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Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2008

Edwards' streak great for NASCAR

Last year, Hendrick Motorsports won 18 of the 36 races in NASCAR's top division. In other words, half of the time the drivers in what is now called the Sprint Cup Series raced, one of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers emerged as the victor.

But too much of something, can, on occasion, be a bad thing. That's why Carl Edwards' two-race winning streak going into Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the best thing that could have happened to NASCAR during the early stages of its 2008 season.

Yes, it's even better than Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Daytona 500. A win by Earnhardt Jr. would have raised expectations from his fans that even he would not be able to match this season.

A hot streak by Edwards, on the other hand, is a boost for NASCAR during the early stages of the season. As much excitement as a victory by Earnhardt Jr. would have generated, that energy would have not only been centered around Hendrick Motorsports, but Chevrolets also.

And contrary to what has been shown during the past few years, there really are other makes of cars racing every week that don't have a bowtie decal on their hood.

Of the 12 drivers qualifying for the Chase for the championship last year, nine were in Chevrolets. The year before, when the Chase included 10 drivers, eight of the cars competing were Chevys.

Needless to say, parity has been a foreign concept in NASCAR recently among the automakers, and that usually does not sit well with longtime fans of Ford or Dodge.

In fact, fans on one driver's message board often joke that NASCAR should be called NASCAM, standing for National Association of Supporting Chevrolet Auto Makers.

During past years, one automaker could start the season behind its competition and later lobby for help from NASCAR. That era has gone the way of stock cars racing in NASCAR - it is long gone, and it is not coming back.

With the Car of Tomorrow being raced full time, NASCAR can no longer give the Fords a little bit of an aerodynamical advantage over the Chevrolets, Dodges or Toyotas. The new car is doing one of the things that it was designed to do in the first place - level the field of competition.

With more parity in place, the door is wide open for drivers with an address away from Papa Joe Hendrick Boulevard to catch a stroke of good fortune for a week or two. Right now, that driver is Edwards.

Rest assured. Hendrick's drivers will get their victories this year. But the fact that drivers from other teams are getting a piece of the success that Hendrick had all to itself last year is exactly what was hoped for when the new car was drawn up by NASCAR.