His 1,663 points is the most ever scored in the 10-race playoff.
Through four years, Johnson has won 11 of the 40 Chase races ever held. Every year since 2003, Johnson has either been first or second in the standings going into the season's final race.
1. Breaking up is hard to do
With his contract up at the end of the 2007 season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. found himself at a crossroads in his career.
When his father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, was alive, there was never any question that Earnhardt Jr. would be part of his father's race team. But with Earnhardt's death in 2001, everything changed.
With Earnhardt gone, Teresa Earnhardt was running DEI and Earnhardt Jr.'s relationship with his stepmother, as Earnhardt Jr. himself would say in January at Daytona, has never been a bed of roses.
With a contract negotiation staring them down, their differences became even more public. Earnhardt Jr. is NASCAR's most popular driver and its most marketable individual star, so the possibility of him hitting the open market was in itself a major story -- even without all the familial overtones.
It was clear from the start that keeping Earnhardt Jr. at DEI would be an uphill battle. In February, he said he would stay only if he got majority ownership of the team. Nobody believed Teresa Earnhardt would agree to that, and they were right.
Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would not return to DEI. After weeks of speculation, he announced that he would move to Hendrick Motorsports to join the sport's most powerful driver lineup for 2008 and beyond.
The List
Stories five through 12 of the top NASCAR stories of 2007:
5. THERE'S A KIND OF HUSH: With television ratings slipping downward and some seats going empty for Cup races, has NASCAR's streak of robust growth come to an end?
6. NOT EXACTLY A RUNNING START: Toyota enters Nextel Cup racing with three multi-car teams and struggles through a difficult first season. But the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing for 2008 holds promise.
7. A GIANT FALLS: Bill France Jr., the son of NASCAR's founder and a man who led the sport through three decades of remarkable growth, passes away at 74.
8. WONDER DAD: Jeff Gordon has a remarkable year on track, with six wins and a modern-era record of 31 top-10 finishes, and off track, as he becomes a father for the first time.
9. FAIR? ISN'T THAT WHERE YOU GET FUNNEL CAKES?: The 2007 season was a particularly difficult year for NASCAR's rules officials, with their judgment and integrity coming into question.
10. THE JUAN-DER OF YOU: Juan Pablo Montoya makes the move to NASCAR, picks up his first victories in the Nextel Cup and Busch series and is named Nextel Cup rookie of the year.
11. FANTASTIC FINISHES: Beginning with a wild finish in the Daytona 500, the Nextel Cup Series sees four races determined by last-lap passes. Several other races also feature late-race drama.
12. BRUTON BOWS HIS NECK: Bruton Smith kept busy, reshaping his Las Vegas and Bristol tracks, buying the track in New Hampshire and deciding to leave Lowe's Motor Speedway where it is.
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