Twists and turns don’t take hiatus

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Jimmie Johnson winning two of the first four Sprint Cup races of the season is no stunner, but the four-time reigning series champion certainly loosed the gods of war early. Jamie McMurray winning the Daytona 500 wasn’t a complete shock, considering it was his second straight restrictor-plate win and NASCAR’s marquee event historically has produced unexpected winners. But the first four races of the season have not been devoid of surprises.

1. Richard Childress Racing: A series of crew chief swaps and vigorous engine and chassis development led to progress at the end of what was a morose 2009 campaign, but the slimmed-down, three-car team has exceeded even the confident preseason predictions of owner Richard Childress. With two second-place finishes, and a scrapping top-10 at Atlanta, Kevin Harvick has led the points for three straight weeks. He’d only topped the Cup series twice previously, each time for a week.

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: still can’t put together a full race: A record-setting pole speed for the current-generation race car injected much-needed confidence into the much-scrutinized icon. The swagger wasn’t back, but the grin was, and NASCAR stood to benefit from the good feelings emanating from its most popular driver. But Atlanta was Earnhardt’s career in microcosm since NASCAR switched to the new car in 2007. His record qualifying speed in it perhaps was a cruel irony. On Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he mingled with the top five more for much of the day before an incorrectly diagnosed tire issue began a cascade of events that sunk him to 15th. He’s a respectable 13th in points and actually gained two spots this week, but that seems modest considering the energy Hendrick Motorsports has expended on boosting his program since last fall.

3. Roush Fenway Racing hasn’t won: The four-car team won just three races with its five cars last year, and Carl Edwards (who had won nine races and finished second in points in 2008) went winless and was never a title threat. Owner Jack Roush admitted the team had strayed in finding the next breakthrough instead of addressing timely issues and hired squadron of new engineers to assure it stayed nimble during 2010. Still waiting for the Eureka! moment. Roush has gone 0-for-4 to start this season on tracks where he has a combined 23 victories (he had two wins by this time last year) and watched deposed employees McMurray and Kurt Busch each win races. Matt Kenseth (second in points) and Greg Biffle (third) have threatened, with Biffle leading the final regulation laps in the Daytona 500 and Kenseth making an unsuccessful run at Busch on Sunday at Atlanta. The team has led just 42 laps all season, however, 31 by Biffle and none by Edwards.

4. General freakishness: Each NASCAR season comes with a measure of absurdity. But the first four races of 2010 hardened the definition of odd. A pot hole between turns 1 and 2 consumed more than two hours of the Daytona 500, caution lights suddenly clicked on without reason at Las Vegas. Paul Menard is ninth in points. Scott Speed is 12th, although his discounted talent makes that less a surprise and more a novelty. And the spoilers haven’t even been bolted on yet.

5. NASCAR surrendered power, left its flanked exposed: The sanctioning body failed to set the line on unacceptable on-track behavior although a driver 153 laps down (Carl Edwards) intentionally wrecked another running sixth (Brad Keselowski). Edwards was parked for the final few laps and put on probation for three races. Keselowski lost a race car in a vicious crash and points in the standings. Not only did NASCAR fail to prevent an escalation in the violence of “self-policing” – and human nature suggests it will increase – it has opened the road for a future race, or a championship to be decided when a frontrunner is taken out by a vengeful foe. That truly will be bush league. And NASCAR will have no right to intervene then, either.