2007: what do you expect will happen next year

[harvick#1]

what do you think will happen next year

[jslone]

A new course in the New York area might happen,may not get built next year but that will happen next year.

[slorydn1]

Kevin Harvick: 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Champion

You heard it here first!

[Jonesi]

I think it will still be mostly Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs, Childress, DEI, & Evernham cars at the front. However with the CoT & Toyota mixing things up, one of them will miss the mark and struggle worse than should be expected, and some mid field team will suddenly get hot after years of poor results (Yates, Ganassi, Petty, Davis)

[RaceFanStan]

I expect 2007 will be much like 2006 ...
1. Lots of totally unpredictable events will occur ...
2. Hendrick & Roush cars will continue to be the forces to deal with ...
3. High expectations will meet complete failure while unexpected drivers will have glimmers of success ...

New for 2007 :
Toyota will NOT be up to speed at 1st but may come on strong late in the season ...
Despite jumping ship, Bill Davis Racing & Michael Waltrip Racing will struggle to keep up ...
Team RedBull will be the biggest failure of 2007 ... :eek:

[RaceFanStan]

1 more thing, the COT will be a non-issue & NASCAR will declare it a shining success ... :eek:

[harvick#1]

I'm gonna say Hendrick will have the championship jinx.

they are gonna struggle with the CoT, as they have been saying that in testing.

Jeff Gordon will be the only driver in the top ten for Hendrick, but JJ will make it due to the new rule nascar will make by having the top15 be in.

RCR will dominate next year, Harvick is back, Burton is reenergized, and Bowyer is gonna be tough to beat. Harvick will be the champ.

Denny Hamlin will have a sophmore slump, while Tony Stewart wins Daytona 500 finally.

Jooyner fans will be dissappointed again when Truex out shines Earnhardt.

Roush will now really struggle except for Kenseth (Biffle and Edwards will have on and off runs)

The rookie class is horrible, JPM wins ROTY with the strength of a few top 5's.

the TV coverage will be ALOT better, thanks to ESPN finally coming back.

[oldhippie]

there will be lots of hype and some good racin

[RaceFanStan]

... the TV coverage will be ALOT better, thanks to ESPN finally coming back.
ESPN will only cover the 7 Nextel Cup races just before the Chase : :s
02/10/07 ~ Budweiser Shootout @ Daytona on FOX
02/18/07 ~ Race 01 @ Daytona on FOX
02/25/07 ~ Race 02 @ California on FOX
03/11/07 ~ Race 03 @ Las Vegas on FOX
03/18/07 ~ Race 04 @ Atlanta on FOX
03/25/07 ~ Race 05 @ Bristol on FOX
04/01/07 ~ Race 06 @ Martinsville on FOX
04/15/07 ~ Race 07 @ Texas on FOX
04/21/07 ~ Race 08 @ Phoenix on FOX
04/29/07 ~ Race 09 @ Talladega on FOX
05/05/07 ~ Race 10 @ Richmond on FOX
05/12/07 ~ Race 11 @ Darlington on FOX
05/19/07 ~ All-Star Challenge @ Charlotte on SPEED
05/27/07 ~ Race 12 @ Charlotte on FOX
06/03/07 ~ Race 13 @ Dover on FOX
06/10/07 ~ Race 14 @ Pocono on TNT
06/17/07 ~ Race 15 @ Michigan on TNT
06/24/07 ~ Race 16 @ Sonoma on TNT
07/01/07 ~ Race 17 @ Loudon on TNT
07/07/07 ~ Race 18 @ Daytona on TNT
07/15/07 ~ Race 19 @ Chicagoland on TNT
07/29/07 ~ Race 20 @ Indianapolis on ESPN
08/05/07 ~ Race 21 @ Pocono on ESPN
08/12/07 ~ Race 22 @ Watkins Glen on ESPN
08/19/07 ~ Race 23 @ Michigan on ESPN
08/25/07 ~ Race 24 @ Bristol on ESPN
09/02/07 ~ Race 25 @ California on ESPN
09/08/07 ~ Race 26 @ Richmond on ESPN
09/16/07 ~ Race 27 @ Loudon on ABC
09/23/07 ~ Race 28 @ Dover on ABC
09/30/07 ~ Race 29 @ Kansas on ABC
10/07/07 ~ Race 30 @ Talladega on ABC
10/13/07 ~ Race 31 @ Charlotte on ABC
10/21/07 ~ Race 32 @ Martinsville on ABC
10/28/07 ~ Race 33 @ Atlanta on ABC
11/04/07 ~ Race 34 @ Texas on ABC
11/11/07 ~ Race 35 @ Phoenix on ABC
11/18/07 ~ Race 36 @ Homestead-Miami on ABC

