Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
JENSEN: A Shot Of Redemption
The teams that raced their way into the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday made for some great storylines...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 09, 2009   Daytona Beach, FL
SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)

The one question I’m most often asked by race fans is, “Who is your favorite driver?”

The most basic part of the explanation is that as I journalist, I try to treat everyone equally and I definitely do not have a rooting interest on behalf of any one driver or team. I don’t root for or against Junior or Matt Kenseth or Kyle Busch or Ryan Newman or anyone else. Neither do the rest of my colleagues in the business.

But as I tell people who ask about favorite drivers, I do have one rooting interest: a great story to tell. Regardless of where your loyalties are, Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin inches apart racing for the win in the 2007 Daytona 500 was a great story to tell. Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday Jr. pounding each other like a couple of heavyweight boxers week after week after week for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title last year was a great story to tell — lots of drama, plot twists, back and forth, and, most importantly, suspense. Those are kinds of scenarios writers live for and, frankly, if you can’t write a good story about a great race or title fight, you’re in the wrong business.

Obviously, not every race or race weekend is going to offer up great stories. There are always a few snoozers on the 36-race grind that it is the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. But the Daytona 500 won’t be one of them. Already, we’ve had a great Budweiser Shootout and some excellent stories to tell.

Most pundits, including yours truly, had little in the way of expectations for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates at Daytona, after team owners Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi merged their organizations over the winter, shedding more than 100 employees in the process. And yet, during Sunday’s Daytona 500 qualifying, Martin Truex Jr. put an EGR Chevy on the pole for the 500. The team’s other three cars were all fast in qualifying, too.

On the outside of Row 1 will be the ageless one, Mark Martin, who out-qualified his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Not shabby for a 50-year-old guy in his first race with a new team.


Page 1 of 2
Prev
12
Next
tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.