It's no time to push the panic button

This article was written by Larry McReynolds and I agree with what he has to say. I have been saying all along it is to soon to be making any solid predictions but the time is coming soon to make or break.

It's still early, but let's take stock through the first two weeks of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
One organization that has impressed me is Penske Racing. They are really starting to show some good results. Kurt Busch dodged a bullet at Daytona and finished well plus was a top-five car all night long. So the No. 2 car is off to a good start. David Stremme had a top 15 finish at Fontana. Sam Hornish continues to struggle, but the measuring stick at Penske Racing has always been that No. 2 car.
Once again it looks like the Roush Fenway group will be solid all year long. That statement covers all five of their teams. Matt Kenseth has obviously won the first two races of the year. Greg Biffle finished fourth at Fontana but clearly had the car to beat if he hadn't had the mistake on pit road. Carl Edwards was strong too.
Las Vegas weekend

The Toyotas were pretty impressive too. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were as strong as ever. Brian Vickers won the pole but had to start in the rear when they changed his motor. He drove back up through there and finished 10th. The other two Toyotas that have been really impressive are Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann. Actually right now, Michael Waltrip Racing has two cars in the top 12 in points.

It looks to me, though, that the normal characters, Roush Fenway, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing are rising to the top. I have to say that Jeff Gordon looked the strongest I have seen him from green flag to the checkers in a long, long time.
When it comes to the testing ban, I still can't sit here and tell you that it's made a difference one way or another. Would there be other teams up there if we had our normal testing policy in place? I can't say that. I just don't think we are seeing a huge effect one way or another yet. Like we always say, no matter the rules, testing or the car -- the haves are still going to be the haves and the have-not's are still going to be the have-not's.
Someone else we need to shine the light on even though it's only been two races is Tony Stewart. He's had two top 10 finishes in the first two races of 2009. On the flip side of that is his teammate Ryan Newman. That bunch seems to be struggling right now. They lost a couple cars at Daytona and then they really weren't very good all weekend at Fontana.
If you take Daytona out of the equation, probably the most disappointing normally top-performing team at Fontana was Richard Childress Racing. Their best finishing car was only 18th. Granted, no one needs to hit the panic switch yet. I do think these next two races will definitely tell us who is in good shape and who has some work to do.
I think the points positions will continue to shake up every week even beyond the first five races. Look at Dale Earnhardt Jr. The hole has been dug early. So they have work to do and unfortunately Las Vegas this weekend has historically not been one of his better race tracks. We do know how well he runs at Atlanta and Bristol, so that's a positive thing for them. They and the other teams out there have to take what they learned from California's race and sort through what they got.
If we get through these next three or four races and if you are still struggling or having bad performances, then yes, people are going to be reaching a little closer for that panic button.

The good news is that for the most part we have one team from most of the operations performing pretty well. Roush-Fenway actually has more than one, but you have Jeff Gordon carrying the Hendrick banner. We got the Gibbs and Penske guys up there. We have some other Toyotas up there. We even saw Juan Pablo Montoya out of the DEI-Ganassi camp have a good solid night at Fontana.
Probably the group that came out of Daytona looking the brightest, but then left Fontana looking the dimmest was Richard Petty Motorsports. There are teams that are concerned after California but again, it's way too early to even remotely say, "Oh boy, we are in trouble."