Jerry Bonkowski
Jerry Bonkowski is a noted NASCAR journalist who spent 15 years with USA Today as a motorsports writer, followed by nearly a decade as National NASCAR Columnist for ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports. He's a longtime regular on 620 The Buzz and is also an on-air personality on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. His first book, "Trading Paint - 101 Great NASCAR Debates" (Wiley & Co.), came out last fall and continues to be a brisk seller.
Jerry will be writing two columns weekly for WRALSportsFan.com and welcomes your comments, questions or suggestions. Email him at JerryBonkowski@Gmail.com.
By Jerry Bonkowski
Nov 19, 2012
Brad Keselowski, 2012 Sprint Cup champion.
Has a catchy ring, doesn't it?
The 28-year-old from suburban Detroit on Sunday became the 29th different Cup champion in NASCAR history, earning the sport's biggest achievement in just his third full-time season in the series.
In so doing, Keselowski not only became one of the younger Cup champions, he presented legendary team owner Roger Penske with his first Cup championship after nearly 30 years of chasing excellence in the stock car world.
In so doing, Keselowski did for Penske what two NASCAR Hall of Famers – Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace – as well as 2004 Cup champ Kurt Busch (won while with Roush Racing) and Ryan Newman couldn't do: seal the championship deal.
At 28, Keselowski has reached the zenith of his brief (less than four full-time seasons) career thus far in Sprint Cup racing. But this won't be a one-and-done championship for Keselowski, not by any means.
Keselowski not only will become the new face of NASCAR with Sunday's championship, he has the crew chief (Paul Wolfe), the team owner (Penske) and the organization (Penske Racing) to not only repeat next season, but to become a multi-championship winner in the coming seasons.
Much has been said about Keselowski being the ultimate underdog this season, and to a certain extent, that was true. Just days before the Chase kicked off at Chicago in September, Keselowski boldly predicted
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Nov 17, 2012
One way or other, we're going to see history made in Sunday's Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.
We'll either see legendary race team owner Roger Penske and NASCAR's biggest rising young star, Penske driver Brad Keselowski, earn their respective first Cup championship, or, we'll see Jimmie Johnson win his sixth Cup championship in seven years – which further extends the five straight championships he earned from 2006 through 2010. No other driver has done that feat.
And if Johnson wins the 2012 season crown, he'll be just one more championship away from tying NASCAR's all-time record shared by the sport's two greatest drivers ever, Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.
For all the excitement we had in last year's championship battle between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400 could be equally exciting and compelling.
The battle between Keselowski and Johnson boils down to not only a David vs. Goliath matchup, but also a contest between the sport's most dominating driver for nearly a decade against a young, blue collar driver who is perched to become the next big superstar and the newest face of NASCAR.
Keselowski has the edge coming into Sunday's race, leading Johnson by 20 points. While it's not an insurmountable lead, Keselowski definitely has Johnson's number going in. We've seen several instances during the first nine races of this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup where
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Nov 12, 2012
It was a dust-up unlike any we've seen in NASCAR since probably the 1979 Daytona 500, when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough tried to slug it out in the infield after both wrecked in the closing laps of the race.
Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway will go down in the NASCAR record books not just as Kevin Harvick's first win of 2012, but also a result that may potentially be overshadowed by the late-race wreck between Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer and the ensuing melee that followed.
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Neither side is innocent. After the race, Gordon admitted to reporters that he intentionally wrecked Bowyer.
"Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway
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Nov 9, 2012
With two races remaining this season, if there is one common question being asked in NASCAR right now, it's a pretty straight-forward query: "Can he do it?"
However, that question has more than just a yes or no answer. It actually applies to two different drivers, with the potential of two entirely different outcomes:
Can Jimmie Johnson do it?
Can the man with the nickname of "five-time" – for the five Sprint Cup championships he earned successively from 2006 through 2010 – change that nickname to "six-time" in the next two weeks?
And then there's the other end of the spectrum.
Can Brad Keselowski do it?
Can the native of suburban Detroit win his first Sprint Cup championship, in essence out-Johnsoning Johnson? Of all the drivers that Johnson has faced en route to his previous championships, Keselowski is proving to be one of the most difficult foes to overcome.
Keselowski has proven that he can get inside Johnson's head and cause him to make mistakes – he did so at Chicago and did so again last week at Texas, although Johnson was able to rally back for what became his second consecutive win in as many races.
So, who has the edge going forward in the final two races?
Johnson, unquestionably.
He leads Keselowski by seven points, which in and of itself, is not a huge lead. But it's another set of numbers that further make
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Oct 5, 2012
It's going to be either all downhill or uphill for drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup following Sunday's Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The fourth of 10 races in NASCAR's premier event of the season, Talladega is where we're likely to see the framework of who will be the remaining bonafide contenders to win this year's championship next month in the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway in south Florida.
During the first three races of the Chase, we've seen some interesting storylines emerge:
1. Brad Keselowski, even driving for a lame duck manufacturer that won't be in NASCAR next season (Dodge), has been the biggest surprise thus far with wins in two of the first three Chase races.
2. Denny Hamlin appears fully recovered from the meltdown that cost him the Chase in 2010. If anything, Hamlin has emerged stronger and more confident than ever – and could be one of the biggest obstacles for other drivers to overcome … if he doesn't win it all outright by himself.
3. Jimmie Johnson has unquestionably regained the form that led him to a record five consecutive Sprint Cup championships from 2006 through 2010. If he doesn't win title No. 6 this year, he's going to make it extremely difficult on whoever does.
Sure, doing well Sunday at Talladega is important for those three drivers, but there's a plethora of other drivers who will either see their Chase chances reinvigorated
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Sep 11, 2012
In the world of sports, we've heard of winning for the Gipper, for the fans, for sick kids, for our armed service members and even players selfishly saying they want to win only for themselves – and the big paycheck that goes along with it.
