NASCAR Capsules: Junior on the pole for Atlanta race
HAMPTON, Ga. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on the pole for the first time in nearly two years. He's hoping it will lead to Victory Lane.
Earnhardt claimed the pole Friday night for the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a blistering speed of 192.761 mph. It will be the first time Junior has taken green at the head of a Sprint Cup field since the April 2008 race at Texas.
"It's good to be on the pole and I'm real proud of it," Earnhardt said. "Getting a pole anywhere is good for our team. We're so hungry to do well on Sunday."
He's coming off a miserable season in which he failed to win a race, cracked the top 10 only five times, led a mere 146 laps in 36 races and finished 25th in the overall standings — despite racing for Hendrick Motorsports, the best team in the business.
After a major shake-up within his group, Earnhardt is hoping to be a Chase contender in 2010. He hasn't won a race since June 15, 2008, at Michigan.
"You've just got to try to be confident," he said. "We got beat down last year. We figured we'd have a chance to start new this year. It's a better race team. We're working well together. It's a really, really good group of guys and I just hope we have success. They deserve it."
Taking advantage of a chilly 50-degree night that boosted speeds on the high-banked oval, Earnhardt put up a lap that was faster than any pole-winning speed since Martin Truex Jr. won the Texas pole on Nov. 4, 2007, at 193.105, before the full-time introduction of the Car of Tomorrow.
Mark Martin was the pole-sitter last year in the spring event at Atlanta with a speed of 187.045. He went much faster this time (191.814) but it was only good enough for fourth.
Kyle Busch (192.280) will start from the outside of the front row, beating out Juan Pablo Montoya (192.106). Jeff Gordon (191.774) was fifth, giving Hendrick Motorsports three of the top five spots.
The fourth Hendrick driver, Jimmie Johnson, managed only the 16th-best speed (190.640) on the 1.54-mile trioval.
Former Cup regular Casey Mears again failed to qualify for his first race of the season. Also failing to crack the 43-car field were Aric Almirola and Terry Cook.
Gordon: NASCAR needs rivalries to stir things up
HAMPTON, Ga. — Jeff Gordon says NASCAR needs some rivalries. It might help if someone could beat Jimmie Johnson.
Already the winner of an unprecedented four straight Sprint Cup championships, Johnson is off to another fast start with two wins in the first three races heading into Sunday's 500-miler at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
A struggling economy and Johnson's dominance has dampened enthusiasm for a sport that once appeared on the verge of carving out its place among the Big Three of American sports: NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.
"Yeah, you recognize it," Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion himself and teammate of Johnson's, said Friday before qualifying for the Kobalt Tools 500. "When you go through driver introductions and wave to all those people, it's hard not to recognize where we're at."
Empty seats at the track. Fewer television viewers at home. Not to mention potholes and errant caution lights.
Gordon said the sport would certainly get a boost from a riveting rivalry or two, but it's hard for anyone to get too mad at Johnson. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy who goes about his business in a workmanlike fashion, failing to stir either over-the-top support or raging animosity.
"I just think it depends on the rivalries and the stories," Gordon said. "If you're dominating, but you're battling a Dale Earnhardt Jr. or a Tony Stewart, maybe a Kevin Harvick, then you can build that rivalry. The good guy-bad guy kind of thing, the Ford-Chevy thing, all that stuff.
"I think the stories are still there, the interest is still there," he added. "But when you're out there dominating and no one is really you're enemy, then it pulls away from it a little bit. What we need is Kyle Busch and Stewart to be butting heads, banging one another and talking trash. That would be good television."
With eight Cup championships between them, a Johnson-Gordon rivalry would appear to have some potential. After all, shouldn't Gordon be jealous about bringing Johnson into the sport as a teammate, then watching him race right on by to become NASCAR's most dominant driver?
Apparently not.
"The problem with me and Jimmie is that, yes, we are rivals, but we are friends as well," Gordon said. "We never cross that line. That's good — and bad."
While the struggling economy had certainly affected all sports at the ticket office, NASCAR's once-booming TV ratings might be the most troubling trend.
The rating for the season-opening Daytona 500, the sport's biggest event, dipped more than 16 percent from 2009, hurt by two hours of delays caused by a pothole problem. California's numbers were similarly off (and the actual attendance was even worse). Last week's race at Las Vegas, where the caution lights came on twice for no reason, suffered a 37 percent plunge.
Of course, it must be recognized that all three races went up against the Winter Olympics, with Las Vegas facing the stiffest competition from a stirring U.S-Canada gold medal hockey game on the final day of the Vancouver Games. But some major sports have actually seen an increase in television ratings, including a record audience for this year's Super Bowl.
"There's a lot more to watch on television," Gordon said. "But then you look at the NFL, they have the best ratings they've ever had. Obviously, there's something we can do. We've got to try to tap into that."
Johnson just keeps rolling right along. He's won the last two races, leaving him one away from a 50th career win, and is doing his best to snuff out any hope for the rest of the garage before the weather heats up.
"We got into this position by not letting up," said Johnson, who's poised to reach the landmark win faster than all but three others drivers — Gordon, David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip. "We're keeping our heads down. We don't pay attention to the outside stuff."
But his rivals are sure taking note, and they're not happy that one driver seems to have such an edge on everyone else.
"When someone wins that much, it (ticks) everybody else off," Gordon said. "We all have to work harder. We all have to get fired up to go out there and try to knock that guy off. You can't blame those guys (on Johnson's team) for wanting to dominate and keep doing the things they're doing."
Over the years, NASCAR attempted to spruce up its image by cracking down on salty language, nasty behavior and rough racing, but it may have turned off its traditional fan base in the process. The governing body seemed to signal that it went too far by encouraging its drivers to go back to bumping and banging — "Boys, have at it," vice president Robin Pemberton famously commanded at the start of the season — and hopes for even closer racing by going back to spoilers in place of wings within the next couple of weeks.
Those steps are helping, by all accounts.
"The quality of racing has been really good," Jeff Burton said. "No one is complaining about that."
