Keselowski gets new Cup crew chief

   Fresh off helping driver Brad Keselowski win a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, crew chief Paul Wolfe has received a promotion and tougher assignment. Wolfe was named Tuesday as Keselowski's crew chief for the No. 2 Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series for the 2011 season.

   In their first season working together, Keselowski and Wolfe produced six wins and five poles on their way to winning the Nationwide title. The No. 22 Dodge team also established a new series single-season record with 26 top-five finishes.

   "It’s been a fantastic 2010 season with Brad and the team and I’m excited about the challenge of moving up to the Cup Series next season and the opportunity to continue build on the legacy of the No. 2 car team with Brad behind the wheel," Wolfe said.

   A former driver who accumulated six top-20 finishes in 16 career Nationwide starts, Wolfe first became a crew chief in 2006 with Fitz Racing. He moved on to CJM Racing in 2009 before he joined Penske Racing as Keselowski's crew chief in November 2009.

    “We just seemed to click right from the beginning and we look to bring that same magic to the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team in 2011," Keselowski said.

Kurt Busch comes up short at the Rock

   The NASCAR season may over, but not Kurt Busch's racing.

   Busch was edged by Will Kimmel in Saturday's Polar Bear 150 Street Stock Nationals race at Rockingham Speedway. Kimmel led 148 of 150 laps en route to his first victory at the track.

   "It was a little intimidating to look back and see the No. 22 (Busch) in the mirror,” Kimmel said. “I was pretty confident in my car but at the same time it was pretty hard to keep it on the bottom where it ran the best."

   Busch had to battle back after contact with Kimmel forced him to make a pit stop to pull the fender off the left-front tire. After restarting 12th, Busch capitalized on a caution to get on Kimmel’s rear bumper over the last 40 laps.

   “It was just as much fun as I thought it would be. It was old school racing – toss it in sideways and drive the hell out of it," Busch said. "We got every ounce out it. There at the end I think we lost a cylinder. I could definitely feel the power loss.”

   J.D. Frey finished third, Chad Hall fourth and Cliff Gaumond fifth.

   The race was slowed by nine cautions for 42 laps. Ten of the 50 cars that started finished on the lead lap.

   “It was as much fun as it always was,” said Busch. “There were all the lanes to choose from. We worked the low groove and the high groove. This place is so fun with the bumps and quirks.

   "This racetrack, for sure, gets a gold star. Guys in our series (Sprint Cup) that are car guys – that are racers – should definitely be down here racing.”

No more excuses for Dale Jr.

   Let's be honest here.

   Ever since Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved to Hendrick Motorsports and it became clear the change was not going to live up to expectations the legions of Earnhardt fans have been looking for someone to blame.

   First it was crew chief Tony Eury Jr. Now, it's crew chief Lance McGrew. And along the way have been the ridiculous accusations that Earnhardt's team didn't get the "best" stuff at HMS, that somehow there was some behind-the-scenes effort to jeopardize Earnhardt's performance.

   While I found the timing of team owner Rick Hendrick's decision to reorganize three of his Sprint Cup programs odd, I'm glad he did it the way he did. Earnhardt isn't just getting a new crew chief, he is getting a whole new team.

   Everything and everyone that have been working on Jeff Gordon's team in recent seasons will now become Earnhardt's. The cars, the personnel, even apparently the pit crew that was used by teammate Jimmie Johnson in the final weeks of the season, will become Earnhardt's next year.

   Yes, Gordon did not win a race in 2010, but there is no question he was a serious contender for many wins and a legitimate title contender. The uniqueness of Hendrick's move has provided something that could likely prove to be a top story in 2011 - no excuses for Earnhardt or his fans.

   I don't believe that Earnhardt suddenly lost all the talent he had when he racked up 18 career Cup wins, but neither do I believe that everyone and everything Hendrick has put to work with Earnhardt since he arrived at HMS has somehow been "sub par."

   There is another answer. And I think in 2011 we might finally find out what that is.

Reserve Jimmie Johnson's NASCAR Hall of Fame spot now

   Go ahead and carve out a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame right now for Jimmie Johnson.

   I know he isn’t eligible yet, but if he weren’t already ensured a spot after four consecutive championships, adding a fifth on Sunday should make him a no-brainer.

   He's now won five titles, four by amassing big points leads in the preceding nine races and now a fifth by coming from behind. If drivers had to write an essay to win the championship, he'd likely get bonus points for penmanship he is so smooth.

   For all of those fans who think Johnson winning five in a row is bad for racing, that's easy to say but not as easy in practice. Someone still has to beat Johnson to become champion. And in the face of likely his toughest competition to date, he still came out on top.

   It’s easy to say someone else should win. What's not east is apparently getting someone else to do it. You don't want to see Johnson or his team celebrating No. 6 next season? Then you better hope another finds a way to beat them.

   Unless NASCAR puts a cap on Cup championships for individual drivers - which some fans may actually think a good idea - I suspect Johnson and his team will be in title hunts for many years to come.

Did Jimmie Johnson get a free ride to a fifth consecutive championship?

   The last thing I would think either Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick would want to do would to give Jimmie Johnson any advantage going into the final race of the Sprint Cup season.

