Fizzle, Sizzle & Shine, ‘07 had its Moments

ITJ

1/31/2008

A lot happened in 2007. We had some major changes to the rules for the Chase to the Championship that among other things increased the number of Chase competitors from 10 to 12. There was the limited rollout of the Car of Tomorrow, that many said acted more like the “Car of Yesterday.” And there were defections, divorces, buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, trades and a general shaking up of the drivers, teams, cars, crew chiefs, numbers, etc.

So, it is hard to determine if the 2007 Nextel Cup season had a lot of drama, or very little drama. There is no argument that the Chase fizzled this season, just do the math. Despite the best intentions of the decision-makers, even this "playoff" system failed to deliver the excitement of a late-September pennant race or the frantic scramble for a postseason berth on the final weekend of the NFL season.

Of course, racing is not designed to do that. Racing is designed to thrill its fans for a few hours on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon then leave them talking about it all week, until qualifying rolls around at the next stop. All the stars are in the same race at the same place. There is no need to get updates from Green Bay or Buffalo, San Francisco or Seattle. We can see how the competition is doing by simply looking, searching the track or glancing at the super-sized monitors around the infield.

The ever controversial Chase. It is a good plan, albeit, not a perfect plan. But what sport is? The NFL certainly is far from perfect. Just ask the Denver Broncos. Rules in every sport should be massaged so the product on the track, or the playing field, is the best entertainment a fan can hope to see. Like, say, the overtime procedure in pro football. Man, does that stink.

How the season played out depends on your measuring stick. By most fans’ accounts, 2007 probably did not live up to the standard they have come to expect, and that in itself is not unexpected. But the sport has a lot to live up to.

NASCAR fans are no doubt the best. They have an unsurpassed passion for performance plus an above-average appetite for adventure, even if they are just watching it from the stands or their living rooms. There were many moments this year where the excitement boiled over and will be remembered for years to come. You can start with the finish to the Daytona 500, add your own memories from there, and wrap it up with a storybook finish. That’s probably enough for any die-hard fan to cherish.

However, last-lap passes for the win are becoming an endangered species, and those close win-by-a-bumper endings are on the protected list. The competition on the track is not what it used to be. It doesn't take a genius to see that, or any guts to write it. It’s just going to take some cooperation to fix it. Maybe the Car of Tomorrow is the answer, maybe not. But tomorrow will be here pretty darn fast. This year, in fact, the COT is slated to run exclusively, so we’ll see.

NASCAR built its reputation on hard-fought races with win-by-a-hair finishes. Today the races are still hard-fought, in a somewhat different fashion, but the gap between the guys with a shot at making the Chase (or even winning the race) compaired to those that haven't got a chance at either, is Talladega-wide. The best are always getting better while the rest are working hard just to try and hold their own. Team ownership is transforming itself, race shops are becoming an annex for corporate America, and team names are starting to sound like something from the Money section of USA Today instead of the Sports section.

NASCAR has enjoyed nearly two decades of growth in the number and types of fans drawn to its events. It’s growth has been unparalleled by any other sport. In fact, what other sporting events offer seating for nearly 200,000. So, to some degree, the excitement factor can be impacted by fan fatigue and disillusionment.

The sport is in a stage of transition, and if it moves, it’s going to have a logo on it. But fans, while somewhat willing to accept the logo placements and sponsor injections, don't like transition. Fans like hard-fought races with win-by-a-hair-finishes. That is happening, but on another track with a different series. NASCAR fans know that.

They want that part of racing back. They thought NASCAR eternally owned the patent on it, but that’s turning out to be not so. And that is the biggest challenge for those who run the series and those who race in it.

It’s almost like the “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke,” just doesn’t quite communicate enough in this instance, because most can argue that it was/is broke no matter what period you are talking about. So, we should say, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke that bad.”

With that being said, however, there is no taking away from the excitement that Hendrick Motorsports produced in 2007. So maybe it was like watching the Boston Red Sox have a 15-game lead most of the season. That only means the Red Sox really were that good (man, that hurts). But if you took time to watch the Sox on any given day during the baseball season, more than likely you were treated to superior pitching, power hitting, defensive gems, a slam-the-door-in-your-face bullpen performance, or all of the above.

Hendrick Motorsports gave you all of the above, and more. Nextel Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and his teammate Jeff Gordon, a four-time series champion, did everything a fan could ask for during a season. They won races, they raced well with an absentee crew chief (sadly a growing trend), they posted top-five finishes, they raced hard on different types of tracks competing in two different types of cars, driving for the same owner while clinging to the wheel and charging for the checkers with one eye closed hoping they did not take each other out in the last turn of the final lap while dusting the other 41 guys.

Like it? You have to love it. You don't have to love them, but you have to love it. Johnson and Gordon are superstars. If they played a stick-and-ball sport they would be Jeter and A-Rod. Montana and Rice. Gretsky and Messier. Bird and anybody. Fans that didn't like their own team would come just to watch the Great Ones play, or in this case, race. There are other stars in the Nextel Cup Series, but right now Johnson and Gordon, or Gordon and Johnson, combine to act as the sun that allows all the other stars to shine. Of course, this is a team sport and all the people at Hendrick Motorsports should be proud of what they have accomplished, and extremely motivated by where they have put the bar for 2008.

Now the sun has set on the 2007 season, but it will rise again over Daytona Beach soon enough. In the quiet between dusk and dawn there are plenty of memories, as well as rumors, to keep us talking and thinking. Harvick at Daytona. Mears at Charlotte. Truex at Dover. Edwards on the USS Enterprise. Gordon in the rain at Pocono. Montoya in the vineyard. Tony at the Brickyard. Biffle by a bumper. Johnson down the stretch. Kenseth and Reiser with a fantastic finish. And there were many more.

What about next year? Thats the most common question from fans and friends. I love looking ahead, wondering what the future may hold, even when the light is still bright behind us. Why?

Here's why. Did you really think Brett Farve would be this good in 2007? Did you really think the Cowboys could be close to being this good this season? Can the Patriots really do it? See? Anything can happen. Can anybody start 2008 like the Hendrick boys started 2007? Can the COT truly give the sport what it needs to carry it and its fans into the next generation of Cup racing, Sprint Cup racing that is? Who knows. I guess anything really can happen.