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Originally Posted by ngdawg
That, we already know. Jr's inconsistency has more to do with what he's been handed than what he can handle at the wheel. He's never been a 'dirty driver'(like Harvick, Biffle and Kurt Busch have shown to be at times), he's never blown up at another driver, usually either taking some of the blame or waving a wreck off as 'that's racing'. That's not to say he doesn't have a temper(his radio transmissions are loaded with expletives) or that he doesn't screw up.
But, as Michael Waltrip intimated and has been reported in the past, DEI is not a 'team' team, in that they don't share information between camps, don't contribute data to everyone and, reportedly, don't sink as much dollars into R&D as teams like Hendrick do, even though they had major sponsor dollars to do so.
Before Brian Vickers left Hendrick, he had said that the one thing Hendrick does is to make sure that all cars are 'equal' by sharing R&D, involving the drivers more and putting the cars on as equal a basis as possible so that the competition is between drivers, not teams.
Watching the last 3 or 4 races, it would seem that DEI, knowing Jr. was leaving, has sunk more time and money into Truex, judging by his performance since the announcement.
Jr. is championship material-he's proven that more than once. While I can't stand Gordon or Johnson at all(*gag*), no one can deny the force over there.
I'm taking a wait and see stance....all those that would diss Jr. for this might be eating their words if he ends up standing in the winner's circle at Homestead, 2008.
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I couldn't agree more.
Depending on how much of his team comes with him (especially Tony Eury Jr.), I think there could be an adjustment period, but in the end this will put Jr. in the best car available.
I'm torn about this because of my strong dislike for Gordon and JJ, but in the end I think it was probably the best move.
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Originally Posted by QuasiMondo
Educate me. Why is there such a strong dislike for Jeff Gordon? I'm no nascar watcher, but I've known quite a few devotees, and they've hated him with a passion from day one. Insight, anyone?
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Various reasons, depending on who you ask.
Some feel neither had to REALLY pay their dues in Nascar before being teamed up with some of the best crews and organizations in the sport, that they were handed everything on a silver platter.
Some (this is a big one for me) are annoyed that nearly every time they have a poor showing they place blame on fellow competitors, their crews, or otherwise pass the buck. Nascar is still somewhat of an old school sport where you tip your hat to the winner and keep your mouth shut when you think you've been dealt a bad hand or treated unfairly by the other drivers. You just man up and make sure you get them back next week.
Others just don't dig the polished, clean cut image projected in what is mostly (even still, though it is slowly diversifying) a "redneck" sport.
Probably the last of the major beefs is that both have been involved in quite a few races where an overly aggressive move on their part (especially way too early in the race with JJ several times) caused a big wreck taking out guys with great cars. This in itself isn't a major sin, EXCEPT when you compound it with the earlier point about them almost never accepting blame for negative things that happen.
Clear as mud?
