my Johnson and the 48 did it again. Running mid-pack all afternoon the 48, as usual made their hunt for the front with about 100 laps to go in the bull ring known as Bristol motor speedway.What is so amazing about watching a team like this is the pressure they put on other teams with their mere presence. Kurt Busch and the blue deuce were far and away the team to beat on Sunday, but eventually found themselves in a familiar position, the rear-view mirror of the 48. This is beginning to get old for every driver on the circuit. Kurt Busch stated in a post race interview that he would have rather lost to any of the other 41 cars out there, but to watch the 48 doing doughnuts for the third time in five races was a bitter pill to swallow.
Not to worry myrmidons of Busch, there is one thing that is different about the #2 this year. A name that is synonymous with the surname Busch and winning, Steve Addington.
Addington took the helm of the Miller lite team this season after being unceremoniously told to pack his wrenches at seasons end last year by Joe Gibbs Racing. Addington and Kurt's younger brother Kyle were a tandem to be reckoned with the last 2 seasons in the #18 car, racking up 12 wins, and considered the team to beat week in and week out.
Kurt Busch looks poised to be one of the only drivers ready to dethrone the regal 48. Busch, a former Sprint Cup Champion knows what it takes to win a title, but what he possesses now that he did not as a champion is maturity. Kurt was known as rubber head, a colloquialism developed around his team 97's sponsor "Rubbermaid". Busch was an abrasive young talent known for his arrogance and intransigence. This attitude often left him with a target on the back of his fire suit.
Busch now knows the importance of earning the respect of his fellow drivers. Like the 48, Busch has cleaned up his on track conduct and tries hard not to rub anyone the wrong way. There is a reason that Jimmy Johnson does not get dumped into the wall every week, that reason, he races clean and hard. Nobody wants to lose to the 48 but everyone respects the hell out of him.
Johnson is a class act, unlike most sporting superstars of his magnitude (think Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, A-Rod, Kobe Bryant). In an interview on Showtime's Inside NASCAR, Johnson was asked by Michael Waltrip about how it feels to be the one guy no one wants to see with the checkered flag. Johnson stated how it's an honor to be "that guy", how he grew up watching the drivers hate loosing to guys like Earnhardt Sr., Richard Petty, and of course Jeff Gordon. Now he is that guy, and he loves the honor, but heavy is the head that wears the crown. It is now JJ that finds himself in the cross-hairs of the pack.
NASCAR is ditching the wing and reinstating the spoiler this week at Martinsville. A move long anticipated by the die hards out there. Before you go thinking that this will even the playing field, and bring the rest of the pack closer to the bumper of the 48, consider this, Johnson and the 48 team won a title in a full season with the spoiler, in a season where half the races were the car of tomorrow and half were the car of yesterday (COT with the wing, COY with the spoiler), and in a full season with the wing. Whatever you throw at them the wizardry of Knaus and Co. will figure it out with about 100 miles to go, and charge to the front. In 92 races with the winged car the 48 team won 23 of them! Time will tell how the 48 team will react to the new spoiler, but if history has taught us anything, this change will not slow them down.
Michael Clark (emsea)
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