CRAZY WOMAN DRIVER
By Kay Bell
Welcome to the new Sprint Cup season, race fans. I don't know about you, but I'm almost afraid for the engines to crank in 2012. I mean, how can it be better than last year?
2012 PREVIEW
The 2011 championship chase went down to the last race and still had to be decided by a tiebreaker. The #48 stranglehold was broken. We had a lot of new and different winners. And we veteran fans saw some of our favorite drivers return to victory lane (yes, I'm talking about the #24).
But as good as 2011 was, there are plenty of questions going into this season. Let's see if we can come up with at least educated guesses, if not
Will the Chase for the Championship be as exciting? I hope so. As long-time readers know, I'm not a fan of this playoff
24 CHANGING LANES // FEBRUARY '12
nitely helped last year, though I still
barely claimed the title. And let's be honest, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus had their share of problems last year.
But maybe now that their air of invincibility is gone, we'll continue to have more competitive seasons. If
eight winless streaks broken are any indication, there are a lot of teams ready to rumble into the winner's circle.
Will the crew chief carousel keep spinning? Yes. The most shocking change was Darian Grubb being let go by Stewart-Haas Racing despite
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format, but if things work out again as they did in 2011, I'll quit complain- ing (so much and so loudly).
