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Sunday, it was beer cans.
Tuesday, it was insults, including a couple at Dustin Long.
Just stop already. You're embarrassing yourselves now.
P.S. to PC from Placentia: Sure, thousands of fans weren't throwing beer cans at Gordon. But thousands more did see their tosses die in the infield. You really need an arm to launch a half-full Miller Lite from the backstretch grandstand and have any prayer of hitting the frontstretch.
A couple of years ago, when I started writing The Spotter, I thought about doing some sort of Adopt-A-Driver program. What that means is that I'd blog regularly about a young up-n-comer, someone who might (or might not) make The Show.
I ended up not doing it - I got busy, you know. Work and life happens and good ideas come and go. But the driver I had in mind at the time was Denny Hamlin. Honest.
There's more ...
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have been stunning this season. Johnson's win at Richmond was his fourth this season. Gordon has two wins and five poles, including the last four, and leads the points race by a mile. Busch the Younger has one win and a spectatular crash.
Together, these three Hendrick drivers have won all four COT races and seven of the 10 run so far. Johnson, Busch and Gordon finished 1-2-4 Sunday at Richmond. They're three of the top drivers (Gordon, then Johnson, then Busch in sixth) in the standings. After Saturday night's race at Darlington, where Johnson swept in 2004 (the last time they ran two races there), the Cup Series goes to Charlotte where Johnson won four straight in 2004-05.
As I read (and write) about the Hendrick domination of NASCAR - and that's exactly what they're doing, dominating - something occurs to me: Doesn't Hendrick have four teams?
Why, yes, yes he does.
This season, Mears has been -- how can I put this charitably -- invisible. One top 10 finish (10th at Bristol), one top 10 qualifying effort (Talladega, where he crashed out) and as many finishes of 30th or worse (five) as laps led. He is 34th on the drivers chart. Worse, he's 34th on the owners chart, just nine points ahead of Ricky Rudd and 43 ahead of Scott Riggs, who showed last year he could make up some ground quickly.
So here's a question for Hendrick fans, mostly because I don't think there are any Casey Mears fans out there: What do you do with the No. 25 team? Is there anything you can do? Is there any evidence to suggest a guy who has career season placings of 35th, 22nd, 22nd and 14th (thanks mostly to a few good early-season runs) will be any better than mediocre?
Remember, this is a guy in the first year of what probably is a mult-year deal, so dumping him's not an option. So what do you do?
More elsewhere:
"Who can put the brakes on Hendrick domination?" by Jenna Fryer, AP (and count the number of Mears references)
Mears's 2007 Cup stats
"Mears can breath (sic) easier after solid run"
The Big Dog must be off, because Yahoo Bonkowski beat him over the head with this:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. officially will say goodbye to Dale Earnhardt Inc. on Thursday morning, Yahoo! Sports has learned.A highly placed source within DEI as well as additional sources familiar with the situation told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday afternoon that both Junior and teammate Martin Truex Jr. will announce Thursday morning that they are leaving the DEI camp at the end of this season and will drive for Earnhardt's heretofore Busch Series operation, JR Motorsports.
All I know is that Junior has called the NASCAR media horde to JR Motorsports in Mooresville at 11 a.m. Thursday. Everything beyond that is assumption. (I'm half expecting Junior will announce that Shane Huffman will be driving the 6.5 car next year.)
So let's speculate: If the Yahoo story is true, is this the best move for Junior? What does this mean for DEI? Heck, what does this mean for NASCAR? Anything?
Between my first (and only) post on the Junior situation, the only thing hotter than Jeff Gordon has been the where's-Junior-going speculation. If you're late to the party, Lars Anderson has a pretty good Q&A with himself on the whys and wherefores from last week.
He and everyone else keeps repeating the Junior party line: He's leaving DEI so he can win races and championships.
The question someone needs to ask is this: Can Junior even win a race? More after the jump. ...
Here's something to distract us from the Jeff Gordon's winning everything/Dale Jr. is leaving DEI stories that have dominated the first third of the season. (And don't forget the Waltrip-is-1,908 points-out-of-first saga - that's the third big story of the year.)
That something: Awesome Bill and his six past champions provisionals are coming out of retirement to drive the No. 21 for a few races. (Here's the official spin.)
You can get all weepy about the history if you want to, but let's face it: The Wood Brothers haven't been competitive for years, and this latest driver hire really make any difference. The last time the No. 21 found its way to victory lane was in 1993 with Morgan Shepherd 2001 with Elliott Sadler behind the wheel. A 51-year-old Ken Schrader (he turns 52 in two weeks), wasn't getting the job done, Jon Wood is still too green, and Elliott has nothing but his 51-year-old reflexes and those magic six provisionals.
At this rate, don't be surprised if some desperate team (MWR? Red Bull? Morgan-McClure) makes a run at Terry Labonte or Rusty Wallace or even Darrell Waltrip. You think maybe Bobby Allison can turn a few laps? Cale Yarborough?
Don't think someone in some race shop somewhere hasn't seriously suggested this.
Update: Matt can read racing-reference.info better than I can. Thanks.
A couple of years back, right before the 600, I asked folks if they had heard of a song called "The Ballad of Darrell and Rusty." Ed Hardin had mentioned it to me, and I threw it out there online.
Fast forward to today, when Stotter reader Phil Homan dug up the lyrics from the May 28, 1989 Charlotte Observer. They're after the jump, and you sing them to the tune of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band.
There have been three main story lines this season:
1. Jeff Gordon is driving his guts out this season (which leads the Big Dog this week to ask the question, who's better: Gordon or Earnhardt Sr.? His answer, 8,000 words later: They were both winners! Oy.)
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leaving DEI and the No. 8 behind.
3. Michael Waltrip has driven in only one more Cup race than I have this season.
What's below the fold doesn't fall into any of the above categories. Rather, it's in a broad arena I call simply Weird Stuff.
Now that we're done with the Under-the-Lights segment of the 2007 Cup schedule, we now move on to the blegh: Dover, Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma, New Hampshire, Daytona, Chicago, off week, Indy, Pocono again, Watkins Glen, Michigan again and the night race at Bristol. That's 11 races between now and the most (over)hyped race of the year.
Out of those 11 races, I count one, two, maybe three that are usually interesting and another couple that rank as OK. (Neither Pocono race fits in either category.)
So what's the best (and worst) part of the upcoming schedule? Anything worth staying up late for? Or is this the time everyone needs to cuddle up with some back-to-school reading?
In case you don't take the Sunday paper, I wanted to plug Dustin Long's story that ran a few days ago. He spent a lot of time with the 01 team that lost the Daytona 500 by not even thismuch, and he produced a good read on how the team got Martin's car ready for the 600.
Martin started 11th (thanks to a bad bounce of a ping pong ball) and finished 11th (because the 01 team should have been looking for better gas mileage, not speed). Check it out if you missed it.