NASCAR: 2013 Championship Contenders Countdown — #6. Clint Bowyer

2012 Review:
Some people (including yours truly) believed Clint Bowyer would struggle mightily when he moved to lowly Michael Waltrip Racing from Richard Childress Racing. Yours truly went so far as to think he could potentially be committing career suicide.

Yours truly was very, very wrong.

Bowyer not only didn't struggle at MWR, he flourished, tabbing career highs in wins (3), top-five finishes (10), top-tens (23) and overall rank in the points standings (2nd).

In fact the addition of Bowyer — as well as new Executive Vice President of Competition Scott Miller, who also came to MWR from RCR —raised the performance level of the company as a whole.

2013 was the first ever year that MWR managed to race a car into the Chase. And they didn't just put one car in, they got two, with teammate Martin Truex Jr. also joining the post-season fray.

But enough about all of that, back to Bowyer.

The No. 15 car became one of the more consistent race teams in the sport. Example: over the final 18 races of the season, Bowyer scored 13 top-ten finishes. That's a pretty solid stretch.

He even had an outside shot at earning his first Sprint Cup as late as the penultimate race weekend of the year. Or, until the incident with Jeff Gordon ultimately ruined his championship aspirations for good.

Still, 2012 was an effective building block for something more, which the No.15 will strive for in 2013.


2013 Preview:
There are two theories that work against Bowyer in 2013.

One of which is the Sophomore Slump. Normally reserved for rookies who perform well in their first full season, this can apply for Bowyer here as well.

It'll be his second full year at MWR, the first of which exceeded all expectations. It's reasonable to think there will be a small step backward, given that said expectations have been raised considerably.

The second, and eerily real, belief is the curse that apparently strikes drivers and teams who finish second in the points. It seems to afflict a driver's performance and luck, and when you look at the numbers, it's difficult to discredit.

Over the past four seasons, the championship runner-up has finished 11th, 13th,9th and 15th in the ensuing year, with one combined win between them.

Those theories don't bode we'll for Bowyer.

What does, however, is the strength MWR showed last year. First time in the history of the organization, they could be mentioned in the same breath with NASCAR's elite teams.

Now that they're among the elite, they have to prove the companies staying-power towards the top.


2013 Prediction
Don't count me as a huge believer in curses. While I don't see Clint Bowyer winning the championship, it won't be because he was runner-up last season.

What I do see is a team that proves Michael Waltrip Racing is more than a one-hit wonder, who will solidify themselves among the sport's elite this season.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Bowyer set a new career high in wins this year. These guys are for real.


J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Tony Stewart
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards

NASCAR: 2013 Championship Contenders Countdown — #7. Jeff Gordon

2012 Review:
Arguably, no driver did as magnificent a job of facing terrible luck and still making a decent season out of it as Jeff Gordon.

He started off the year with a blown engine at Daytona. At Bristol contact with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr cut down his left rear tire, causing a wreck and taking him out of the race.

The race that best summed up Gordon's season was the spring event at Martinsville, where he led a race-high 329 laps. Despite not having the lead late, he had managed to track down Jimmie Johnson and take the lead with five laps to go when a late caution caused by David Reutimann led to a green-white-checkered finish.

On the ensuing restart, Gordon was bonsai'd by Clint Bowyer. The two, along with Jimmie Johnson, ended up spinning out together, taking a chance for a victory — which, notably, would have been Rick Hendrick's 200th win as a car went at the time — away from Gordon.

That race was basically Gordon's season in a nutshell: fast cars, terrible luck. By the 14th race of the season (Pocono) Gordon had yet to crack the top 20 in the points standings.

However, he began to turn things around, scoring nine top-ten finishes over the next 12 races, including a miracle second place finish at Richmond which locked him into the Chase by one point over Kyle Busch.

However, a blown tire at Chicago ruined Gordon's championship aspirations right from the get go of the Chase.

