5/30/06

While the NHRA’s O’Reilly Summer Nationals were rockin’ in Topeka, I was in Bristol, TN taping segments for several TV shows which will be seen on ESPN2 and the Outdoor Channel covering the O’Reilly’s Masters Auto Expo at Bristol Motor Speedway. “The Mothers Polish Car Show Series” and “Inside Drag Racing” on ESPN2, and “World of Trucks” on the Outdoor Channel will all have upcoming episodes shot at this fantastic three-day event and I hope you’ll keep your eye out for these shows when they hit the air later this summer and fall.

Out in Topeka, it was again another race in which John and the team heard opportunity knocking but just couldn’t quite take full advantage. All three JFR drivers dominated qualifying with Robert getting low-qualifier honors, but as we now know, John was again upended by Ron Capps in the final—the third time in 2006 we’ve seen Ron come out on top vs. John.

With each passing event, the intensity of this season-long rivalry gets hotter and hotter. It’s almost as if time is standing still for every other team in the category as John and Ron take jabs and thrusts at each other. Whit Bazemore has suddenly found a modicum of consistency and now is challenging for a top five points position—quite an improvement over his early-season misadventures.

John, Robert and Eric sit second, third, and fourth in the points and Tony Pedregon’s two recent wins have vaulted him into fifth. There are two keys to consider in all this: Capps continues to show uncanny consistency, avoiding first-round losses and at the majority of races this year has advanced to the final. His four victories so far puts him on course to break John’s record of 13 wins which he set in 1996 and that kind of machinelike predictability makes it very tough for other drivers to seriously close the points gap—especially with the hot summer months approaching.

Secondly, John appears to be the only driver who has been a threat to Capps’ points lead. The current margin, 109 points, is slightly more than 5 rounds of racing (or a national event win) difference. Every other driver is over 200 points back and when you get to this stage of the season, the Law of Averages begins to work against anyone coming back from that big a disadvantage.

So, will this year ultimately become a two-car fight for the POWERade championship? It’s not too early to ponder that possibility, although it IS too early to be completely convinced either way. And you could easily make the case that all it would take is a mid-season slump by Capps and a hot streak by any of the other drivers in the top ten to drastically change the current points picture.

There’s a week off for everyone (except me as I travel to Milwaukee for this weekend’s Champ Car World Series event at the legendary Milwaukee Mile) and then it’s back to drag racing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL and the CarQuest Auto Part Nationals.

Watch for me every week at 11AM EDT on ESPN2 for another fast-paced edition of “Inside Drag Racing” and there will be more from “In the Groove” after the next national event.

Drive safely!