Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- Amp Energy 500

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is deep in the Heart of Dixie, Talladega, Alabama, for this week's serving of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Served piping hot with BBQ beef and grilled corn, washed down with Southern-style sweet tea. Enjoy!

THE GOOD

Jamie McMurray: he gets first billing as the race winner. His car got better as the race went on. For McMurray, it was his first win since Daytona in July, 2007. A huge shout out goes to the Irwin Tools crew for putting him in a position to succeed and get the win.

Kasey Kahne: although he only led one lap, he put himself in a position to win with sound race and pit strategy, and very nearly stole a win.

Joey Logano: he escaped the big Ryan Newman wreck; that alone moved him up several positions. Like Kahne, he only led one lap en route to his best superspeedway finish.

Kevin Harvick: although he started in the middle of the pack due to qualifying being rained out, he had a car that was able to move to the front quickly. He led the second-most laps (28 to McMurray's 31) but was in the wrong place at the wrong time late in the race.

Robert Richardson Jr.: I've got to put him here for a solid top 20 finish driving for a start and park team. He kept his nose clean and stayed out of trouble en route to a 17th place finish.

Elliott Sadler: he led 11 laps en route to a seventh place finish driving a Ford with its new engine. He had a stout car throughout the race. Good job ESad!

Honorable Mention: Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Michael Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson.

THE BAD

Jimmie Johnson: it's rare that I put a driver in both the H.M. Good and the Bad categories. But today I must. It looked like something was off, as he was hanging with the start and parkers. He was bad until the last 10 laps, then he was supremely good.

Dave Blaney: the start and parker took his #66 car to the garage after 12 laps.

Sam Hornish Jr.: he had issues with his car and only ran 44 laps before the engine gave up the ghost.

THE UGLY

Ryan Newman: or more specifically, the five-car accident that he was a part of late in the race. When he and Kevin Harvick made contact, it sent Newman's #39 car into a somersault, eventually landing on Harvick's hood and windshield, cracking the windshield. The car ended up upside down on its roof for several agonizing minutes. Thankfully he was able to walk away with nothing more than general soreness.

The Big One, Part 2: This one happened shortly after Jamie McMurray took the white flag. Brad Keselowski was attempting to move to the inside lane and made contact with Mark Martin, and all hell broke loose from there. Jimmie Johnson narrowly escaped. Had he not passed Scott Speed a half lap earlier, Johnson would have been IN the Big One. Martin ended up flipping over a few times before landing right side up.

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

7 comments:

volfan69 said...

Harvick was GOOD! I'm glad he is also okay and finished the race. That could of been ugly for him.

Great analysis as always.

Are you watching the Panthers game? They're looking pretty good right now.

Gene Haddock said...

NASCAR deserves a special 'Coyote Ugly' for that crap they handed us today.

Newman was on point with his rant about NASCAR not respecting today's drivers enough to let them race like they should.

Forensic2 blog said...

Jon, I think if you watch that again Brad pushed Kurt and his car couldn't take the push and lost it causing the big reck at the end.

Also nothing was wrong with Jimmie's car but his lack of balls to race with the big boys during the race.

Kevin dropping down to avoid the bangging just to get taken out,, Some one has put a curse on him to have that much bad luck. Just glad everyone was all right, Mark seem a bit dazzed.

Cheers

tezgm99 said...

I've heard that McFlurry was strong all day so big congrats to him....after all, a non-chaser won a Chase race, party-time!

bugger about Marcos' day since he looked pretty good too but hey, can't have everything I guess, lol

jon_464 said...

Volfan, I was following the Panthers on GameTrax at NFL.com. Harvick had a stout car that could have won, except for his horrendous luck.

Gene, Ryan was right in ripping NASCAR a new one. Major props to him! Now that JJ finished in the top 10, time to focus on football.

F2, you're right. It was Kurt Busch that Brad contacted. I'm afraid that JJ's lack of balls will set up a trend. The best way to Jimmie-proof the Chase is to eliminate it all together. (Now I know why I detest JJ--his lack of balls when not racing, and his not taking responsibility for f-ups he causes. [See Kurt Busch, Infineon.])

Tez, Jamie Mac was strong all day. The only other car that was in his league was Kevin's, but he got caught in traffic and ultimately in Ryan's accident.

photogr said...

This race brought up a more flaws in NASCARS managing the races and some serious safety issues if a car flips and lands on it's roof hard.

jon_464 said...

Photogr, good insight re NASCAR's flaws and safety issues. One would think that a bottom-heavy car like the COT would be less prone to go airborne but that's not the case.