Semi-useful opinions
Because I was covering one of the Super 8 hockey games last Sunday in Lowell, I was only able to hear about that day's Nextel Cup event on SportsCenter the next morning. I really wasn't surprised at what transpired at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A totally new track created a ton of wrecks. Some of the drivers lashed out at Goodyear and track GM Chris Powell some more. Jimmie Johnson won again, his third straight victory in Sin City. Nothing earth-shaking at all.
I couldn't help but notice, also, that one of the feel-good stories of the season was still alive. Mark Martin slipped through the mayhem and grabbed his second consecutive fifth-place finish at Vegas, and he's grabbed top-five finishes in the first three races of the season. It's made everyone in the paddock and in the media wonder if the Batesville, Ark. native will trade in his “part-time” deal with Ginn Racing for a full-season shot at his first Nextel Cup in 24 years of competition.
Martin has stated time and again that he is happy with his part-time 23-race schedule in the No. 01 Army Chevy. Last week, he told NASCAR.com's Joe Menzer: "I've said it before and I'll say it again -- at this point in my life, [the points race] just doesn't mean that much to me. But driving a great racecar does. And I want to tell you, that was a great racecar I drove [last Sunday]."
Something tells me though that he's thinking it about it more than he's letting on. Going back to the Menzer piece, he also says: "Here's the thing: I thought I was getting too old to do this stuff. And now I have found out that my car wasn't as sharp as it needed to be. It wasn't me. There's still some racing left in me. I really thought my ability was diminishing."
He can easily go back to the less hectic schedule of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and be an instant contender for wins like he was in 2006 (six victories in 14 CTS starts). However, I think that even though he's universally respected as one of the best drivers in NASCAR's modern era, that missing space in his mantle for the Nextel Cup will be too much for him to resist. He was already kept from being immortalized as a Daytona 500 champion by two one-hundredths of a second this year. Combine that with the stoutness of his team and his cars so far and it's a no-brainer. This may very well be his last shot at the Cup and I think he'll take it.
---
While that matter is settled, motorsport's biggest soap opera begins anew in Australia this weekend as Formula One starts the 2007 season at Albert Park in Melbourne. With no Michael Schumacher around for the first time in many a moon, you would think that would set the stage for a massive title run by Spain's Fernando Alonso, the current two-time defending World Champion. He's jumped over to a McLaren squad revitalized by his presence, new sponsor Vodafone, and another potential superstar in rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton.
But Schumacher's former team in Ferrari is not ready to give up just yet. Finland's Kimi Raikkonen has jumped from McLaren himself to the red rockets alongside Felipe Massa of Brazil, who's actually been tipped by F1 kingpin Bernie Ecclestone as the man to beat (it's a bit of an honor in the series). Massa, Raikkonen, and the Scuderia were the fastest team throughout the winter testing sessions and they seem bent on showing that Herr Schumacher's domination was just as much Ferrari as it was him.
But what of defending World Champion constructor Renault? With Alonso defecting to the “Silver Arrows,” the team is now contesting the championship with new No. 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella and longtime Renault prospect Heikki Kovalainen jumping into the second seat. Now awash in the orange and white of banking giant and new sponsor ING, the Renault gang looked like a solid No. 3 in testing. However, Kovalainen has said that a solid final winter test in Bahrain has his squad equal to McLaren and closer to Ferrari.
He also mentions the BMW team (formerly Sauber) as a team to watch out for. While that may be true as the season wears on, we're currently watching the Beamer bunch for other reasons. Their 2007 challenger has been plagued by technical problems this winter, the biggest being with their new seamless shift gearbox (for his part, team boss Mario Thiessen isn't worried about it). Also, look for some growing pains as the team switches from Michelin to Bridgestone tires. Still, teammates Robert Kubica, of Poland, and Germany's Nick Heidfeld have had impressive testing this winter and some are calling BMW as this year's breakthrough team.
As for the rest, Honda's in big trouble as its new '07 car is off the pace, making for a very unhappy driver in 2006 Hungarian GP winner Jenson Button. Williams, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, and Scuderia Toro Rosso (RBR's junior squad that employs American driver Scott Speed) will look for week-to-week progress and the lower reaches of the points. Rounding out the grid will be the backmarker Spyker and Super Aguri teams.