His year would end with him wrecking Clint Bowyer on purpose for contact made a few laps earlier at Phoenix and a win on fuel mileage at Homestead. Opposite ends of the spectrum, indeed.


2013 Preview
Surely Gordon won't be snake bit as often as last season, right? It'll be his third year working with Alan Gustafson , whom he's won five races with, and his 21st full season, all of which have spent racing for Hendrick Motorsports.

Gordon has won on all types of race tracks — Kentucky being the only remaining course on the Sprint Cup circuit where he hasn't visited victory lane — and HMS equipment is at the best it's ever been.

The only question is whether or not the veteran driver has another championship run in him. If last season's amazing pre-Chase stretch is any indication, then he's definitely got another run left in the tank.

But only if luck decides to jump on his side....


2013 Prediction
It won't be a championship year, just because I think there are race teams out there that are better than the No.24 is at the moment.

That said, expect plenty of noise form Jeff Gordon. Not of the rivalry sort — regardless of them refusing to kiss and make up, I don't expect either Gordon or Bowyer to have any problems with each other this season.

No, I expect Gordon to lead a ton of laps and win some races, especially at places where he excels such as short tracks and road courses.

Sure, his bid at a fifth championship will come up short, but it'll be a fun ride along the way.


J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Tony Stewart
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards

NASCAR: 2013 Championship Contenders Countdown — #8. Tony Stewart

2012 Review
Tony Stewart had a roller coaster beginning to 2012. Despite winning the championship the previous season, he and then-crew chief Darien Grubb parted ways, Grubb moving over to Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart picked up Steve Addington from Penske Racing as replacement.

Once competition began, the roller coaster picked up steam. After a 16th place result in the Daytona 500, Stewart's next four finishes looked like this: 22nd, 1st, 16th, 1st.

That continued throughout the year, with the driver known as "Smoke" picking up 14 more top-ten finishes, while finishing 20th or worse 11 more times.

While the No.14 team was able to make the Chase, they never found a way to consistently put the car up front , and in turn, never put up a serious run at the championship.

Stewart ended up ninth in the final standings.


2013 Preview:
While Stewart's team remains largely intact, there was one major addition to Stewart-Haas Racing over the offseason: Danica Patrick.

While this doesn't affect the No.14 team directly, as co-owner of the company Stewart will end up having to field a gazillion questions about his new driver and teammate, ranging from insignificant to tedious.

He'll also to a small extent as owner and teammate be responsible for Patrick's progress as she embarks on her first full season in NASCAR's top series.

These potential distractions aside, Smoke is still the same guy who can win in any type of race car on any given type of track on any given day. And it's been proven that he and Addington can be a winning a combination.

But can they win often enough to earn Stewart his fourth Sprint Cup?


2013 Prediction:
There's a lot Tony Stewart will have to balance both on the track and off, between a new driver in the stable who will likely dominate media attention and a race team that needs to figure out how to not check out every couple of race weekends.

Stewart will definitely win at the very least a race or two —he's too talented not to, and he has never failed to win a race in a single season of his career.

But its hard to imagine the new distraction of Danica Patrick helping an organization that saw the other teammate Ryan Newman struggle for most of 2012 while Stewart yo-yoed his way through the campaign.

It won't be a terrible year by any means, but it won't be a great one either, especially by Smoke's high standards.


J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
8. Tony Stewart
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards

NASCAR: 2013 Championship Contenders Countdown — #9. Denny Hamlin

2012 Review:
After a disappointing 2011 season, Denny Hamlin returned to prominence in 2012, winning five races and scoring 14 top-five finishes.

Hamlin picked up his first victory of the season at Phoenix, the second points-paying event of the year. It was also just his second race with new crew chief Darien Grubb, who was fresh off of winning a championship the previous year with Tony Stewart.

While the hot start should have boded well for Hamlin — he held the points lead two races in — the No.11 team quickly cooled off, finishing outside the top ten in four of their next five starts. However, they followed that stretch up with their second win of the year.

