Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- AAA 400

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the mid-Atlantic for this week's serving of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, complete with crab cakes and Tasty Cakes for dessert. Enjoy!

THE GOOD

Jimmie Johnson: as the race winner, he gets first billing. He was so dominant, I snoozed from about the last 100 laps of the race. He led the most laps and is within 10 points of points leader Mark Martin. He was so dominant only two other drivers led laps (Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman).

Mark Martin: although he never led a lap (because Johnson was leading pretty much every lap), he had a strong car throughout the race and hung around the top 10 for pretty much the whole race.

Matt Kenseth: this was a sorely-needed excellent run, as his season was circling the drain after the spring race at Fontana. He started 23rd and continually moved his way to the front because of great pit stops throughout the race. Kudos to the Killer B's for consistently great pit stops.

Juan Pablo Montoya: he stayed within striking distance of points leader Mark Martin with a strong fourth place run. It didn't hurt he started on the outside pole and pretty much stayed in the top 10. He'll be a factor coming into Homestead, especially with a couple of his favorite tracks coming up (Talladega and Martinsville). He was the beneficiary of a strong run, climbing to third in points.

Kurt Busch: another strong run for the Blue Deuce. As stated above, he was one of just three drivers to lead laps. He also climbed up in the points, climbing up to fourth.

Honorable Mention: Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, and Carl Edwards.

THE BAD

Denny Hamlin: I have to put the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in here. Normally, this is a track he runs well at, but not today. He struggled badly today, and was lapped twice by Johnson. Not a run he was looking for. Not surprisingly, he fell three positions to fifth in the points.

Kyle Busch: he fought an ill-handling car for most of the race, finally losing the battle late when he cut a tire and crashed. He came back out but finished 58 laps down in 32nd.

Start and Parkers: you people know who you are. Tony Raines (again) drew the short straw at the Start and Parkers' meeting, held in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. I wonder how one guy can be so unlucky in NASCAR?

THE UGLY

Joey Logano: he was in a horrific crash on Lap 30 in which the #20 rolled over seven times. Fortunately he was able to walk away. It was the beginning of a bad day for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours!

5 comments:

photogr said...

It was certainly the Johnson and Knaus show today

jon_464 said...

It's the same ole song sung a different way each week with this team. They can be dominant and win, and they can have a crummy car to start and they still find a way to win.

klvalus said...

I thought Hamlin hated Dover...and his results show it!

Kurt held on but unfortunately abused the team again in the process. He is definitely ratcheting up the intensity but I worry he will blow rather than win.

Was I the only one who thought Kyle was knocking down the wall times 3 and 4 on purpose?

Gene Haddock said...

May have been the worst showing by JGR since they went to three cars. UGH!

Sometime during the broadcast I think I heard that Hamlin had finshed 34th or worse in his last 4 Dover races. Of course, I may have been dreaming by then.

jon_464 said...

Kristen, if it were up to Hamlin, he'd nuke Dover and be done with it. Unfortunately I think you may be right, Mount Kurt may blow at any moment, particularly if he has a bad run that costs him a shot at the title. No, you weren't the only one.

Gene, JGR was PUTRID. I could smell the stench from the west coast! They were THAT BAD. I BET they were happy to get out of there! A LOT of people were in snoozeland because JJ won yet again. (Of course, I picked him to win his fourth straight title before the season started, so he's right on cue.)