Feud of the Week: Junior dilemma; top 35 rule; Kyle-Kenseth feat
CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
If you have a question or hot racing topic you'd like to see discussed, post it here .
| Pete Pistone | Brian De Los Santos |
| DodgeRPM9Bud43 asks: With Dale Earnhardt Jr. 35th in points and struggling the first two races, do you think he could be in trouble of not being in the top 35 and actually having to fight for a starting position? Do you think it's time for him to put family aside and get a new crew chief? | |
 It's possible Junior could fall out of the top 35 by the time race number six rolls around at Martinsville and we revert to this year's point standings. He's off to a poor start after Daytona and his engine problems in Fontana last week, but I don't think it's time to panic -- yet. He finished second last year in Las Vegas, third in the March race at Atlanta and fifth last spring at Bristol. So the series is heading to tracks where Earnhardt traditionally has done well. But if there is a stumble and the team isn't up to snuff by midseason, I have no doubts Rick Hendrick would change crew chiefs if he thought that was the best thing for the 88 to improve. | As if the economy wasn't hurting NASCAR enough, can you imagine Earnhardt actually missing a race? I'm sure that if he's out of the top 35 after five races, NASCAR will come up with a rule stating that if you're the son of a former champion, you're locked into the race. However, I don't believe it will come to that. It's not as if the 88 car has been terrible; Earnhardt made some foolish mistakes at Daytona and a part failed at California. So it's not panic time just yet. That said, I was somewhat surprised Rick Hendrick didn't shake things up after Earnhardt went into a tailspin the second half of last season. I think Tony Eury Jr. is a fine crew chief. But he and Earnhardt haven't shown they can succeed with any type of consistency. I believe Earnhardt will have a new crew chief sooner rather than later. |
 COMMUNITY GUEST 'IHATELOUISVILLE': I'd have to say the answer is yes. He could be in trouble if his track struggles continue. It seems whenever Junior starts to struggle, it lasts a while before he can pull out of it. Now, for the sake of NASCAR possibly changing the rules again for its favorite son, let's hope he stays in the top 35 and doesn't fall out and somehow miss a race or two. Coming up, he has Las Vegas, where he ran second last year, and Bristol where he's usually top-five material. So hopefully, he'll snap out of the slump. As far as getting a new crew chief, I would have to say no on that. Look at what happened to him in '05 when Tony Eury Jr. went to Michael Waltrip's team. From what I hear, June Bug can be a son of a b**** on the radio if his car is not right and I think Tony Jr. is the only one who can take it from him. | |
| Plaid asks: Concerning NASCAR's top 35 rule, is five races too few, too many, or just the right amount to make the switch from last year's points to this year's points, or should they just go from the first race of the year? | |
| I think using the first five races is a good enough gauge for the top 35 rule and fair to the teams who ran the series a year ago, although the offseason wheeling and dealing selling numbers has tainted the goal of the policy to be sure. But in theory letting the first five races determine who's in based on the previous season works for me. By the time five races are in the book, what happened last year shouldn't matter and reverting to this year's standings makes sense. That is, if you agree with the rule, which I still think should completely go away. | Good question. I never really gave it much thought. It's definitely not too few. Six or more would be a bit much. Some might argue it's too many, but at worst I'd say the cutoff should be four races, which is really just a nominal change. You definitely can't go right from the first race of the year because Daytona is such a different monster and not a true indication of a team's potential to be competitive week in and week out. And I think that's why the switch extends to race five, to give major teams that may have succumbed to the "big one" a chance to work themselves back into the top 35. |
| COMMUNITY GUEST 'IHATELOUISVILLE': I think five is the correct amount to separate the top 35 teams from everybody else. Anything more I think would be unfair to the less financially stable teams and anything less would be too early to tell. | |
| More impressive: Kyle Busch winning two races on the same day or Matt Kenseth winning the first two races of the season? Do you think Kenseth can make it three in a row this weekend? | |
 Sweeping Saturday's Truck/Nationwide doubleheader in Fontana was certainly impressive and I would have liked to see Busch more in the mix on Sunday for the Cup win and a history-making weekend effort. But even by Busch's own admission, taking the checkered flag in a Sprint Cup Series race is much harder and for Kenseth to come out of the box as only the fifth guy in history to open the year with back-to-back wins is extraordinary. Kenseth can certainly make it three straight in Vegas, a track he's always run well at over the years, and become only the third driver to pull off the feat to open the season. | Though I'd rather have Kenseth's two wins, I think Busch's Saturday sweep was the more impressive feat. And I think impressive is the key word in this question. Busch didn't just win two races on Saturday, he trounced the competition, leading 95 of 100 laps in the Truck event and 143 of 150 laps in the Nationwide race (which had nine other Cup regulars in the field). It was simply unfair how much better he was than everybody else in those series on Saturday. And it was something never been done before. Kenseth's Daytona win was pure good fortune as much as anything. He led a total of one lap under green before the caution flag flew and the race was eventually called with only 152 of the 200 laps completed. So I'm not all that impressed by his Daytona win, which, although his California victory was strong, takes his accomplishment down a notch in my eyes. Now if he takes this weekend's race in Las Vegas, which I'd say he has a good shot because it's a track right in his wheelhouse, then you can color me impressed. |
| COMMUNITY GUEST 'IHATELOUISVILLE': Although Kyle was impressive, I have to give the nod to Matt Kenseth on bagging the first two cup races of the season. Now Roush has another good track in Las Vegas next week. He could make it 3 for 3. His win in Cali was awesome. Holding off Jeff Gordon -- who everybody knew was going to give it everything he had to get back in Victory Lane, and who I thought had the car to beat -- was really impressive. | |
| Previous Feud of the Weeks: Feb. 17 | Feb. 10 | Feb. 3 | |
