Changes for 2008
There are a lot of changes coming up for the 2008 season. I thought I'd make a list of some of the changes, since Daytona is only a couple of weeks away.
1) Both of the top 2 Nascar series got name changes. The Nascar Nextel Cup Series is now the Nascar Sprint Cup series. The Busch series is now the Nationwide series.
2) There are A LOT of team changes! Definitely the biggest change is Dale Jr. leaving DEI, the company his father started, going to Hendrick Motorsports. With him going to HMS, that meant somebody had to go. Unfortunately that person was Kyle Busch, which I think was a major mistake on Rick Hendricks part.
3) Of course there are just as many or more sponsor changes. The biggest one would be Budweiser leaving Dale Earnhardt Jr. They chose to sponsor my boy, Kasey Kahne! Elliot Sadler, Kasey's teammate also has a new sponsor deal going on. Instead of just one primary sponsor, he will have what is called a tri-mary sponsor, with Best Buy, Stanley Tools, and McDonald's on the hood at different races. Amp Energy Drink will sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the most part. Now of course there are others, but I won't go into detail about that.
4) Joe Gibbs Racing is changing to Toyota! This was a big shocker when it was first announced. Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and now Kyle Busch are all apart of this team. At first the question was, how will they do? Toyotas didn't do too hot last year, but after the first couple of test sessions, it was clear that changing to Toyota wouldn't be a problem for their team. Kyle Busch is at the top of the speed charts. This guy is so talented. He is driving a Toyota for the first time, and this is his first year with JGR. I think he is out to tell the world that Rick Hendrick made a mistake by firing him!
5) One rule that Nascar announced this year is that all the cars outside the top 35 (aka Go or Go Home Cars) will qualify together at the end of qualifying. It used to be where you drew a number, and if you were lucky you got to go last, meaning that if you were outside the top 35, and you drew to go 1st, you were basically guaranteed a ticket headed home. I personally don't like this rule. The folks outside the top 35 now have a better chance at getting the pole, and I don't think that's right. But I did agree that something needed to be done for them. For the drivers inside the top 35, they will continue to do the draw thing. Now some of you may be asking why you would want to go last. Well when you go last (later in the day), the track has cooled down. Sometimes not very much, sometimes significantly, depending on the weather and when qualifying is. So to put it simply: the cooler the track is, the more grip you have, the faster you go.
Now those are basically the only changes in Nascar. If I think of any more I will put them on here.
tag: Kasey Kahne, Nascar, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendricks, Toyota, Elliott Sadler, Sponsor, Daytona, Nascar Sprint Cup Series, Nascar Nationwide Series