ABC gets the the Chase exclusively. :eek:

[Jonesi]

I don't understand 'All-Star Challenge @ Charlotte on SPEED' considering the big drop in rating when other series races are on Speed vs other cable channels. I can't imagine Nextel or Lowes being very happy with the ratings.

[harvick#1]

hopefully they will push Speed to be on a normal Cable package, that way I can finally get it

[harvick#1]

ESPN will only cover the 7 Nextel Cup races just before the Chase : :s


anything is better than NBC, they are the worst broadcasting team in US television

[jeffconn]

The ABC races will be branded "ESPN on ABC" like they've been branding the college football broadcasts this season. The ABC and ESPN teams should be exactly the same.

[Labonte Massa]

My predictions...

A) The ratings will drop.
B) The racing will be boring.
C) The TV coverage will still be bad.
D) I won't be watching.

It's a shame that all four of those will be true...what happened to the old NASCAR?

[harvick#1]

what happened to the old NASCAR?

it ended when Earnhardt died :(

[RaceFanStan]

harv, that is sad but true. :s
Dale Earnhardt wouldn't have stood still for some of the changes NASCAR has made.
In fact Bill Jr probably wouldn't handed-off to Butthead Brian if Dale had lived.
Some of the safety changes are a ripple effect of Dale Earnhardt's passing.
It isn't the same NASCAR as it was in 2000. :s

[RaceFanStan]

People have ridiculed me for saying Dale Earnhardt could have stopped some NASCAR changes.
Bill Elliott may have consistantly gotten "Most Popular Driver" but Dale Earrnhardt had the biggest fanbase.
When Dale Earnhardt spoke, NASCAR listened. :eek:

When we lost Dale Earnhardt, we lost a friend & spokesman for the fans.
Now all you have are policitally correct drivers who blindly eat what NASCAR serves. :s

[dwboogityfan]

Things to happen in 2007 (possibly!)

- Ginn Racing to be the surprise success of the season. If Sterling and Joe can qualify well for the first few races I see them (along with Mark Martin) contending on a weekly basis.
- Michael Waltrip to miss the Daytona 500, along with both the Red Bull Racing cars.
- Bobby Labonte to win a race for Petty Enterprises and possibly make the chase.
- Juan Montoya to be rookie of the year and finish top 15 in points.
- Martin Truex Jr and Casey Mears to win their first races
- Dave Blaney to be the highest Toyota car in points but outside the top 20.
- Robert Yates to choose another rookie to drive the #88 (possibly David Starr from the Truck Series) and struggle to keep both cars in the top 35.
- Carl Edwards to win the Nextel Cup.

[SmokeFan20]

1. Knaus & Johnson will be caught cheating again. NASCAR will slap Johnson on the wrist and send Knaus on vacation again.

2. Petty Enterprises will win a COT race at Martinsville.

3. Carl Edwards will be the only Ford & Roush driver to make the chase. Matt Kenseth will win only two races. Greg Biffle & Jamie McMurray will both pull off single pit strategy wins
David Ragan will fall out of the top 35 after the fifth race and never recover.

4. Robby Gordon Motorsports will be the best Ford team outside of Roush.

5. Robert Yates Racing will merge will Wood Brothers just to keep their teams alive.

6. Michael Waltrip will retire at the end of the season and take a booth job.

7. Toyota will win at least two races.

8. Penske will announce that he's switching his team to Toyota for '08 during the chase next year.

9. Juan Pablo Montoya will win his first race at Talladega.

10. Kevin Harvick will win the most races of the season, but Dale Earnhardt Jr will win the championship.

11. Tony Stewart will win the Daytona 500 and will repeat as IROC Champion *if IROC is around next season that is*

12. Carl Edwards will lose the Busch Series championship to Kevin Harvick, who announces after winning the Hershey Product 300 at Daytona that he will run another full season in Busch.

13. Toyota will drop support on the Truck Series after Todd Bodine repeats.

14. 50% of the races ratings will be up from last year but the other halfs ratings will match or worse than 2006.

