Simon Veness highlights how the NASCAR season is warming up nicely after a less than stellar start.
US-based British sportswriter Simon Veness highlights how the NASCAR season is warming up nicely after a less than stellar start
They call it the 'Go or Go Home' period. After the first five races, the pressure is on those cars (or, more properly, the men who make those cars go very, very fast) outside the top 35.
For, from Race 6 onwards (this Sunday's outing in Martinsville, Virginia, which is live on
SS3 at
7pm, those without the benefit of a classification inside the magic 35 must race off to qualify for the final eight places in each race.
Hence 'Go!' or 'Go home' if you don't make it.
It's a tough, pressure-cooker time for those on the outside looking in - as if they didn't already have enough to worry about with the battle just to get teams to the next track, because sponsorship (or the lack of it, in some cases) continues to be the spectre which has many looking over their shoulder.
It does add extra drama, though, to a fledgling season that has finally begun to show some serious signs of life after rather spluttering through the first few races thanks to a rain-shortened Daytona 500 and two rather sterile wins from Matt Kenseth which kind of left NASCAR fans saying plaintively: "Are we there yet?"
You can tell we now have lift-off as the first big 'rifts' of the season are being mooted in some quarters of the media and the old Kyle v Junior feud stories are being revved up again (as in Kyle Busch remains ticked off that he keeps winning yet Dale Earnhardt Jr remains the fans' favourite).
Junior seems to be in the thick of just about everything at the moment - except Victory Lane. And that is driving the speculation in both directions.
First of all, the motorsports commentators - never a shy, retiring bunch at the best of times, and now, with the hint of turbulence in the slipstreams, never ones to pour oil on troubled waters unless they can set it on fire first - are cranking up the rhetoric.
They deem that Busch the Younger is sniping in serious fashion at the sport's Golden Boy, who is off to a troubled start this year, languishing down in 19th spot in the Sprint Cup standings and still struggling to shake off a disastrous opening two races which saw him barely on the scoreboard in 35th.
In all honesty, Kyle would have good reason to fire a few shots across the bows of the man who took his seat in the Hendrick Motorsports team last year. He has been by far the more consistent performer since leaving NASCAR's most powerful team to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The stats say it all: Kyle Busch has a healthy 10 wins since February 2008; Junior has only a sickly one. The 23-year-old whizkid has an impressive 20 top five finishes in that time; Son of Dale has managed just 10. And the current track anti-hero has led 2,190 laps to Junior's 897. So it's not even close.
Pressure
Therefore, when Kyle concluded his second win of the season last Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway - along with the inevitable handful of boos - his playful comment that "There's probably too much pressure on one guy's shoulders who doesn't seem to win very often" was immediately seen as seriously dissing the Dale; a touch of braggadocio that helps to stoke the furnace of future confrontation.
It hasn't helped the Hendrick driver's cause that the last three races have been something of a Busch benefit business. While Kyle has led the pack home twice, older brother Kurt confirmed the competitive fires still burn brightly in him, too, with victory in Atlanta, leaving half of the current top four dominated by the surname they share with a top American beer brand (a curious fact made positively bizarre by the fact Kurt's main sponsor is actually the rival Miller Brewery - a real snub for Budweiser?).
Junior is certainly the odd man out in his own team, with Jeff Gordon currently topping the Cup points situation for Hendrick and team-mate and reigning champ Jimmie Johnson jumping back into the top 10 after a third-place finish last week.
This has all led to Big Speculation Story No 2, that boss Rick Hendrick is ready to break up Dale's crew team, which is led by Tony Eury Jnr, who just happens to be Dale Junior's cousin - a relationship that has drawn furtive whispers of 'nepotism' among several rival garages.
Hendrick himself has reacted swiftly to quash the first outbreak of rumours, insisting "I'm not even close to making that call. I am convinced they are better together." And Junior has been equally indignant: "Everybody knows how smart a guy Tony is. He's a good mechanic and a solid crew chief."
Yet Hendrick also dropped a few delicious hints that all may not be well with Junior's form - quite literally. Son of Dale has been quietly told he needs to pay attention to a more serious workout regime and a better diet, and the team boss insists he is seeing results: "These guys are working their butts off." Oh, if only dieting and a few laps in a high-speed stock car could produce such drastic results!
That leads me to conclude we should be seeing a more motivated - and slimline - Junior in action this week, with the bit firmly between his teeth in a bid to fire back at the snipers - especially those called Busch.
But, just in case there is no immediate payoff for the Hendrick 'new boy,' there ought to be some consolation in the sponsor for Sunday's sixth episode of the 2009 NASCAR campaign.
The full title is (and I'm not making this up), the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500. Yes, that's right - a sport guaranteed to induce headaches in anyone without earplugs or a stout pair of noise-reducing headphones, is headlined by a company famous for relieving the pain they cause.
So, if Junior can't quite find his way past Kyle, Kurt or anyone else named Busch, he can at least console himself with Goody's Extra Strength Tablets, "Excellent for sinus headaches and pressure!"
Not so much 'Plink, plink fizz' as 'Clunk, clunk, fume.' Oh dear. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it after all...
