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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
PEMBERTON: What Rivalry?
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series clearly lacks a rivalry, on or off the track, and has for quite some time...
Randy Pemberton  |  Posted November 28, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Randy Pemberton on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin made a valiant attempt at stirring one up at season’s end, but it was too little, too late.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series clearly lacks a rivalry, on or off the track, and has for quite some time. But it sure would make things interesting if one materialized. Given Carl Edwards’ stellar 2008 performance, I anticipated an on-track battle between him and Jimmie Johnson this year. Many picked Edwards as the 2009 preseason championship favorite because he won nine races in 2008 and closed out that season atop a sizeable momentum wave.

Had Edwards or anyone at Roush Fenway Racing performed to our expectations, perhaps a feud would have been born. Think back to Edwards’ pass on Johnson at Kansas last season – the fans went crazy when he bounced off the wall in a last-lap challenge of Johnson for the win. But the No. 99 Ford couldn’t get close enough to the front this year to even flirt with rivaling the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team.

As far as off-track rivalries go, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had their fair share of time in the spotlight earlier in the season, mainly at the hands of Busch. The former Hendrick driver tried to get under his previous team’s skin by saying, in a nutshell, that Dale Jr. wasn’t winning since he essentially replaced Busch, which must be tough on Junior and his fans. There’s no doubt Busch’s grandstanding was a sideways jab at Rick Hendrick for releasing Busch, whose stats in and since exiting the No. 5 Chevrolet far exceed Junior’s in the No. 88.

Dale Jr. still has the largest fan base and if he were to become a frontrunner again, NASCAR probably would have the perfect recipe for a high-profile competition with another driver as Junior Nation passionately united against his opponent.

But even if the No. 88 team picked it up a few notches, their main competition likely would be from within their own stable. Dale Jr.’s Hendrick teammates finished 1-2-3 in the final point standings but he was nowhere in sight. Primarily contributing to the absence of a rivalry is the fact Hendrick Motorsports is by far the superior and unequaled organization in the Cup Series and suffers no inner-squad squabbles. Mark Martin is a class act and no one’s rival. Jeff Gordon owns part of Johnson’s team and brought him into the sport. So, don’t look for Johnson’s opposition to come from within his own camp.

Another driver and team will have to step up. My best guess to compete on Johnson’s level and challenge him would be Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin, who was very hot at the end of the Chase.

Juan Pablo Montoya best fits the mold of the next guy to create an off-track rivalry, or a “war of words,” in the sense that he’s as aggressive a driver as we’ve seen since Kyle Busch or maybe even Dale Earnhardt’s days. Anyone brave enough to get into it with Martin, Gordon and Tony Stewart certainly is antagonistic and fearless. If he can win races, Montoya possesses the potential to establish an authentic feud both on and off the track. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, ruffle some feathers and crumple fenders, and hasn’t been since he stepped into NASCAR. Montoya just hasn’t had the performance to back it up until now.

Throughout the years, NASCAR has boasted some of the best rivalries in sports. David Pearson and Richard Petty. Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. In the modern era, Darrell Waltrip feuded with several drivers. Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace went at it before newcomer Jeff Gordon stepped in and became Earnhardt’s staunchest opponent.

But the No. 48 team is so dominant that no one can get within striking distance and to spark a true rivalry, you need two frontrunners from opposite camps. It’s hard for fans to get fired up over two 15th-place teams who despise each other, which amounts to a bunch of yapping with nothing to back it up.

Since Johnson’s entrance into the sport, he has outrun four-time champion Gordon. Johnson simply has no match at the moment and until he does, the rivalry gap remains. Fans of all sports are always interested in these contentious scenarios – people loved the Boston Celtics versus the New York Knicks. How about the Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers or the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Rivalries carry sports like nothing else and while I don’t think a 2010 rivalry is vital to NASCAR, it definitely couldn’t hurt.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel
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Randy Pemberton

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