So, who do you like this Sprint Cup season?
The fightin’ Hendrick Motorsports Manifold Destinies always are loaded.
Look out for a strong comeback from the Stewart Haas Graveyard Shifters this year; they seem primed for a big run if they can keep Tony Stewart in one piece.
Wouldn’t it be a refreshing jolt of nostalgia if Richard Petty Motorsports — they’d be called simply the Kings, of course — could just become a factor?
Racing never puts its business out there quite that plainly. Team racing is a practical and economic fact of life on the Sprint Cup circuit, yet it is the individual driver whose name is on all the trophies. The headlines never read: Childress Racing Wins at Bristol.
Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne all have their separate fan bases, one often at odds with the other. Earnhardt people and Gordon people just don’t see the world the same way. But all four compete together under the Hendrick umbrella, a team of rivals.
It is an arrangement like no other in professional sport. Those who care about racing — as well as those in the car — are asked to suspend all knowledge of the team arrangement on the last lap, when presumably it is an every-man-or-Danica-Patrick-for-themselves dash. As if Peyton Manning would rip the ball out of Knowshon Moreno’s hands with a minute left in order to throw himself at the goal line.
The advent of team racing created all kinds of competitive questions, especially in a sport built on the rugged individualism of the likes of Junior Johnson and Fireball Roberts. Like, exactly when do you help out and when do you look out for yourself? How blurry is the line between teamwork and the no-holds-barred competition that fans demand? And just how many egos can you fit into one race team?
It’s all so antithetical to the run-what-you-brung mentality bubbling up from every dirt track in every small town out there. Don’t like it, no sir. But there is no way around the team approach, it is here to stay.
So, why not just go ahead and celebrate the arrangement? Dress team drivers in the same colors. Let them all share in the celebration on victory lane. Have them dress together, in the same hauler. And eat together, pre-race. Isn’t that what teams do?
Meanwhile, you the fan wear that Earnhardt Ganassi team jersey proudly, and pray for the day each team gets cheerleaders.
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