Homestead - 2012

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Becky on November 18, 2012 at 11:40pm

So Clint Bowyer ended up 2nd in the Chase standings so does he inherit the Chase hangover from Carl?  Or will the 48 end up with the hangover?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Williams on November 19, 2012 at 2:22am

I agree.  Frankly, I don't like Brad Keselowski at all.  He seems an obnoxious smart-ass to me.  But I'm glad he won.  Jimmie Johnson has had plenty of championships, and my focus was on Roger Penske getting the one championship in this country that he had never won (he may not have won a European Formula 1 championship, but as an owner he has won a F1 race).  For me, he's the most respected owner in racing, and he has been, as Keselowski says in the quotes below, the gold standard in virtually every form of racing he's been in.  As one of the announcers remarked in a recent race, Penske had even won there as a driver, in 1960.  I think of all the great champions he has supported in other series in the past (Mark Donohue, comes to mind, in what was then, I believe, USAC) and of a film clip I saw of him once trackside back in the very early 60s attentively watching one of his sports car drivers flash past in the long shadows of a late sun on what looked like a Southern California road course. 

But back to Mr. Keselowski.  Below are some sentences I gathered from his latest NASCAR column, "Behind the Wheel," which implies that the reason Penske had not yet won a Sprint Cup championship was because he did not yet have Brad Keselowski to learn from (note the suble way he uses the customary racing "we" to disguise the fact that he is claiming it was his vision that would win the championship):

“When I came to Penske Racing in 2009, I saw an organization that had a ton of potential.... It's just never been able to win a Cup championship and I want to change that.... In our first meeting I told Mr. Penske that I had a vision that I wanted to share with him. I wanted to help him build a championship-winning organization.... Telling a man like Roger Penske, with all of his success, that we needed to rethink the way Penske Racing was approaching NASCAR was one of the bravest moments of my 28 years on this planet.... He listened and agreed to take it slowly, first with the new Nationwide Series team we were starting in 2010.... We promptly won six races, scored a NASCAR-record 26 top-five finishes and won the 2010 Nationwide Series championship, the first NASCAR title for Penske Racing....He has given me everything I've asked for and, thankfully, we've been able to deliver on the vision we had.”

Becky said:

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski and Penske.  Brad's not one of my favorite drivers but his team executed and maybe Jimmie Johnson's horseshoe moved over to the 2 team.  I am glad that Roger Penske finally got his Nascar championship. I have always liked Mr. Penske a lot more than his drivers. :)

The 48 team basically gift wrapped the last two races to the 2 team but man Chad Knaus had his driver in a position with fuel strategy to steal the championship before the loose lugnut and driveline failure.  If they could have closed the deal the Chad Knaus mystique would have grown with those pit calls...  That being said that was really Paul Wolfe's first mistake in the Chase...there was no reason for them to go with a different strategy (staying out when the 48 pitted) than the 48 (they only had to finish within 15 places of the 48 to win). 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alfred Lucky7 on November 19, 2012 at 11:29am

Homestead 2012:The end of a hard year full of learning and very positive things for the Danica's future...Nationwide 2012 Season is history now and 2013 Nascar Sprint Cup Season will be a major challenge....So 2013 Here we Go go go ready for a hell a lot of Danica Fun!

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page