Well, folks, we're only seven races into this 2006 season, but already there have been some trends that are very obvious to me.
The good
First let's look at the good: Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin. They're basically in a league of their own right now as far as performance on the track. They've set the stage for the season in these first seven races.
Probably the thing that I talk about the most, week in and week out, is the rookies. I've been impressed with how Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Reed Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr. and J.J. Yeley have performed. As I said at the start of the year, one of the rookies is going to win a race, and one or maybe even two will be in the Chase for the Nextel Cup at the end of the year. They're in good cars that are all running well, and they're very competitive.
The bad
Well, I could build a whole big long list of bad ...
Jeremy Mayfield just hasn't been able to get going this year.
Jamie McMurray: I am shocked that McMurray has had so much trouble in a Roush car with crew chief Jimmy Fennig. After working with Donnie Wingo at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, I figured McMurray would have found Fennig to be very similar to Wingo's personality. I thought that those crew chiefs would set up cars similarly.
Carl Edwards has had rotten luck, but rotten luck still gets bad results. He just hasn't been able to find the charm that he had last year. He's got his work cut out for him. Obviously Jack Roush thinks so too, making crew chief changes, which don't come as a big surprise. Something needed to happen there. An off-weekend gives owners, drivers and everybody a chance to review what's happened. If you're going to make changes, now is the time to make them as teams get ready for a 14-week stretch. If things haven't been going well in the first seven races, it's a pretty good indication that it's not going to get any better. We'll see if making a change has a positive effect on Edwards and McMurray.
Greg Biffle: Poor, old Biffle has been snake-bitten, and he's getting bad results. You can't ignore the facts.
Kurt Busch: Although he got a win at Bristol, Busch has had a lot of problems.
Ryan Newman: Who would have thought that Newman would be where he is? Over the last couple of years, he's won a pole just about every other race in the last couple of years. This year, he only has one front-row start at Atlanta, and that's surprising to me. Plus, he's had bad results with five finishes of 18th or worse.
David Stremme: In an impressive class of rookies, Stremme has struggled the most.
Michael Waltrip: Certainly my brother knew that he was going to be in for some struggles and he was right, so he rounds out my list of bad.
The mad
If you look at Daytona, Matt Kenseth was mad at Tony Stewart. Of course, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart have had their moments on the racetrack. Come to think of it, Kyle Busch has had a few moments on and off the racetrack.
At Bristol, Jeff Gordon was mad at Matt Kenseth. Martin Truex Jr. was mad at Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. I'm sure Greg Biffle was mad at Kurt Busch at Texas. Apparently Ryan Newman and Sterling Marlin had some sort of a disagreement at Texas, and Newman had some ugly things to say about Marlin. That was uncalled for. Sometimes you have to learn those lessons the hard way.
People used to ask me, "What size shoe do you have?"
"A size 12."
"Well, you've got every bit of it in your mouth."
More surprises
Many people in the sport were anticipating a resurgence for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. They're both doing well, and they're more consistent than they were last year. But I'm surprised that neither one of them has a win, especially after going to Daytona and Martinsville where both drivers are strong.
The resurgence of the Richard Childress Racing cars has been an incredible turnaround. Jeff Burton won the Daytona 500 pole, and both the Busch and Cup teams have been running well. Burton and Kevin Harvick have been strong, and Clint Bowyer is the leading rookie in the point standings. Childress is on the right track this year, and that's good to see.
That's the good, bad and mad. I'm sure there are people that you could add to any of those three categories. Those are just the ones that kind of stick out in my mind right now.
