Stewart knows how to respond
The recent bickering between teammates
Tony Stewart and
Denny Hamlin shows just how far Joe Gibbs Racing has come since the youngster
Denny Hamlin moved up to the Nextel Cup Series.
The pair got into an accident two weeks ago at Daytona, with Tony Stewart nudging the back of Denny Hamlin’s car while they ran 1-2. Tony Stewart finished 38th and Denny Hamlin dead last.
After the race, Denny Hamlin questioned Tony Stewart, saying that while he clearly is the team leader, his actions aren’t always perfect. Tony Stewart fired back later, and the folks who sometimes look to Tony Stewart as a loose cannon were off and running.
Remember, this is a team that just two seasons ago struggled to even get its third car into the field to join Tony Stewart and then-team member Bobby Labonte.
Denny Hamlin took over that car before last season and had a breakthrough rookie year, providing the team with two big stars competing for a championship.
A little dissension on a team is commonplace, sometimes even on the best of teams. And as he probably has done a few times while coaching football’s Washington Redskins, Gibbs made sure it didn’t get out of hand, reportedly returning early from a vacation to sit the pair down before last week’s race.
Tony Stewart responded with his first victory of the season and Denny Hamlin moved up to the No. 2 spot in the points standings, trailing only Jeff Gordon.
It’s not the first time Tony Stewart has come up with a big performance when there’s been some controversy in the team’s camp. And his sixth-place standing in the points still has him as a major player in the race for the 2007 title.
Vacation?
This week is a rare midseason off week for the Nextel Cup Series. It begs the question, what do drivers do when they get a little free time?
“You know everybody has these trips planned to go this place and that place,” said Daytona 500 champ Kevin Harvick,. “Man, we go every week. I don’t know why you would want to leave home if you had a week off.”
Some will be home but not necessarily twiddling their thumbs.
“I’m going to be changing diapers and just hanging out as dad,” said Jeff Gordon, whose wife gave birth to the couple’s first child last month. “I’m excited and looking forward to it.”
Several Cup regulars will still be driving anyway, making the trip to the St. Louis area for the Busch Series’ Gateway 250. (Saturday, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2-Cox channel 28)
Valid complaint
Danica Patrick equaled her career best with a third-place finish last weekend in Nashville.
But she spent the first moments after the race complaining about being held up by lapped traffic during the latter part of the race.
And she has a point. Unlike NASCAR, where in the closing laps all the lapped cars are shuffled back in the pack on restarts, IndyCar keeps the field in the order they were running, regardless of which lap each car was on.
So instead of a great three-driver battle at the end involving eventual winner Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Patrick, we got several lapped cars between each of the drivers and a finish about as exciting as a run-rule baseball game.
Notes of note
With Tony Stewart winning at Chicago last weekend, the Nextel Cup Series has had 13 different winners in 19 races … Barring something unforeseen in the coming weeks, the top 35 cars in the Nextel Cup standings are pretty much set, with Johnny Sauter in 35th, 225 points ahead of the next driver, Bill Elliott … Since Hendrick drivers won 10 of the first 14 races, the last five all have been won by drivers from other teams.
Christian Potts
