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JENSEN: This Means War
We’re about to find out just exactly what NASCAR meant when it said, “Have at it, boys!”...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted April 26, 2010   Talladega, AL
SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)
OK, we’re about to find out just exactly what NASCAR meant when it said, “Have at it, boys!”

After tangling a week earlier at Texas Motor Speedway, with each man accusing the other of rough driving, teammates and fellow four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champs Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon had at it again at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. Unlike Texas, however, there wasn’t any dispute over who was at fault this time.

Perhaps Johnson was having a bad day — or maybe his spotter was — but Johnson clearly came down smack in front of Gordon late in Sunday’s race, causing Gordon to lift, fall way back in the field and on the following lap become collateral damage when Mike Bliss stuffed Jeff Burton into the wall and Burton, in turn, took out Gordon.

Afterwards, Gordon was about as critical as he ever gets of any fellow driver, let alone a teammate and close friend. “The 48 (Johnson) is testing my patience I can tell you that,” Gordon said. “It takes a lot to make me mad and I am pissed right now.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick has long maintained his team is close to immune from outside threats, and that the only danger to its consistent success is if something happens internally to threaten its strength. Methinks this is as stern a test as Hendrick has had in a long time.

And while we’re on the subject of Hendrick, team owner Rick Hendrick told me a few minutes before the race that crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson have agreed to new contracts for next year and beyond.

Some other observations from the Aaron’s 532 at Talladega:

• For Richard Childress Racing, Kevin Harvick’s victory was like manna from the heavens. RCR hadn’t won a Cup race since October 2008 when Jeff Burton won at Charlotte, and the team is definitely losing Harvick’s sponsor, Shell/Pennzoil, next year and possibly Harvick as well. The entire organization badly needed a huge lift and got it Sunday.

“I just think it shows everybody exactly what we were talking about going into the season, that the team, we really structured a lot of things this winter, and all of us have been strong,” said Gil Martin, Harvick’s crew chief. “ .... I hate that Shell/Pennzoil is leaving, but the fact of the matter is we've got a topnotch team, so we're looking for somebody to come on board and start the next chapter at RCR with them.”

• A funny thing happened to Mark Martin at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday: He didn’t get flipped over in the closing laps of the Aaron’s 499. Nor did his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet get battered like a pinball when someone else wrecked.

Instead, what happened to Martin was a fifth-place finish, the first time since April 22, 2001 that the Batesville, Ark., native left the 2.66-mile superspeedway with a top-five finish. It also broke a string of two consecutive Talladega DNFs and three in his last five races here.

Martin’s fourth top-five finish of the 2010 season moved him up four spots into sixth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. That’s a big improvement from last year, when Martin began the season in a deep points hole and barely ended up qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

• David Ragan has struggled mightily since the beginning of the 2009 season at Roush Fenway Racing, but he continues to demonstrate excellence at restrictor-plate tracks. His sixth-place finish Sunday was his best at Talladega since 2008, when he had top fives in both races at the plate track.

• Last, but certainly not least, kudos to NASCAR for coming up with a combination of aero packages and rules that led to great racing pretty much until guys got chippy at very end of the race. And kudos to the drivers for mostly using their heads in creating a truly thrilling race.

Sunday’s Talladega race set NASCAR records for leaders (29) and lead changes (88). That’s a sharp contrast to some of the dreary, single-file processionals we’ve too often had at Talladega in recent years.

Have at it, indeed.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Grand Opening is set for May 11, 2010. Outdoor Opening Ceremonies are May 11th from 9 to 10 am ET free of charge, open to the public. Outdoor festivities including driver appearances and concerts May 11th from 10 am until 8 pm ET open to the public, free of charge. Tickets to enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame are on sale now at www.NASCARHall.com or by calling 877-231-2010. The countdown to the NASCAR Hall of Fame is on! Visit www.NASCARHall.com/50days for daily updates about the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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