This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the heart of the Midwest, Chicagoland Speedway, for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Served deep-dish, Chicago-style, loaded with all the toppings. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Mark Martin: as the winner of this race, he automatically gets first billing. He was dominant once he took the lead. He led 195 laps, the most laps a driver has ever led at Chicagoland. He had that car on a rail. This was his fourth win of the season. He'll be formidable once the Chase starts. An extra good to the Musgrave family as they won a $1 million bonus by choosing Mark Martin as the winner.
Jeff Gordon: although he never led, he had a strong car throughout the race. He was consistently in the top 10 en route to a second place finish.
Kasey Kahne: he survived a wild and wooly last few laps en route to a third place finish, leading two laps in the process.
Stewart-Haas Racing: Tony Stewart (4th) and Ryan Newman (6th) were stout all race long. Stewart led a lap during a round of green flag pit stops early in the race.
Denny Hamlin: he was a quiet fifth. He was consistent, and a bold move with 17 laps to go pretty much sealed a top 5 finish.
Honorable Mention: the rest of the lead lap finishers. Martin was so good he put more than half the field at least a lap down.
THE BAD
Kyle Busch: he was BRUTALLY BAD. His car was bad from the outset. Then he made contact with the wall and it got worse--the track bar was bent. It would get worse. The rear end alignment on the #18 got thrown off later in the race. Then to top it all off, his engine blew late in the race and he crashed.
Jeff Burton: like Busch, he was brutally bad. Unlike Busch, he didn't have an engine blow. He was part of a late race accident involving Dale Earnhardt Jr and David Reutimann. Burton T-boned Scott Speed when Speed came down in front of him.
Greg Biffle: the #16 team totally missed the setup. He had a bad car from the outset and finished two laps down.
THE UGLY
Kyle Busch: see above.
Jeff Burton: see above.
Those are my choices for the race. Feel free to chime in and comment.
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18 comments:
Nice rundown as usual Jon.
I believe Burton was just an innocent victim. Speed's lack of experience caused a lot of good cars to get torn up.
TNT's coverage reminded me of the coverage a few years ago. But instead of Jr, this time it was Kyle, Kyle , Kyle! They made Kyle their #1 storyline and wouldn't stop showing him. TNT--if a car is in the back the ENTIRE race...no one cares to watch it.
I hated when they used to do that with Jr, and it's still bad when they do it with anyone else!
Gene, thanks. As good as Kyle was last year, he was just as bad this year. As he gets older, he'll gain the experience and maturity to realize that there will be some races where his car isn't good, and he's going to have to ride it out.
Hopefully ESPN/ABC will do a good job starting at Indy.
I must say Kyle's attitude is really surprising me. I know the kid can be a hot head, but this attitude that he has been having lately is just down right childish. Guess Gibbs is going to have to take him out to the woodshed, you know the one, they once had to use for Stewart. lol
Tsfan, Joe Gibbs is probably exasperated. I bet he was saying, "Not again" in response to Kyle's latest temper tantrum. Kyle has to learn that he's not always going to have the best car out there. How many times have you seen Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson take crappy cars to a top 5 or even a win? Many many times.
The big question on Kyle in this race is did he purposly blow a cylinder when leaving the pits or was it like that before he came into the pits on the last pit stop.
It was great to see Mark really shine in a good ride.
Oh yes>
I now have a NASCAR site too on
http://photogr-nascar.blogspot.com/
or you can clik on the gorilla behind the drums and click NASCAR
Photogr, I think it blew at some point while he was out there. I think he was hoping for it to blow. When the car isn't handling well for one reason or another, the engine has to put out more RPMs than it normally does. Eventually the engine fails.
I'll be sure to check out your NASCAR blog!
I was visiting on the weekend so I saw just the first 15 minutes or so of the race before we switched over and played Fallout 3 on Xbox...that said, I read that Marcos somehow came from a lap down and 27th to 11th by the end of the race. That, coupled with Webber getting his first F1 win, meant it was a happy Tez who drove back home today, lol
Tez, congrats on Webber getting his first F1 win! Too bad Marcos couldn't have got HIS first Cup win on Saturday night. But his first Cup win is coming, I think by the end of the season. Marcos got a free pass, not sure which lap it was. He benefitted from both Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick having problems. For Busch, he cut a tire when Jimmie Johnson made contact with him (again!), then he retaliated, obviously some carryover from Sonoma. For Harvick, his power steering gave out, then he fought an ill-handling car.
Another nice GBU Jon.
I have to agree with Hanny, Burton got caught up in Speed's incompetence but otherwise couldnt agree more with your picks.
Kurt is definitely primed around JJ and is even now more ready to go off than ever!
Kyle was definitely trying to blow the engine on pit road and end his self-imposed suffering...its an ole Busch Brothers trick...and sounds like Kyle Petty has even done it a time or two!
Good morning Kristen, thanks! I think Kurt's had it up to here with JJ. No wonder Kurt retaliated. As for Kyle, it seemed like he didn't want to play anymore. Yes, he had a bad day, but he needs to realize that there will be days when he ISN'T going to have the best car out there. He needs to learn to ride it out.
question; why do the NASCAR commentators feel obliged to break down the sport into its simplest terms when commentating? You don't see the MLB guys explain what 1B, RBI, HR, etc means every game, do you?
don't get me wrong, having it explained like that was great when I started watching it but not anymore, lol
Nice write jon. I think there are a couple of guys out there, I mean really out there right now.
Jimmie was going to win that race until The space Cadet Hamlin pushed him through the turn. When JJ has to race somebody he usaully runs over them but, that is why he did not crack on Denny after the race. This is Jimmie's secret to success ....run over em and keep your mouth shut ....
You know Kyle's problems started when he smashed a Gibson Les Paul guitar. Gibbs is going to bring in a exorcist to straighten things out.
Tez, it's because they think we long-time fans are a bunch of simpletons.
RL, thanks. There is a history between Hamlin and Johnson. I think there's going to be payback on JJ's part, and what better place than at Hamlin's hometown track, RIR? As for Kyle, I think there is some merit in your theory. It wouldn't completely surprise me if he doesn't make the Chase.
I missed the race. I was in Savannah. It was worth it. lol Wasn't it this time last year that Kyle's performance went south?
Beverly, it was right at the start of the Chase last year that Kyle's performance went south. You didn't miss much, other than the last 30 laps or so.
Great GBU, Jon. Thank you for directing me to this site. Take care!
Volfan, thanks! And you're welcome!
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