Can teammates be teammates in the Chase?
It's easy to speak of one's teammates in glowing terms when standing in the garage after a practice session.
It's nice to lean on them for advice and input when things aren't going so well or when NASCAR is debuting a new car model and everyone is trying to figure it out, such as has been the case with the Car of Tomorrow this season.
Working for the common good of the organization, trading wins among teammates, is a dream setup that many teams have enjoyed to this point in the season. But can that continue?
With multiple teammate combinations in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, can that camaraderie continue down the stretch? Or will the drive to win drive a wedge into that open-door policy and force teams to keep their strategies and enhancements a bit more under wraps?
Although in the past teammates haven't seemed to be the tightest of friends when the championship was on the line, the men involved in the title hunt this year are adamantly pledging a heightened level of solidarity when it comes to those final races.
Still, can one really reveal all his secrets, show his full hand, when his teammate is the one breathing down his neck for that coveted trophy?
Just look at Hendrick Motorsports: Three drivers in the Chase, three drivers in the top five in the standings, three drivers within 10 points of the lead. Four-time champion Jeff Gordon leads the charge, but Jimmie Johnson is third and four points back while Kyle Busch is fourth and only six more from the lead spot.
Can they really maintain an open-book policy over the course of the next eight races?
"I battled with Terry Labonte in the past, actually Jimmie and I have battled before as well," Jeff Gordon says. "It's challenging as you get closer down to the wire, especially if you really are battling one another. It definitely gets challenging."
That doesn't make it impossible, though. Especially not in this era of superpowers. Richard Childress Racing has all three drivers (Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer) in the Chase this season. Roush Fenway Racing has two (Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth), as does Joe Gibbs Racing (Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin). Only Dale Earnhardt Inc. (Martin Truex Jr.) and Penske Racing (Kurt Busch) have solo representation in the championship-determining segment of the season.
Does this create an imbalance among the competitors? And, if so, does the advantage lie with the drivers who have teammates in the Chase — or those who do not?
After all, sharing information when one has discovered something that could lead to a string of top finishes and possibly a championship is tough.
But, drivers who do have teammates in the Chase vehemently state that veering from the formula that has led to success is dangerous.
"We pride ourselves on sharing information and that information-sharing is what's gotten us here and hopefully it's what's going to get one of us to the championship," Jeff Gordon said. "You've got to take that into consideration and ... keep that open-book policy going."
Jeff Burton agrees. He seems incensed at the thought that teammates would act as anything less, regardless of what was on the line. Kevin Harvick, Bowyer and Jeff Burton have, at times, endured differing levels of performance this season. Through those periods, the teams that were performing better tried to boost the other to their level.
Jeff Burton says that Bowyer's group has been ahead on the Car of Tomorrow entry and that he has relied heavily on that team, and on Kevin Harvick, in an effort to quickly improve his own performance in races featuring the new model.
The mere question of whether that could change draws a strong response from the driver.
"I think that would be completely unacceptable," he says.
The veteran knows what it took to get to this point in the season. Why would one tamper with what has proven to be a successful formula?
"If we were short-sighted enough to forget the process that put us in position to be successful, was why we were here, if we became unaware of that and we conveniently decided to ignore that, then that would be catastrophic to that advancement of our team," he says.
"We can't have a set of rules that is only enforced at a convenient time. We have to have a set of rules that's enforced with conviction and with a great deal of sincerity at all times, or the essence of what it is that we're trying to do has no meaning any more."
Yet, some see advantages on the flip-side. Kurt Busch's teammate, Ryan Newman, is running well this season and is just on the outside of the Chase field.
Having another strong team in the organization, but one that isn't in the title run, offers its own benefits and avoids so much competition and intense pressure within one organization.
"If you have a bunch of teammates and they are all gunning for the same thing, and that's the championship, everyone is going to run their basic setup and there's not a program within the group for research and development in 2008," Busch says. "That's where we have Ryan Newman developing completely different setups, trying to gather as much information as we can in a race atmosphere.
"... Even out on a short track or even at Talledega drafting having a partner that's pushing you and they're only worried (about) your finish."
Each driver seems to think he is in the best seat, and the teammates appear committed to working together for the good of the entire organization — even when the pressure heats up.
In the end, will knowing one's competition so well make it even harder to race against them? Probably. That does not mean, though, that these teammates plan to be anything but as the Chase rolls to its conclusion.
"The advantages are that you know that you're going to be competing against those guys and you know that you're going to be able to race with those guys probably better than anybody else out there," Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Busch says. "But the disadvantage is that you've got to race against your own setups and your own cars and your own equipment and stuff like that.
"So it's going to be tough. Of course, with names like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, it is extra tough."
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