15. People will complain about NASCAR no matter what they do.
Examples:
-People complained about Kenseth winning the Cup by a million points. NASCAR changed the point system. People complained about that.
-People complained about drivers racing back to the caution. NASCAR changed that. Now people complain about it.
-People complained about races ending under caution. NASCAR created "Green-White-Checkers". People complain about that too.
-People whined about drivers leading and winning by over 5 seconds. NASCAR starts throwing cautions to bunch the field back up. People cry about that.
-People complain about Cup races and comment about how great the Trucks are. NASCAR creates the "COT", wich borrows from the Trucks design. Now people are complaining about the COT before it has even seen it's first race.

[Mark in Oshawa]

My picks for next year will be pretty simple.


First off, Toyota will be competitive right off the top. REAL quick....other teams will squak and NASCAR will be lobbied to handicap the Toyota teams in some way, likely led by Jack Roush will who will be vociferious in his argument.

Tony Stewart will lay a beating on the rest of the world as he goes into 2007 with something to prove. A motivated Tony Stewart means Smoke will win his 3rd championship in 2007.

Roush's team will lose its focus and struggle with all 4 cars hanging on to the top 15. Maybe only 2 make it to the chase.

Mark Martin will get a taste of reality as he struggles to get his car in to the top 20 race after race. MB2 (now Ginn) is NOT Roush Racing. Reality will set in for Mark, and by the end of the year, he will be looking at just running CTS or maybe Busch races only for DE2.

Jr and Gordon, despite being the two most popular guys will do ok, not great and both will likely not like it but not be looking for big changes either.

Jimmie Johnson will struggle. Now that the mountain has been climbed, Knaus will discover getting on top is one thing, staying there is something else again...

Bobby Labonte will put the 43 into the Chase. This is my most ambitious pick and yet I believe all the money and people the Petty's have hired will make an impact. That and Dodge has been good about supporting all their teams, and seeing the 43 be competitive will be a boost for Dodge.

Oh yes, the COT? Well, it wont look as funny looking as we originally thought. It will work and I suppose us fans will get used to it. I don't know what was wrong with the cars we had, but that is NASCAR's call.

Oh yes, ABC will do ok at the TV side of things, but I predict by next year, we will spend a lot of time complaining about Rusty Wallace's color commentary. Some will like Rusty, and a lot might just wish he would shut up.

[Sparky1329]

People have ridiculed me for saying Dale Earnhardt could have stopped some NASCAR changes.
Bill Elliott may have consistantly gotten "Most Popular Driver" but Dale Earrnhardt had the biggest fanbase.
When Dale Earnhardt spoke, NASCAR listened. :eek:

When we lost Dale Earnhardt, we lost a friend & spokesman for the fans.
Now all you have are policitally correct drivers who blindly eat what NASCAR serves. :s

I'd never ridicule you for saying that Dale could've prevented some nonsense. I think you're right. Love him or hate him he had Bill Jr's ear. If he thought something was wrong he didn't pussyfoot around it in an effort to schmooze NASCAR either. Sadly there's nobody in the entire garage area with that much clout.

[Robert Ryan]

Sadly there's nobody in the entire garage area with that much clout
V8Supercar has a committee for Drivers that have been elected by other drivers and a Car Owners Committee(TEGA) that has nominated representatives. They represent the "stakeholders" in the pits.

[Speedworx]

#25 will make the chase and win several races (without wrecking people to do it)

[Sparky1329]

V8Supercar has a committee for Drivers that have been elected by other drivers and a Car Owners Committee(TEGA) that has nominated representatives. They represent the "stakeholders" in the pits.

Yeah well NASCAR doesn't.

[RaceFanStan]

V8Supercar has a committee for Drivers that have been elected by other drivers and a Car Owners Committee(TEGA) that has nominated representatives. They represent the "stakeholders" in the pits.
NASCAR would NEVER allow that to happen.
If the drivers tried something like that, they would be suspended. :eek:

[RaceFanStan]

#25 will make the chase and win several races (without wrecking people to do it)
I agree with that ! :D :up:
Casey Mears will shine in the #25 Hendrick car.

[harvick#1]

NASCAR would NEVER allow that to happen.
If the drivers tried something like that, they would be suspended. :eek:

this isn't the NBA or NFL now