June 21, 2008
As silly season 2009 continues to pick up steam, the hottest seat in the NASCAR garage for next year appears to be the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by Casey Mears.

Despite Mears’ contract lasting through 2009, many of NASCAR’s top stars have been rumored to take over the seat. The names with the most weight attached to them in the rumor mill as of late are Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, and Tony Stewart.

Mears’ season has been full of disappointment thus far. Currently sitting at 27th in points, and at one point in danger of falling out of the top 35 cars in owners’ points locked into every race, Mears’ best finish so far has been seventh, at Martinsville and Talladega. Mears opened the season with a 35th at Daytona and a 42nd at Fontana, followed by another 42nd at Bristol three races later. Mears has led only one lap all season, at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte; a race he won last season.

Certainly driving for four teams in four seasons doesn’t help a driver’s psyche, or teach him anything about consistency, but the #5 team expects better from their driver - especially after Kyle Busch led the team to four wins and a Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award in three seasons.

Truex is highly unlikely to take the seat from Mears, after Dale Earnhardt Inc. exercised its contract option on him for 2009. However, Truex is a good friend of newest Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., and could possibly be lured to the team that way. Since winning his first career race at Dover last season, Truex’s race finishes have been composed of hot streaks intertwined with many finishes of 30th or worse. Indeed, he only has one top-5 finish thus far this season (at Richmond) and sits 15th in points.

Bowyer’s contract also stipulates that he will drive for his current team, Richard Childress Racing, through 2009. However, that team is expanding from three cars to four. Combined with the presence of two top drivers already, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, and the potential addition of Ryan Newman for 2009, Bowyer may find himself the number four driver at RCR next season. However, with Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson at Hendrick, it’d be hard to see him any better off in the #5.

Bowyer’s performance may see a slight drop if he stays with the team next season. However, he hasn’t had any performance issues so far this season: he sits 12th in points, has one win, three top-5s, and an average finish of 16.9. Bowyer may not want to risk starting anew with a new team and crew chief Alan Gustafson, as his current partnership with Gil Martin has landed him in one Chase for the Cup and should keep him in this year’s title hunt.

Tony Stewart is the most interesting rumor of the bunch. Not only is he signed with Joe Gibbs Racing through 2009, the #5 car appears to be a fall-back option for him.

His current goal is to assume partial ownership of a team, which he may do with Haas CNC Racing. Stewart’s relationship with manufacturer Chevrolet is very strong, and he was reportedly not very pleased with Gibbs’ decision to leave them for Toyota this season. Stewart fields Chevrolets in USAC competition.

Stewart has also been the number-three driver at Gibbs this season as far as performance goes, as he is the only driver in the stable to not have won a Sprint Cup race thus far this season. (For the record, he’s won four Nationwide Series events in six tries.)

Stewart usually heats up late in the season, but to not have won through 15 races and be sitting 11th in points is a disappointing first part of the season for him.

The answer, however, may not lie in further change for either Mears or the #5 team. Since being shuffled from the #41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge in 2005, to the #42 CGR car in 2006, to the #25 at Hendrick last year, to the #5 in 2008, Mears has never truly had a chance to prove himself with any one team, and his best years should be yet to come.

Hendrick shouldn’t take a risk at going after any more contractually obligated drivers, let Mears fulfill his contract, and go driver-hunting again in 2009, when all of those mentioned above will truly be free agents. Perhaps Mears will break out and prove himself worthy of the #5.

by Chris Leone, Bleacherreport.com

6/22/2008
Sonoma, CA (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch and the Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew made the right moves at the right times and he captured Sunday afternoon’s Toyota Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway. The No.18 M&M’s Toyota crossed the finish line 1.717 seconds ahead of David Gilliland.

The victory was Busch’s fifth of the season and ninth of his Sprint Cup career.

Twice Busch made pit stops just before a caution flag and it set him up with the lead on the final run to the checkered flag. He was never really challenged over the final 40 laps and led a total of 77 laps.

“These guys worked so hard,” said Busch. “This is really special. We came a long ways with this thing. That’s what makes me so proud of this team.”

Kasey Kahne, winner of three of the last five races and Friday’s pole, brought the field to the green flag for 110 laps of road-course fun. He led them through the first laps, but it was Robby Gordon that was showing the most speed. The No.7 Dodge started eighth but by the end of the third lap he was already past road-course ace Jeff Gordon and into fourth place.