Those first eight races summed up the theme of Hamlin's season quite nicely, that theme being wild inconsistency. While his aforementioned 14 top-fives ranked second in the Sprint Cup Series, he only scored three other top-ten finishes — his total of 17 ranked 11th among drivers.

He led 1226 laps — third in the series — but also finished outside of the top fifteen 14 times. His four wins made him the top seed once points were reset for the Chase, but, despite winning the second event of the post-season, he was rendered a non-factor due to six finishes of 13th or worse in the ten-race playoff.


2013 Preview:
Now a little over a full year removed from winning a championship, Darien Grubb returns for his second season as crew chief for the No.11.

Grubb isn't the only championship experience at Joe Gibbs Racing this season; Matt Kenseth, the 2003 champ, has made the move over from Roush Fenway Racing. His calm demeanor and veteran leadership should have a positive effect on the entire organization.

This of course includes Hamlin, who could use a little bit of Kenseth's trademark consistency rubbing off on him.

The expectations will be high for the No.11, with his past history of being able to win races — 18 over the last four years, second in the series over that span — and the championship calibre talent around him.


2013 Prediction:
Denny Hamlin has made the Chase for the Sprint Cup every single full season of his career. So, knowing that, betting that he'll make the post-season top twelve is about as safe as it gets.

From there, though, is where it gets tricky. He's a proven winner, having won 22 races on 12 different racetracks over the course of his career. But, as previously stated, he's wildly inconsistent, just as prone to clicking off streaks of poor finishes as he is able to rack up wins.

Hamlin will benefit greatly from the addition of Kenseth to the JGR stable, but at the end of the day, I just don't see it having enough of an effect to make him a championship contender like he was in 2010.

At least not yet.


J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards

NASCAR: 2013 Championship Contenders Countdown — #10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2012 Review:
2012 was a return to form of sorts for Dale Earnhardt Jr. In just his second year working with crew chief Steve Letarte, he posted a career high average finish (10.9) and broke a four-year winless streak at Michigan in June.

He also briefly took the points lead after a fourth-place finish at Indianapolis, but a broken transmission at Pocono and a late spin at Warkins Glen dropped him from the top spot after only two weeks.

Still, given the No.88 team's ability to consistently run up front, they seemed poised to make a run at the championship once the Chase started.

However, after getting involved in a late accident at Talladega, Earnhardt took himself out of the race car due to residual effects from a concussion suffered at a Kansas tire test a couple of months earlier.

Earnhardt got back in the car after two weeks off and, after wrecking again at Martinsville, finished off the final three events with two top ten finishes.


2013 Preview:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will likely be many-a-pundit's dark horse pick to compete for the championship this season.

The improvement that team has seen since Steve Letarte took over as crew chief in 2011 is nothing short of remarkable. After two straight seasons outside the top-20 in points, the No.88 has now been featured in two straight Chases.

Last season, Earnhardt led more laps in a season than he had since 2008 and scored his largest number of top-ten finishes (20) since 2004. The team's consistent ability to run up front was the reason behind Earnhardt never falling out of the top five in driver points throughout the regular season.

Now the No.88 needs to take another step forward and pair consistent solid finishes with the ability to compete for wins on a regular basis. Not once since the Chase came into being for the 2004 season has a driver won a championship without winning at least three race.

Simply put, Earnhardt will have to increase his output of wins beyond one-a-year if he hopes to legitimately contend for the title.


2013 Prediction:
Dale Earnhardt Jr's 2013 season could range anywhere Cross the map.

On one hand, his team has made strides each of the first two seasons under the leadership of Steve Letarte. It doesn't seem likely they will take a step back in a third.

Also, as stated above, they asserted themselves as one of, if not THE, most consistent cars in the garage at finishing towards the front of the field.

But, on the other hand, they ended the season with a limp, between Earnhardt's injury and two finishes of worse than 20th in the four races he came back. One can't be thrilled with that loss in momentum.

