I read this on other forum:
Roush has been VERY fast at California for years, and California is a sister track to Michigan, where Roush is also very fast. Roush cars will be fast at both tracks. Bottom line, it is like saying Ferrari will win at Indy when the Michelins could not run. What chance did Jordan or Manardi have? Roush has by far the best 2 mile cars.
Ganassi was running for also ran status. Now add Juan into the picture. His CART run had simply zero relevance to this race. Juan is learning to know what he needs to make a stock car go for a long run, and this is something he has never done before. To reference Jase, I do not think a top 15 was realistic either, as Juan had no clue what he would need to go 100 laps fast and green in this race, as he had never done it before. Sterling Marlin did not help by spinning and trapping Juan a lap down. But the fact is, this stuff happens in NASCAR. Local yellow is not normal in NASCAR, as lap times are much shorter and the walls keep the cars on the track in harms way.
The real Question in my mind is how will Juan improve. The answer to me will not be decided next weekend, but in the next 10 weeks. The road course against the Busch cars in Mexico will be a good test, but not the definitive answer. Juan will have to remember that he cannot brake at 50meters, but will have to start at 200. But we all know Juan can drive a road course.
In my opinion, Juan drove a very good race, he brought a slow car in in good position, and dealt with a very tough setback (getting trapped by Marlin's spin) with courage and he really showed me something when his 25th to 35th laps on tires were almost as fast as his 2nd. every time he had a clear track, he was fast, now he just needs to learn to do it on a crowded track, but I think he will learn quick.
Obvious to me is that F1 fans are not used to the difference that a set of new tires can make to a race car in NASCAR. In F1, a car would be fine for 4 laps on old tires, but looking at the last 4 laps, Robby Gordon made up 3 spots in those laps, while Juan lost 1. In my opinion, that was entirely due to Juan restarting 25+ cars behind the leader in a format he is not used to. Juan will learn how to do the NASCAR restart shortly, he has always done well on restarts, he just needs to get used to restarting 35 cars behind the leader.
“It’s frustrating, but we had the pace. It wasn’t bad luck. It was a reflection of our intensity of development.” - Ron Dennis