Also of note was that Kahne was reporting to his pit crew that he had already lost first gear. Jimmie Johnson caught Kahne on lap five and passed him in Turn 11 to grab the lead and five bonus points.

Robby Gordon, who only knows one way to drive - at 110-percent, took third place from a fading Kahne on lap eight.

Meanwhile, Johnson was out for a “Sunday drive” with the clean air built his lead to almost four seconds after a dozen laps. Two drivers who looked strong early were Carl Edwards and rookie Marcos Ambrose. Also of note, defending champion Juan Pablo Montoya cracked the top-10 on lap 13.

Edwards was on the move and got around both Robby Gordon and Busch for second place on lap 21. He was more than four second behind the two-time series champion. But Edwards was faster than Johnson and began to eat into his lead. Johnson’s lead was under one second at lap 28 as Edwards closed on the No.48 Chevrolet. A caution flag on lap 30, cause by David Ragan, slowed Edwards’ assault on Johnson.

Differing pit stop strategies, left Greg Biffle, Montoya and Busch at the front of the line. Johnson came out 11th, but the first of those who had pitted.

Biffle led for just three corners before spinning and when the smoke had cleared, Busch had slid underneath Montoya to grab the lead. Busch quickly built a two-second lead on Montoya.

In the middle of the field, Edwards got around Johnson and began to slowly move his way past those who had not stopped at the last caution flag.

Busch, Montoya and McMurray stayed in line at the front, although Busch built the lead to more than three seconds by lap 50.

In this “strategy race,” the question for every crew chief is when they would make their final stops. Last year, Montoya made his final stop on lap 68 and after everyone had cycled through he was left with the lead and the only question was could he stretch his fuel to the checkered flag. He did and won the race.

The drivers were mostly staying in line waiting for the final pit stop and run to the checkered flag. Exceptions were Edwards who cracked the top-five on lap 62 and Ambrose was also climbing - he was up to ninth. By lap 65 Edwards was up to fourth and Ambrose to seventh.

Gilliland pitted on lap 66, the first of the top-10 drivers to pit.

Could he go 44 laps on a tank of fuel?

Jeff Burton came in on the next lap as did Harvick and Clint Bowyer. Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in on lap 68. Busch came in on lap 69 as did Montoya, McMurray and Tony Stewart.

Then on the next lap Robby Gordon and Max Papis made contact and it brought out the caution flag.

With the caution flag in the middle of pit stops, the advantage went to those who had stopped before the yellow…the opposite of what you want at an oval track.

The remainder of the cars stopped when pit lane was opened on lap 71.

The race would restart with Busch, Montoya and McMurray again leading the way. Behind them were Ambrose, Gilliland, Stewart, Harvick and Ron Fellows.

Montoya, McMurray and Ambrose got together in Turn 11 when Ambrose tried to make a pass on the No.26 Ford. The end result was Montoya getting knocked back to 15th place and Ambrose taking over second.

McMurray fought back and passed Ambrose as the crossed the start/finish line to start lap 77. Ambrose began to fade as Gilliland, Stewart, Harvick and Elliott Sadler all got around the rookie. Then Ambrose’s transmission blew and his great day was over.

Busch again built a comfortable lead, almost three seconds at lap 90, 20 to go. Without a caution flag it appeared that it was Busch’s race to lose - assuming he had enough fuel to go 41 laps on his final fill up. His margin back to McMuray at lap 100 was more than four seconds.

But then David Reutimann slammed into the tire barrier with nine laps to go and it brought out a full-course caution flag. The yellow erased Busch’s big lead and gave those chasing him one last chance to catch him.

It took a while to dig Reutimann’s Toyota out of the tire barrier and the green flag dropped with six laps to go. Busch got a great start, but McMurray slipped off the track in the first turn and Stewart stole second from him.

A couple of turns later Harvick went in too hot, hit McMurray who in turn hit Stewart sending all three cars spinning. The accident also collected Ron Fellows who was set for a top-six finish.

The race would restart on lap 107 with Busch leading Gilliland and Jeff Gordon. But they couldn’t get in even one green-flag lap completed before the caution flag came out again.

The red flag came out to clean up the multi-car accident and officials declared the race would go to lap 112 on a green-white-checker finish. Busch got off to another great restart and was never challenged the rest of the way.

Jeff Gordon, Bowyer and Casey Mears completed the top-five. Montoya finished sixth.

Busch’s win gives him a 103-point lead over Burton heading to the next race - set for Sunday, June 29th at the New Hampshire International Speedway.

by: The Sporting News