   Qualifying over the last few weeks hasn't really meant much on race day for any of the three drivers still in contention for the title. All three have qualified poorly of late but all three have ended up running in the top-10 during the race.

   But still, with everything on the line, with every point for Johnson another step toward a NASCAR-record fifth consecutive title, why wouldn't Hamlin or Harvick's teams try to at least keep pace with Johnson in qualifying?

   Everyone mentions how Hamlin won the Ford 400 a year ago from starting 38th. Two things come to mind. First, Hamlin was out of the title hunt last year and had nothing to lose. We have no idea if his team would or will make the same choices with more at stake.

   Second, in the past four title runs by Johnson, he has entered the Homestead finale with a big points lead and no reason to race hard or push it. Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, admitted as much this week on a teleconference.

   The bottom line? We don't know how good Johnson can be here because we really have no idea how good he could have been in the past four races.

   So, now Johnson starts way up front (sixth). His competitors will start from the back (Harvick 28th and Hamlin 37th).

   Is it possible any of the three can still win the championship on Sunday? Of course.

   But there is no way I would want to start that process without at least being able to see the rear bumper of Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet.

 

  

Will the next driver to "save" NASCAR come on down ...

   Here we go again.

   Another “popular” driver successful in some other form of motorsports decides to make a foray into NASCAR competition and suddenly that person is the answer to NASCAR’s attendance and TV ratings woes.

   This time, it’s Travis Pastrana, who has won numerous titles in supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross and rally racing. He plans to drive seven races in 2011 in the Nationwide Series with a team co-owned by himself and Michael Waltrip.

   Why is it when someone outside NASCAR decides to give it a try it necessarily most follow that we get a litany of reasons how that move will transform the sport?

   Haven’t we learned our lesson yet?

   IndyCar star Danica Patrick made her much-publicized debut in NASCAR this season with the same expectations (or more) and her performance on the track has been at best underwhelming.

   She likely got more people to tune in when she first arrived, and she likely sold a lot of T-shirts. That’s all well and good for Patrick, but what has it done for NASCAR?

   If people are tuning in to see Patrick and then tune out when her adventure is over, what has NASCAR gained?

   The same goes for Pastrana.

   He may be the “next big thing” to come to NASCAR, but unless he actually makes a mark in the sport competition-wise, I don’t know how that improves the NASCAR product.

   I have no doubt that if Patrick or Pastrana were to come into NASCAR and found the success – or even some of it – they have experienced in their other respective racing disciplines, NASCAR would benefit.

   But other sports’ stars coming over to “give NASCAR a try,” who aren’t in contention to win races or plan to run a schedule to contend for a championship, smacks as nothing more than a marketing ploy.

   That’s all well and good, too. Just please call it for what it is.

   I’m not going to make a judgment on what Pastrana can do for NASCAR until I actually see him compete in a Nationwide race.

   The honest truth is I don’t know what he will do. And neither does anyone else until he gets here.

Is Kevin Harvick being overlooked?

   Much has been written and said - even by Kevin Harvick himself - about whether he has been overlooked in this year's Sprint Cup championship race.

   Harvick's crew chief, Gil Martin was asked about this on Wednesday and here was his response:

   "I can't explain to you why he doesn't (get respect he deserves), but I can talk to you about why he should. I mean, you just go back and look. Again, I know it doesn't matter to nothing, but everybody talks about stats all week long. That's all you see all week long. When you go back and look where we would be in traditional points, where we are on top 10s, where we are on points gained, where we are on top 5s, I think if you go back and look, it's almost been one of the best seasons that RCR has ever had in its history.

   "Obviously if we don't win the championship, it's not going to be where we want to be, but it's a championship run that we've had all year long. And in order for that to have happened, he had to do a lot of things right this year, and I think a lot of those things have gone a little bit unnoticed because a lot of emphasis has been put on that we haven't qualified very well. But because we haven't qualified very well, the amount of cars that we've passed this year coming from I'll say not even mid-pack, three-quarter pack, through most of the season, I don't know the number of those cars, and I'm sure y'all have the stats on that, but the amount of cars that we've passed this season is probably astronomical compared to a lot of them.

   "And it's a shame that we had the little problem we did in the pits this weekend because I really think when we were running third and had to come back in, if we would have got to see some clean air, our car was going to be very fast out front or in the top two or three this weekend. But he's done a great job, and I think he deserves a lot more credit probably than he is getting."

   A couple things: First, I believe Harvick has as good a chance to win this title as either Jimmie Johnson or Denny Hamlin, given the circumstances with one race remaining.

   Second, given that, I don't think it's unreasonable to consider Harvick an upset winner should he do so.

   Harvick may have led the series points standings most of the first 26 weeks of the season but that feat in an off itself doesn't mean much - or anything - when it comes to the Chase. It's wins that matter, and that's how you get seeded to start the Chase. A driver can have a 1,000 point lead after 26 races but if he doesn't have a win, he'll start dead last in the Chase. That's the system.

   Given that, and the fact Johnson has won four straight championships and has a better than average shot at a fifth, Harvick is right where he should be: knocking on the door, with a chance to kick it in.