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What we learned: Champions ('cept one) edition
Posted
at
11:33 am
by Scott Whitmore
Confidence is one of those intangible attributes that can make all the difference on the track.
The best car doesn’t always win, or the best driver. But, put a good car together with a driver confident in: (1) his or her own abilities, (2) the car and (3) the crew, and you’ve got a potential trophy waiting.
I saw two winning drivers brimming with confidence this weekend, one locally and one nationally.
I also saw a driver who appeared to be struggling with that intangible.
Naima Lang won his second straight, and third overall, super stock feature main on Saturday at Evergreen Speedway.
Lang, who went three years racing in the top-tier division before recording his first win, has benefited from being reunited with an old and trusted friend.
“I just can’t thank Jesse Jensen enough for helping me out and giving me this race car,” Lang said after the race. “There’s not enough words for that.”
In addition to putting together Lang’s car, Jensen has been Lang’s crew chief and spotter this season.
Jensen and Lang last worked together in 2004, when Lang drove a Jensen-built car to the bomber division championship at Evergreen Speedway.
Asked if he felt more confident as a driver this year working with Jensen again, Lang didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely, because I know I have a good, fast race car,” he said. “Getting lined up before the main event, all I know is I have to be patient because I have a fast car.”
On the national racing scene, it seems as though Kyle Busch is winning every race these days, like Saturday’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington — his third Sprint Cup victory of the season to go with three Nationwide and two Craftsman Truck wins.
Busch has become a certified media draw, and seems to love playing the role of “Bad Boy Busch,” as one writer called him after his racing incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond.
Did you see the highlights on SPEED of fans throwing beer cans and even a cooler at Busch’s car after Saturday’s win? Fox cut to commercial and didn’t show that live, but SPEED was happy to oblige.
The old football coach, Joe Gibbs, knows what momentum and confidence is all about, and to capitalize on it now because it can dry up in an instant. I suspect a lot of Tony Stewart’s free agency talk may stem from the younger Busch getting more attention in the JGR garages.
You’ve got to feel that with Busch, Denny Hamlin and Stewart — and superstar-in-waiting Joey Logano getting ready to start driving in the Nationwide Series — that the confidence level at JGR is through the roof.
On the other side of the spectrum, did you catch the post-race interview with Earnhardt Jr.? That was a beaten, unhappy man right there, who is not enjoying the 800-pound monkey named “winless streak” glued to his back.
Which is unfortunate because Junior has definately been the class of the Hendrick camp this season, even without finding victory lane.
He mumbled something about having had a good car in practice all week, but crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told him the crew had swapped out an A-frame and suddenly the car wasn’t so good for the race.
Seeing the look on Junior’s face on my TV screen on Sunday night as I watched the race on tape, I instantly flashed to the confident look on Lang’s face the night before.
They couldn’t have been farther apart.
Scorecard:
Sadly, I did not pick either Busch or Lang to win last weekend. Instead I went with a line-up of almost all defending champions.
I wasn’t shut out, because Mike Middleton did indeed win the stinger eight A main on Saturday at Evergreen Speedway. However, Lang won the super stock feature, not John Zaretzke, and Jim Foti and not Lane Sundholm took the trophy in the bomber main.
Defending Nationwide champ Carl Edwards didn’t see the finish of Friday’s race, which Stewart won.
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was my only exception pick this week, but he was just a runner-up to Felipe Massa of Ferrari in the Turkish Grand Prix.
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