Fan's Eye View ~ Fighting For Championships Takes A Lot Out Of You
5/14/2014
Jim Fitzgerald
Greetings, my friends. I hope this sunny day I am enjoying is also
finding you in a happy place. My wife
brought up something rather intelligent over the weekend. Why is it that when you go to work one days
after getting a little bit of sun on your face, people will always ask you
“Where did you go?” or “Did you go to the beach?” Last time we all checked the same sun that
was over our heads at home was the same sun that was slow-roasting some humans
on the beach which is hours away by car, unless I’m missing something? I’m sure I have told you this, but my wife used to be a race
fan, reaching her highest levels of fandom (there’s that word again, Mama!)
back when Dale Jarrett was winning a Championship. (and
Mama, I’ve qualified her with an era as well!)
She, however, like many others, grew tired of it and fell away from it
while I am still very much into it. She
will ask me who won, or who is winning if it is still on, and pretty much
against her wishes, I will speak about more than she will have cared! We were having the usual conversation after the race on
Saturday when Jeff Gordon won. She
remembers Jeff from way back when, when neither of us really liked him. Story time. At a point in my life, I had a sister who
liked Jeff Gordon, a wife and friends who did not, and a beagle. Every now and again we would get them all
into the same place at one time. This
one time it happened to be at our apartment.
My sister comes in, sets her bag on the table and Jeff Gordon coat on
the back of a chair. Well, at some
point, that coat fell off the chair. My
beagle, Scooby, I guess he wasn’t much of a Jeff Gordon fan either, because he
left a hefty steaming reminder to us all that Jeff Gordon fans in his house may
not be welcome. Many of us belly laughed
at the activity for a good while. My
sister did not. We joke about it now, but she wasn’t happy camper that day. Back to this story. My wife was asking me about the race and I
happened to mention that Jimmie Johnson was eleven races into the season and
still had not won a race, which was very rare. Then of course I also remembered that Matt
Kenseth had not won yet, either. These
are the two drivers who won thirteen races amongst themselves last season and
finished first and second in points. I
looked back at some history, and shockingly, Jimmie Johnson is the exception to
the rule, but the second place finisher in points appears to have some sort of
a hangover going into the following season. This year, Matt Kenseth has gone eleven races without
winning. Granted, he is still near the
top of the leaderboard, but you’d like to win in a system which rewards
wins. In 2013, Clint Bowyer went winless
and could have lost his ride due to Spingate at Richmond. All of this happened after finishing second
in 2012 to Brad Keselowski. 2012 was not
a great season to Carl Edwards. He won
zero races and finished fifteenth in points, while finishing second to Tony
Stewart in 2011. Denny Hamlin finished
in second place in 2010. His 2011 showed
one win at Michigan and a ninth place points finish. Mark Martin was in second place in points in
2009 when the final flag fell in Florida.
In 2010, he fell on his face with a thirteenth place finish and no wins. The pattern goes back to as far as I can
remember being a race fan, save for 2004 when Jimmie Johnson finished second to
the Kurt Busch and then fifth to Tony Stewart in 2005 with four wins, or Rusty
Wallace following a second place in 1993 to Dale Earnhardt with an eight win third
place in 1994. Heck, who finished second
to Alan Kulwicki in one of the greatest title chases ever? That was five time winner Bill Elliott, who didn’t
score a win in 1993, and finished in 8th place, 750 points
behind. By the way, Kenseth did finish
second to Johnson once before, in 2006, and then finished 4th the
following year to….Jimmie Johnson. So, I ask you, friends.
Does trying the wrest the number one spot away from the eventual
Champion take such a toll on the second place driver and team that they can
hardly be competitive the following season or at least not to the same level
(or even close to) of the year prior?
That certainly seems to be the case as recent history shows. And if that
is true, Matt Kenseth and his fans might be in for a long summer and fall. And now, my friends, I am going to play complete copy cat and steal a page from my RFF Partner PattyKay Lilley. After every column, she has taken to providing you with a little bit of a Classic Country Close-Out. I don’t mind that at all, and I hope you have come to enjoy it as well, should you have sampled the offering. But this one is my column, and we’re going to listen to some RUSH! The topic of this column was mostly about those who have fallen short of winning a Championship. “Marathon” from Rush is about racing, to be sure, but also can be considered a metaphor, for life in general and the goals we are given as well as those we make for ourselves..
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades in the summer sky.
Until next time, my friends…
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!