J.J.’s underrated, while Kyle’s underappreciated (Yahoo! Sports)
November 20, 2009
Regardless of how this weekend ends in Homestead, a little south of where it began in February, it will have been a great year.
Jimmie Johnson winning four consecutive titles would be an incredible accomplishment and make for outstanding off-season discussion. Mark Martin being crowned would be an equally great story. A 50-year-old with 27 seasons under his belt, Martin would finally have what so many of us believe he has long deserved.
How many of you remember that Carl Edwards, not Jimmie Johnson, was actually the consensus pick before the season began? How many of you recall Mark Martin’s early string of DNFs, leaving him uncomfortably close to having to qualify on time?
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But in the end, Johnson and Martin prevailed, and one or the other will be 2009 champion. Both need to be proud of the seasons they have had.
One thing that stood out, but not surprised me all week long, are the comments Mark made of Jimmie following last week’s race.
“Jimmie Johnson is under appreciated and under rated,” he said.
There is no greater judge of another driver than those sharing the same asphalt three or four hours a week. There is no greater compliment than those words being spoken of you from a driver as highly regarded as Mark Martin.
The irony of Mark’s comments is that they are precisely the same verbiage we’ve all used to describe him. Those of us having raced against Mark have always recognized him as an exceptionally talented, hard-working driver who seldom wins at other drivers’ expense.
I say Johnson has been great for our sport. We are lucky to have him.
I am an advocate of Jimmie’s because the man has everything an athlete should have: talent, determination and the dislike of losing.
I understand that we, as a culture, love to see someone win, to succeed, but not win too much, not have too much success. But should Jimmie Johnson be punished because he is outstanding at what he does? Should he be criticized because he has won four of nine Chase races?
I leave it at this, I agree with Mark. Jimmie Johnson is under appreciated.
Two more thoughts …
This week I was headed to Mooresville, N.C., to meet with my accountant, who was recommended to me by the late Dale Earnhardt shortly after I moved south in 1992. Frank is his name, and he worked with Dale, even partnered with him at Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet.
We spent two minutes talking taxes, five minutes talking cars and five minutes talking NASCAR. In those five minutes, I got from Frank something I’ve heard from many this year. He does not watch as much NASCAR as he once did.
I found very interesting what he said next.
“Ricky, when I do watch, I pull for that Kyle Busch. He takes chances other drivers aren’t willing to take, just like Dale did. And he more often than not gets away with it, just like Dale did!”
I found it refreshing that a long-time NASCAR fan – a loyal Dale Earnhardt fan in his mid 60s – latched onto Kyle Busch for the same reasons some oppose him.
Let me be clear on this – there will never be a replacement for Dale Earnhardt. But there has been a void left in his absence.
My accountant found interest in Kyle Busch many of you have not. You either dislike his approach to the sport or you dislike him personally. In my opinion, this is exactly why people should appreciate him. He’s real!
To Frank’s point, he takes chances other drivers aren’t willing to take. For example, at Daytona in July he moved right to block Tony Stewart with a few hundred yards between he and the finish line. Why did he did he do it? Because winning was the only thing that registered at that moment. What did it get him? A wrecked car and enough points lost that he missed the Chase.
Like him or not, appreciate that what you see is what you get.
One more thoughts …
Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski enter the final weekend perhaps preoccupied with one another in the Nationwide Series. Both have talent, both have bright futures, but neither appears willing to concede an inch of blame for what amounts to lost points, damaged race cars and time wasted.
My experience is this: when it reaches the point that it becomes this personal, then it’s bad for both drivers and bad for their four teams. That’s right four, not two, because now both Hamlin and Keselowski compete in the Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series. That’s a lot of crew members being affected by a rivalry.
At this point, both drivers have allowed the media to act as a tailwind, resulting in everything becoming magnified and exaggerated. It certainly creates entertainment, and some would argue the sport needs more of this.
I agree that rivalries are an important aspect of sports and entertainment, but the best rivalries are a creation of drivers taking a win from one another, leaving us to anticipate next week’s battle and what will happen on the track.
The problem here is Hamlin and Keselowski are not necessarily battling one another for wins when they tangle, rather their indifference is more a product of disrespecting one another. Their on-track issues have become personal.
That this has been allowed to go this far (between a driver with a much larger objective in the Sprint Cup Series and a young driver still competing full-time in the Nationwide Series) makes little sense.
The final race of the year, at a track associated with 180 mph corner-entry speeds, is not the place for scores to be settled. That is the bottom line. That is the message both drivers need to hear.
Ricky Craven is Yahoo! Sports NASCAR analyst. Send Ricky a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