It's also difficult, given that he's spent a good portion (two years) of his time at Hendrick as basically an also-ran, to suddenly pick him as a championship contender feels a bit misguided. Fair or not, 2009 and 2010 still linger in my mind.

Throw in the fact that he's won one race in over four years, and it gets even more difficult to place him among the current elite in the sport.

All that being said, I do think he contends for more wins in 2013 — pulling through in a couple of those races — than he did last season, and I wouldn't be surprised for that team to click off top-ten finishes at a rate similar to last season's rather torrid pace.

But at the end if the day, once it comes Chase time, there are other drivers and teams that I just have more confidence in. It's hard to rate a driver highly when you could just as easily see them ranked 15th when it's all said and done.

So, after weighing worst case and best case scenarios, I went with the law of averages and placed Earnhardt 10th on my list.

Yes, there's definitely reason to exoect plenty of weekends where Jr. Nation has reason to stand and cheer. But there's always something, often weird, that strikes driver 88. Expect that something to happen again, effectively leaving him behind in the championship race as the season comes to a close.


J-Mac's 2013 Top 12 So Far:
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr
11. Greg Biffle
12. Carl Edwards

Men's Basketball: Some Quick Thoughts on Another Brilliant Saturday

A good portion of America decides not to tune in to college basketball until March Madness hits.

These folks are missing out.



What's expected in March during NCAA tournament time — excitement, kids playing their hearts out, buzzer beaters, and top rated schools going down to underdogs — seems to be happening on a daily basis in 2013.

Heck, on Saturday, it all happened before the hour hand hit the single digits here in the central time zone.

The marquee early game, #3 Michigan at Wisconsin, came down to the final moments. Junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr nailed a three pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining to put the Wolverines on top.

Badger guard Ben Brust received the inbound and managed to get off a prayer shortly after crossing half-court. Naturally, to fit with the theme that's becoming oh-so-common in men's basketball, it went true., sending the game into overtime.

The Badgers managed to pull out the victory in a thrilling finish as Wolverine guard Josh Burke's own attempt at a buzzer beater went seemingly halfway down before ringing out of the cylinder.

And that's how college basketball fans started their day.

If that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, another top five team, #5 Kansas, fell for a third straight game, this time in Norman to the Oklahoma Sooners.

And if buzzer beaters and upsets aren't your thing, Louisville and Notre Dame, both of whom are ranked, went into not one, not two, but FIVE extra periods.

Safe to say, if you didn't enjoy Saturday's action, you're either not a basketball fan or completely devoid of a pulse.

But the best part is that Saturday wasn't just an anomaly when compared with the rest of the college basketball season, especially the last month. It's closer to the rule.

Four ranked teams, including Kansas twice, lost during this week. The #1 team alone has lost five different times over the course of the season.

Teams seem to be struggling more than ever on the road, and any school can take down any other school any given week, records and and rankings be damned. Fans of parity, such as myself, have to be thrilled about that.

That's not to say every game is going to be like the three mentioned above. North Carolina got drubbed at Miami in an absolute stinker. I spent a portion of my afternoon watching my Red Raiders get thumped in Waco by the Baylor Bears. (The latter was especially excruciating.)

But with so many highly touted teams losing every week, with no school pulling ahead as a clear-cut number one, there's a veritable plethora of excitement to be had every time you see college kids lacing up and playing some basketball.

And that's refreshing, considering that most of what's considered news worthy in today's sports media ranges from infighting between teammates to who's on performance-enhancing drugs to whatever glorified gossip we can get our hands on.

Or, to keep things within the college spectrum, fake girlfriends or the next potential coach to put his school on probation because of recruiting violations.

For now, stories are being written by the actions of athletes on the court, rather than how they manage to embarrass themselves off of it. Which is, as already stated, refreshing.

So while many of us are mourning the loss of football or gearing up for spring training, lets take a second to sit back, acknowledge, and enjoy the best sports product on television right now.

College basketball is more than just a tournament held every March, folks.

Which, due to the wide-open nature of the season could be the best tourney to date. Just saying.