This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew brings you this week's version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from the Irish Hills of Michigan. Served with wall-eyed pike and brats. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Brian Vickers: as the race winner, he automatically gets first billing. He had a stout car and was in the top 5 for much of the race. He was able to squeeze every last drop of gas out of his car to get to Victory Lane. He moves to within 12 points of Mark Martin for the final spot in the Chase. Good job Brian!
Jeff Gordon: like Vickers, he was able to squeeze every last drop of gas. He was in the top 10 for much of the day. He was strong throughout the race. He solidified his spot in the Chase field.
Dale Earnhardt Jr: he was the beneficiary of brilliant pit strategy by Lance McGrew, his crew chief. Jr came in on the final caution for four tires and fuel, and he was good to go the distance while many other drivers were saving fuel. He went balls to the wall en route to a third-place finish.
Carl Edwards: while he wasn't in danger of missing the Chase, his hold was tenuous before the race. A fourth place finish greatly solidified his position. He started 32nd and worked his way up the field en route to that fourth place finish.
Sam Hornish Jr: he was the highest finishing Penske driver, finishing in fifth. Although he never led, he moved up nine positions from his 14th starting position. I think he's finally starting to show what he's capable of. That first win won't be that far away.
Casey Mears: he started near the back of the field (42nd) and worked his way up to a solid sixth place finish.
Honorable Mention: Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann, Denny Hamlin.
THE BAD
David Ragan: he couldn't stay out of his own way--causing or being a part of two accidents, one of which knocked out a Chase contender, Kurt Busch. What made it worse was that he was running in the top 5 before the first accident. He looked like he was a sure lock for the Good category. And I would have put him there had he finished in the top 5.
Weather: the forecast called for 0% chance of rain. Well, it rained. Several times. Fortunately, they were brief showers and racing was resumed quickly thereafter.
THE UGLY
The first half of the race: it was a Hendrick Motorsports snoozefest. It wasn't until fuel strategy became a factor it got a lot more interesting. I ended up doing various things around the house in the first half.
Those are my nominees for the week. Feel free to come in with yours!
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12 comments:
Jon...According to Kristen, "Mark ran out of gas and finished last car on lead lap; and the ESPN coverage was cut off! LAME!"
I was willing to give up Mark's win for Junior's finish, finally!!! If he can just maintain it.
Bad the points leader could not muster anything better than a 17th place finish at the end.
Smoke better hope this is just a bad race. And not a sign of things to come for this team.
Bad = ESPN cutting coverage of the race to show Sportscenter for the 50th time today and not even showing the point standings or the race results before cutting out!
Kudos to Sam! I think Kurt probably deserved a bad too - he was partially at fault if not all at fault for that wreck and he dropped to 6th in the points. =(
Beverly, Mark did run out of gas and coasted--he barely crossed the finish line. I wonder if ESPN will cut off their coverage of Bristol with a few laps to go to go into Baseball Tonight.
Tsfan, I think it's an aberration. Newman didn't have a good car either.
Kristen, Sam definitely deserves to be in the Good category. That first win isn't that far off. But ESPN's coverage was HORRID. A gross oversight on my part.
hey now, don't go blaming my boy Ragan for being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Those Penske boys musta had it in for him today.
good - MRN radio coverage.
ugly - TSN for being knobs and not making TSN2 a non-extra channel as most sportsfans don't give a toss about the golf when it's already being shown live on another channel leaving you free to put the race on.
Bad....ESPN and their analysts. Somehow D Jarrett misunderstood Knaus's conversation via radio with JJ after the last caution flag. DJ kept thinking that the 48 was going to pit again before the end of the race. Chad never said anything about pitting again.
Of course ESPN had to leave MIS as soon as possible....got to make sure SC gets to Tiger Woods for 28 of the next 30 minutes!
Hey RA6AN! He WOULD have been put in the Good category had he finished in the top 5, H.M. in the top 10. I did find it coincidental that two different Penske drivers were involved in each of his wrecks.
Tez, seems the whole sports world was into seeing Tiger unravel.
Gene, either that, or he misremembered. SC was practically wall to wall Tiger, with a little baseball thrown in.
The COT rears it's ugly head again unless it is a Hendrick car .... If the car aint perfect you are out to lunch.
Lots of feel good finishes in this event.
It is funny how Earnhardt had fuel and tires and could not run down the leaders ......maybe it was that Petty/ Gant line he insists on running ?
The 48 team is very dangerous and does not seem concerned about running for fuel, the rest better watch out because they are the best in Cup racing.
Nice GBU bro
RL, thanks. HMS seems to have the COT dialed in week after week. Dale Jr is always running that high line, but he seems to make it work. The 48 looks like he's dialed in for a fourth straight championship.
It was a snooze fest most of the race then it came down to when JJ would run out of fuel.Glad Vickers got a win.
photogr, me too! When JJ dove into the pits late, I said, YES!
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