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Mon, Sept. 22nd 2008
How the heck did J.R. do that???!!!!!
I’m absolutely speechless. OK, granted, you have to accept that the kid was going to win a race at some point and you might have expected him to do it long before this late in the season, but beating Tony Schumacher in the final??!!! The guy who hasn’t lost a single round of racing since Norwalk? The guy who had a seven-race win streak going??
J.R. beat him. On a holeshot. End of story.
In a way, it’s almost poetic. Do you remember 2006 and the Western Swing? J.R owned Tony in two fial rounds out west and if Tony didn’t beat J.R. in Seattle, J.R. might have gone on to sweep the swing. As a rookie. So for J.R. to break his losing streak that dates back to Houston last year and at the same time snap Tony’s winning streak that has already broken a ton of records, well, like I say, that’s kind of poetic.
But I still can’t figure out why some of J.R.’s success hasn’t trickled down to Morgan. He lost in the first round again and I’m really beginning to question the whole concept of multi-car teams. I am not a genius, nor an expert, and I’m certainly not a crew chief, but it seems to me that the multi-car team approach in the sport has sprung a few leaks.
Multi-car teams are supposed to have an advantage because you get extra data for tuning purposes and team tuners exchange all that technical input to dial in their combinations, right? The more cars on the team, the more info you wind up with and in the end, all the cars on the team will kick butt. That’s the premise.
I don’t know about you but when I look around at what’s happening in Top Fuel and Funny Car, it seems the single-car teams are holding their own and the mega-teams are anything but dominant.
Tony Schumacher does have a teammate, Cory McClenathan. Cory is not running anywhere near as quickly and consistently as Tony. There’s no comparison. Can you see any apparent performance similarities between those two guys? Me neither.
What about the Kalitta team? They’ve got three cars and none of them are using that “extra data” to crush the competition. According to my figures, Hillary Will is the only driver over there who has won a race in 2008. Why is that?
I won’t even get into the obvious example of Tim Wilkerson. It defies logic.
And what about Morgan? Why hasn’t the added advantage of running two Top Fuel Dragsters paid off in the win column for him? J.R.’s win on Sunday came literally out of nowhere while Morgan hasn’t advanced to a single final round all year. He’s been waiting for his first T/F national event win since 2004 and he’s won a total of 10 rounds all year. Extra data? Strategic benefits? Both of the Lucas Oil cars should be equally dialed in. Am I right?
Like I say, I’m not the Obi Wan of drag racing. Just trying to understand what I’m seeing and what I’ve been led to believe. There’s not a multi-car team out there right now in any class where all of the team cars are spanking the other teams on a regular basis.
Maybe there are some answers waiting to enlighten me in Memphis. That’s where we’re all headed. Each and every one of us.