But I don't think we've ever heard of "win one for the 'stache." Yet, Jeff Gordon has decided that will be his rallying cry as he attempts to return to his successful days of old for two very intertwined reasons.
The way Gordon sees it, if he grows a mustache similar to the one he had early in his illustrious career, it possibly may bring back the equally illustrious success he had way back when – and potentially wind up being the difference between a so-so showing and ultimately winning the championship in the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup.
The "movement" has already gained a lot of traction since Gordon announced he would stop shaving after spectacularly racing his way into the Chase at this past Saturday's race at Richmond. No question, the way he rallied to knock Kyle Busch from making the Chase was classic Gordon – like when he used to sport a mustache.
It's not much of a surprise to see Gordon's logic: Jimmie Johnson grew a beard two years into his five consecutive Cup championships. And then Dale Earnhardt Jr. grew a beard that, while it may not have been the good luck charm he had hoped it to be at the outset, it finally did lead to him breaking his 143-race losing streak
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Jul 28, 2012
No one has to tell Jeff Gordon what he has to do. He's well aware that he needs to win at least two of the next seven races, a stretch that begins with Sunday's Brickyard 400 – and that still may not be enough to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Should Gordon miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup, it would be for just the second time in the Chase's nine-year history.
The four-time Sprint Cup champion has struggled miserably in 2012. He comes into Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ranked 17th, 183 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth and 79 points out of the top 10.
That's why so many observers have been pointing at Sunday's 19th renewal of the Brickyard as a make-or-break weekend for the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet. The fans know it, the media and competitors know it, and no one knows how important it is more than Gordon.
"Obviously our season hasn’t gone the way that we had hoped it would," Gordon said. "We’ve shown a lot of speed. We’re capable of leading laps, and we just haven’t come up with the results. … These next several weeks are obviously crucial for us. You’ve got Indianapolis and we’ve got a bunch of tracks coming up that we’re definitely capable of winning at. And we know that we’re going to have to win at those in order to get ourselves in the championship Chase."
If he were to hand-pick a spot to kick off his rally to make the Chase, Gordon could choose no better spot than Indianapolis
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Jul 21, 2012
Friday's early-morning shooting tragedy in Aurora, Colo., where a dozen people were killed and 70 others were injured by what appears to be a crazed madman, got me thinking.
While I'm not trying to be a Monday morning quarterback, but in a state that still grieves the 1999 Columbine High School tragedy, how can someone reportedly wearing a bulletproof vest also sneak a high-capacity AR-15 type rifle, a shotgun, two pistols and a bag of ammunition into such a public place as a theater – and not be noticed or at the least draw some modicum of suspicion?
No sooner did I think that, though, when another thought popped into my mind, something that many racing fans can readily identify with.
How many times have you gone to a NASCAR race and lamented the heavy police and security presence, seemingly at every turn? How many of us have thought such a large gathering of law enforcement types at a race was, no pun intended, overkill?
How many of us have seen dozens, if not hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police in and around places like Daytona? How about the way your car trunk or interior is either searched, or how you must endure guards with mirrors inspecting the underside of your vehicle before it's allowed to proceed into the infield of a racetrack?
Or how about the way dozens of police walk through rows of cars exiting Talladega, looking for impaired drivers?
Do you think those cops are doing those
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By Jerry Bonkowski
Jun 26, 2012
Tuesday morning's announcement that Matt Kenseth and Roush Fenway Racing will part ways at the end of this season is a real head-scratcher and leaves nothing but lots of questions and few answers in its wake.
Why would Jack Roush part ways with his most veteran driver? Why would Kenseth want to leave a place that has been his only home for all but one of his 452 career Sprint Cup starts?
Perhaps the most puzzling question of all is a two-parter: How can Roush simply let the current Sprint Cup points leader get away, and how, if at all, will Tuesday's news affect the No. 17 team's bid for its second Cup championship?
Roush has already announced Kenseth's replacement, naming 2011 Nationwide Series champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to take over the No. 17. That's great news for Stenhouse, but obviously has to be a blow for 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, who many expected to be the next promotion to the Cup series within RFR.
“Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has more than proved his abilities on the race track,” Roush said. “We feel that he is not only a key piece of our team’s future, but a key piece of the future of the sport. Roush Fenway is an organization with a wonderful past and present, as well as an extremely promising future, and I can’t think of a better candidate than Ricky to usher in the next era of success for the team."
On the flip side, Stenhouse's gain could also be Bayne's gain, as he moves up one position and into the top replacement
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Jun 18, 2012
I'm elated that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, breaking an arduous 143-race winless streak.
It's not only great for Junior, who has worked his butt off to return to victory lane perhaps harder than at any other point in his career, but also for NASCAR, which has needed this kind of uplifting ever since TV ratings and at-track attendance began plummeting in 2007 and 2008.
(Is it a coincidence that drop-off began just around the time Junior started falling downward in performance and results? And, wasn't it NASCAR chairman Brian France who said – also at Michigan, one year after Junior's 2008 win – that as Junior goes, so goes NASCAR, that the sanctioning body really needed him to win to right the wrongs and difficulties that the sport has undergone the last few years?)
Yes, I really am glad for Junior, but at the risk of sounding like Debby Downer, let's hope the resulting soundtrack isn't the same broken record that began after Junior's last win – the same one that preceded the start of his now-snapped 143-race winless streak.
Lost and seemingly forgotten amidst all the excitement, cheering, standing ovations and jubilation of Earnhardt's win Sunday is the fact that it not only occurred in the same place as his last win, but it also was preceded by yet another long winless streak.
Look it up: Junior's win at Michigan on June 15, 2008 snapped the second-longest winless streak
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