Welcome to NASCAR's wild-card weekend.
It's Talladega, baby, where wreckin' and racin' are part of the fable and lore of one of NASCAR's famed super-speedway.
For the handful of guys still in the hunt for a Cup title, it means a conservative approach for much of the race, with the hopes of crawling up to the front to make a charge at the end. The key is to avoid traffic jams and the potential for the "big one."
But another element now comes into play: NASCAR has made some rule changes since the last go-round, changing the restrictor plate in the hopes of discouraging tandem — or "love bug" — racing. Cars won't be able to stay clustered together in pairs of two very long because the second car will overheat in a hurry.
No one truly knows how this will play out, but without question, for guys like Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and other chasing a title, the key is keeping your car in one piece at the finish line.
"It's going to be three- four-wide crazy, intense finish," said Jeff Gordon, who has drifted out of contention with poor finishes in the last two races.
"I think you are still going to see two-by-two, I think you might just see cars swap a little bit more, but we are going to try to do everything we can to not have to swap," Gordon said. "I think the racing is better without the swapping, I think it is safer without the swapping, not exactly sure where we are headed but sometimes they will make changes for this race to evaluate what we need for Daytona in February, which I think is a little bit of what is going on but I think we are still going to see a lot of the same of what we have seen the last couple of restrictor-plate races."
The race will have an odd feel, regardless. The tandem racing concept is all about the friends and family program. You need to hook up with somebody to go faster. Some guys will pit concurrently to make sure they stay together.
But at the end, it's a competitive scrum for first place, and the second guy is always going to be the first loser. That's what happened last April, when the Hendrick Motorsports tag-team of Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 1-2. Johnson rewarded Junior's sacrifice with a pallet of Schlitz beer, per Junior's request.
"It's something that we have to do," Kenseth said. "I guess you could argue that all restrictor-plate racing isn't the same as what we do all the time, so you always have less control over your own destiny and you can't really do anything by yourself.
"It's different. I wish there was a way to do it different, and I'm sure they're probably gonna figure that out eventually with the rules, but it's just the way you have to do it right now. It's kind of weird doing a team race because you can't do it by yourself. If you win or finish second, you know the other guy was just as responsible for your finish as you were in a way, so it's definitely different."
Drive for Diversity
NASCAR has been trying for a long time to change the complexion in the garage. For all those efforts, you don't see a lot of black or brown faces in the pits or behind the wheel.
But you have to credit the organization for its continued push to change those dynamics: Witness NASCAR's Drive for Diversity combine at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va., on Wednesday and Thursday.
The combine will include 24 drivers from ages 16 to 24, vying for a spot with Revolution Racing in 2012. That will be the third season that Revolution Racing has participated in the program, with strong results.
Darrell Wallace Jr. became the first black winner in K&N Pro Series East history and its rookie of the year in 2010. Wallace and fellow Drive for Diversity competitor Sergio Pena each won three races last season.
Wallace Jr. will make his debut in NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2012 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The current group of drivers, both male and female, represents 10 U.S. states, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Sponsorship struggles: A number of teams and drivers are struggling with sponsorship issues for next season. First and foremost on the list is Matt Kenseth, who could win the Sprint Cup title this year without a sponsor going into next season. Crown Royal announced earlier this year that it was dropping its affiliation with Kenseth and his Roush Fenway Racing team.
"I'm not gonna get stressed out about it, especially right now in the Chase and with all the things we've got going on," Kenseth said after winning the Bank of America 500 Saturday night. "I don't know really what else we can be doing, except for trying to be competitive and run good.
"Those guys in the marketing and sales department need to figure that out and need to figure out how to get that done. [Crew chief] Jimmy [Fennig] and I will keep working on the jobs that we were hired for and I'm sure it's all gonna work out. "
No more oval for Indy Cars: There will be many conversations about what can be done moving forward to prevent tragedies like the one we saw last Sunday, when IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was killed after a massive pileup in Last Vegas. Here is one man's take: NASCAR Cup champion Jimmy Johnson said that IndyCar cars should race on street circuits and road courses, but not on ovals because the cars are not built to withstand the constant bumping.
"I wouldn't run them on ovals. There's just no need to," Johnson said Monday during a test session at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Those cars are fantastic for street circuits, for road courses. I hate, hate, hate that this tragedy took place. But hopefully they can learn from it and make those cars safer on ovals somehow. I don't know how they can really do it. Myself, I have a lot of friends that race in that series, and I'd just rather see them on street circuits and road courses. No more ovals."
gdiaz@tribune.com Read George Diaz's blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/enfuego
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