Feud of the Week: Talkin' Martin, Junior and Mexico City
CBS.SportsLine.com's Brian De Los Santos and Charlie McCarthy provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
| 1. Should Mark Martin reconsider and run a full schedule? Do you think he will? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
 No, he shouldn't reconsider. He should stick to his guns. He wanted to take a step back for a reason. A couple of strong runs shouldn't change that fact. It's not as if it should come as a surprise to anyone that he's still performing at an optimal level -- that wasn't the problem. The problem was the long, grueling schedule, and that still hasn't changed. For that reason, I suspect he'll stay on his part-time schedule. Would it surprise me if he did an about-face? Absolutely not. What he says he's going to do and what he eventually does haven't exactly meshed over the past couple seasons. We'll know soon enough. The first race he is scheduled to miss is the debut of the COT at Bristol on March 25. |  First of all, who am I -- or you, Mr. De Los Santos -- to tell Mark Martin what to do with his life? He certainly has earned the right to call his own shots when it comes to racing. Having said that, Martin should play it by gear, so to speak, and stay in it to win it -- as long as he's in position to earn a spot in the Chase for the Championship. Heck, it's not like Martin had planned to retire and sit at home in Daytona Beach anyway. The 48-year-old veteran planned to race in the Truck series and Busch series this year. If remaining a Cup regular overloads his schedule, Martin should cut back his Truck and Busch responsibilities, assuming the sponsors will allow him. Martin knows as well as anyone how difficult it is to win a championship. He also knows this could be his last chance to capture that elusive crown. He should go for it. |
| 2. Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. be able to recover from his early season issues to make the Chase? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
| It's way, way, way too early to write him out of the Chase. He's been running well, just the victim of circumstance. That said, he has left himself with less room for error over the next 24 events. He had three DNFs (including two 43rd-place finishes), but was able to make the Chase last season. The thing that has to be a concern for Junior as well as his fans is that DEI knew it had a problem with its engine and unleaded fuel dating back to the Las Vegas tests in January. You would think they would have fixed the problem during the interim. I'm sure they didn't just sit around and figure the problem would go away, but whatever they came up with didn't work. Now it's back to the drawing board. Earnhardt Jr. might be able to get away with one more DNF, but two and, yeah, I'd say it's curtains for his Chase hopes. | While it's a little early to start panicking, a driver can't afford to struggle too long at the season's outset. Just ask Greg Biffle about 2006. Still, with Earnhardt and teammate Martin Truex Jr. experiencing engine problems at Fontana, Junior must be wondering if he'll have the equipment to qualify for this year's Chase. Nearly half of the Cup races are at speedways similar to California and Las Vegas where horsepower is critical. It also doesn't help that Junior's future at DEI remains uncertain. That story won't go away unless he gets ownership of his late dad's company or announces he's parting ways with his stepmom. |
| 3. No Cup race this weekend, so tell us who you like in Mexico City for the Busch race. | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
| It's a tough one. Denny Hamlin is back to defend his crown and the field is filled with road-course ringers like Ron Fellows, Scott Pruett, Brian Simo and P.J. Jones. The thing is though, ringers never win. But what about a former ringer? Boris Said has legitimized himself as more than a road-course racer over the past couple years. That should be good enough to lift "the curse of the ringer" off him. Besides, I think it's about time he gets it done for Said-head Nation. He finished top five in both previous trips to Mexico. | The two guys who immediately get my attention are Kevin Harvick (2.5 average finish at two Mexico races) and Boris Said (3.5), the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in both races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which is a 2 1/2-mile, eight-turn road course. But Harvick is not competing this weekend. So, call me a Saidhead -- I'm going with Boris. I'll also be curious to see how Juan Pablo Montoya performs. The former F1 driver and CART champ knows how to drive on road courses. |
