Posts tagged Chip Ganassi Racing at FanHouse

Apparently, a driver earning a top 10 for the first time in his career is a pretty big thing, nowadays. David Stremme has been on top of that heap this week after finishing 10th at Texas on Sunday.

The career-best finish for Stremme has been a cornerstone in what looks to be a very solid start to a sophomore year in the Nextel Cup series for the South Bend, Ind. native. Stremme sits 12th in the points right now and has finished in the top 20 in every race this season except Martinsville. In this era of Hendrick, Roush, RCR, and Gibbs dominance, that's a pretty respectable finish for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

"That was a great top 10 finish, and it's a career best, but I thought we were headed for a better finish [at Texas]. Still, a top 10 at Texas is pretty good and we moved back up to 12th in the series standings. We've done what we set out to do in these first few races," said Stremme in the team's post race release.

Stremme endured a tulmutous first season with Ganassi, squeaking into 2007 with the same job after finishing 33rd in points. He had a couple flashes of brilliance last season, finishing 11th twice, but several DNF's didn't have the boss too happy.

They're not the cream of the crop, but they have solid footing in the Top 35 heading to Martinsville. They don't have to worry about qualifying, but they need to make adjustments if they want to secure their spot in the Chase. Here are your teams in the middle of the road:

Chip Ganassi / Felix Sabates: Two teams solidly in the Top 35--the #40 in 11th and the #42 in 19th. Their third team, the #41 isn't faring quite as well in 29th, but they're inside for at least one more week.

The CGRFS cars have gained an average of 3.3 positions from the end of last season.

While the teams cars are on the rise, so is one of the team's stars. Juan Pablo Montoya's entry into NASCAR is one of the most talked about stories in all of auto racing--there's the F1 angle, the international angle, the diversity angle and the he'll push anyone and anything out of his way to win angle ...

Ganassi is also off to a good start in the Indy Racing League, which kicked off Saturday and saw the third one-two finish for Ganassi drivers Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.

This week saw tragic accidents in both the NHRA and IRL leagues.

John Force Racing's funny car driver Eric Medlen, 33, who had emerged as one of the most popular young drivers in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, succumbed Friday afternoon to injuries suffered when his race car crashed into a guardwall during a Monday test session at Gainesville Raceway.

Argentinian Indy Pro Series driver Pablo Perez, 24, who drives for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, underwent surgery on both legs yesterday following a horrific crash at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He is currently in serious, but stable condition.

These tragedies make me think I have it easier as a stock car racing fan. And I can't help but find myself grateful to NASCAR for stepping up their commitment to driver safety.

Since 2001, several tracks have been upgraded with safer barriers and all drivers are now required to wear the HANS device.

The car of tomorrow brings yet another improvement: IMPAXX™ Energy Absorbing Foam provided by Dow Automotive, which is designed to absorb and attenuate energy in a crash:

The energy of the impact is managed through a series of controlled reactions within the foam. The result is a controlled release of energy, allowing forces to be better spread throughout the vehicle from the time of impact to the end of the crash sequence.

Bristol Motor Speedway is certainly a fine choice of racetrack for IMPAXX to make its debut.

about not being able to catch Jimmie Johnson today.

And he said so on national TV!

Didn't anybody tell him you can't do that?

The FCC is coming for Fox. They'll be slapped with a fine for allowing one of the seven dirty words to make it to air.

Fox will pass the fine on to NASCAR and NASCAR will slap their own fine on Montoya.

There will be shouts of horror, discussion of time delays and The Parents Television Council will have a letter out to their members before I'm done posting this because millions of children have been scarred for life.

But all I want to know is if NASCAR is going to dock points from JPM like they did from Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he said the 'S' word after winning in 'Dega in 2004.

If he is shown favoritism there will be outrage! At least from me!

Colombian native Juan Pablo Montoya topped the speed chart in NASCAR Busch Series practice yesterday and his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammate Scott Pruett scored the second fastest time. Mexican natives Carlos Contreras and Jorge Goeters were also in the top 5 as they headed to qualifying.

On Sunday, Montoya and his crew chief, Brad Parrott, will be ESPN2's "In-Race Reporters." JPM will have cameras inside his car to show his face as he speaks to ESPN2 booth analyst Rusty Wallace while on the pace laps and during caution periods. Parrott will speak to booth analyst Andy Petree at various times throughout the telecast.

Montoya is excited to return to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez:

"It's an awesome track. It takes a lot of talent to go around and its tricky and needs a lot of rhythm. I hope we can have a good weekend and bring the car home this time. I see our team going higher and higher and that is the main goal."

And by "bringing the car home" he means finish a race--something he has yet to accomplish in the series so far this season. After engine trouble in Daytona and a wreck in Cali, JPM is 46th in the Busch standings--quite a feat considering there are only 35 full-time teams.

Update: The top 5 in practice are also the top 5 qualifiers.

1. Pruett
2. Contreras
3. Montoya
4. Goeters
5. Defending race champion Denny Hamlin

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