NASCAR Cup - Round 4, Atlanta...

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by john ruston

It will not be Bristol.Half Mile Track.

As far as Montoya.In my humble opinion will not qualify for Chase and finish between 15/25 in points.Another open wheeler failure.Hope I am wrong as he was the only F1 driver to show any interest in Monaco Historics in 06 when I assume he had other things on his mind.

I think Montoya can qualify for the chase, but the problem is he is in such a team that struggles to make top 10 at the best of times so he really needs every weekend to go flawlessly well and achieve the maximum result. Well, thanks to Clint Bowyer and a tyre issue that's two bad races already.

Earnhardt Ganassi are not good enough, both in speed and their willingness to take gambles. They are so conservative strategy-wise it is painful, this is where the likes of Knaus/Zipadelli/Letarte are brilliant.

I'm not saying Montoya can emulate Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon, no chance frankly, but he can be up front.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Re the CoT I think Nascar has shot itself in the foot. Atlanta had very little 20 car drafts except for the first lap or two after a restart. I think back to the days before CoT and the racing was much closer and the spectacle far better. If Nascar is worried about attendances the answer is obvious - the CoT stinks.

agreed...
i said it here before, the COT has made tracks that were boring mediocre and the ones that were great are now mediocre to make a mediocre series. yippie

tracks that consistantly had close finishes like ATL, are now like the others, resulting in NASCAR throwing a "debirs" caution towards the end to make it SEEM interesting.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

I'm not saying Montoya can emulate Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon, no chance frankly, but he can be up front.

no doubt he has the talent and the capabilities to be a front runner, but needs to "gel" with a (different) team.

[J-C]

I think you're right Knowlesy, the problem for JPM is his strategies are always terrible. Twice now in two weekends Juan has ended up a couple of laps down with 2/3 of the race still to run, and never been able to get any of them back, despite having better car speed than at least 5-10 cars ahead of him. When they did try leaving him out during a caution he got absolutely mugged on a restart as everyone else was on fresh tyres and his had 4-5 laps on, which with the degradation at Atlanta meant he was probably 1s/lap off the pace.

The car was pretty bad yesterday but it should have been way better than 27th. Top-20 was definitely possible but it seemed Brian Pattie decided to give up and turn the race into an extended test session far too early. Two bad races in a row has already put him a fair way outside the Chase places and means he needs to perform to his absolute maximum at the short tracks and Talladega (3 of the next 6 races) to have any hope.

[the.cosmic.pope]

To be fair, you can't blame this week on strategy. Ambrose crew member screwed up everybody, and a tyre went down. Everything was out of his control.

[muggle not]

My 2 cents:

1. The COT stinks and makes for mediocre racing.

2. Jr is a pretty good driver and has quite a few wins. I am not saying that he is one of the top 5, but then, neither is Kenseth, and he won a Championship.

3. JPM is a very good driver and maybe if everything went right with him and a team he would be a chase driver. As things are now though, I don't see him making the Chase.

4. As for moonshine, good to see one of the old geezers making shine for himself and his friends.