Catching up with our year-long Fireball Cup competition, recognizing excellence in the field of NASCAR brawling. And through five races, it's been a pretty damn boring season, frankly. We could use some more anger and fist-throwing; everybody's just too darn calm these days.
Recall our rules, which can and do change on a whim:
• Verbal/Twitter exchange; slightly aggressive driving leading to issues: 1 point
• Bumping cars in an aggressive, making-a-point fashion: 2 points
• Spin, non-critical: 3 points
• Spin, critical: 4 points
• Out of car, punches thrown: 5 points
Fireball Cup stats, Martinsville and Texas:
• Jeff Gordon, griping about Clint Bowyer's dive-bomb at Martinsville: 1 point
• Jimmie Johnson, griping about David Reutimann's breakdown at Martinsville: 1 point
• Jimmie Johnson, griping about Ryan Newman racing him too hard at Texas ("My issue was not with Kurt [Busch], it was with the 39"): 1 point
Which gives us current stats of:
Jeff Gordon, 4 points
Dale Earnhardt Jr., 3 points
Jimmie Johnson, 2 points
Kevin Harvick, 1 point
Matt Kenseth, 1 point
Joey Logano, 1 point
Ryan Newman, 1 point
Danica Patrick, 1 point
David Ragan, 1 point
It's a Hendrick armada at the top of the standings! But these could be completely undone with just one good Kevin Harvick/Kyle Busch throwdown. Come on, guys, step up.