–RI of changerules(dot)net

How did you come to the conclusion that Stenhouse is a “much better” driver than Bayne? While Stenhouse is certainly a talent, I don’t think Bayne has any talent deficits that would justify your conclusion.

In 2010, both competed in the NW series. Although Bayne was in good equipment, his MWR equipment(for most of the season) was certainly not better equipment than the Roush equipment that Stenhouse had. In part because he managed to avoid wrecks, Bayne outperformed Stenhouse and got the Wood Brothers ride.

Hopefully, their good performances will lead to more good, young drivers (Stenhouse, Bayne, and Allgaier) getting a shot at the Cup level in good equipment. IMHO – there to many Cup rides occupied by older drivers long past their prime.

In WRC, Kimi was a rookie last year and did well for his first year. He continues to improve and gets faster with each event. To think that you can jump into a Rally car and be quick is crazy. The cars are so much differnet and the fact that he has finished in the top ten and as high as fifth shows how much natural driving talent he has.

The NASCAR media likes to think of all open wheel series as the same. Let me make this clear, the IRL was a joke compared to F1, and Champ car and Cart were on the declide since 1997. Danica can’t win in INDYCAR let alone F1. Dario, Sam, and Tony all came from IRL. Juan won in CART after it’s decline. Nelson and Narin were ride buyers (think Kerry Earnhardt and Paul Menard), and Scott Speed was in over his head in F1. Look what happened to Seabass when he went to F1. The only somewhat good driver was Montoya and Kimi was better then him. As for Villenauve, he won back in 97 only after his teammate Damon left. He also had far and away the best car on the grid that year.

Although, it is true that you need a good car to win in F1. It’s true of every motorsport. In NASCAR it’s about the team as a whole. If you don’t have a good car, a good crew chief, and a good driver your not going to win. Without Chad and the Hendricks organization, you don’t have Jimmy winning 5 straight. Just like their is a differnce between Ferrari and Virgin there’s a diffence between JGR and Robby Gordon Motorsports. NASCAR is more about having the right setup at the right time. The better the crew chief at makeing that call, the higher your chance of winning. So don’t tell me that F1 is all about the car and NASCAR is all about the driver because thats B.S.

So, why is Kimi coming to NASCAR? I think he is doing it because it looks like fun to him. This is a guy who doesn’t need the money. He was makeing over 50 million a year at Ferrari. Part of the reason he left F1 was not his lack of ability, but his lack of 100% focus on driving a Ferrari. Kimi has driving in snowmobile races under an alias (James Hunt), driven in speedboat races in a gorilla suit (also as James Hunt), and has a reputation of liking to have a good time. He does rallying because it’s fun, not for the money or the fame, he has plenty of both. I suspect he will do a handful of races in NASCAR in the same manner he does other forms of racing. If he feels like doing it he will and if he feels like doing something else he will do that.

The best part will be Kimi’s interaction with the NASCAR is sacred media. This is a guy that told the press in F1 that he was haveing a sh*t when asked why he missed an event, and was known to be rude to the media. Kimi is know as the android for good reason. This a guy that would be asleep before a race and never seemed to care one way or the other. In europe people are fans of the event (Monoco, Spa, Monza), in the USA, we are fans of the drivers (Jimmy, Jeff, Kyle). How the media deals with a guy like Kimi will funny if nothing else.

The fact is Kimi is the most talented driver to come from openwheel racing since the days of Mario, and Gurney. If he set his mind to it and was on a team who could put him in a good car then he could do very well. I suspect he will do a handful of races for fun and go try something else. Personally, I hope he is useing this to get use to running ovals and takes a run at the Indy 500. Either way I will enjoy watching one of the best drivers in the world race if no one else does.

TRD Toyotas are down on power and Cronquist knows it. He insisted the JGR have freedom to build their own version of the Toyota. He has run into a problem with the inherant instability of the Toyota, which he has tried modify into a Toyota R07. When pushed to race speeds and RPM, the JGR crankshaft wildly wobbles which stresses multiple engine components, valve train, bottom end, belts and pullies.

The solution is a totally new powerplant design. Until then, the Toyotas are the weakest on power and if they want to catch up, they will become the weakest in reliability.