Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- 2010 Coca-Cola 600

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the capital of NASCAR, Charlotte, NC, for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, complete with Carolina-style BBQ, a side of Cupcakes for dessert, and to wash it all down with Miller Lite beer, of course!

THE GOOD

Kurt Busch: as the race winner, he gets first billing. He had the dominant car of the race, leading over 200 laps. Props to crew chief Steve Addington and the Brew Crew for putting Busch in a position to win. Next stop is Pocono, where he's even more dominant.

Jamie McMurray: he had a strong car, and led several laps, but when it was money time, the 1 crew had a bad pit stop that cost him five positions. Good job Cupcake!

Kyle Busch: early on it looked like he had the car to beat. At every 100 mile interval it was either he or brother Kurt that was leading; that's how dominant the Busch Brothers were. This caps an amazing month in which a Busch Brother won every race at either the Nationwide or Sprint Cup level.

Mark Martin: he was the beneficiary of a gutsy call by crew chief Alan Gustafson to stay out on the final caution. He made the track position stand up for a fourth place finish. This was a case in which he turned a 15th place car into a fourth place car.

David Reutimann: the defending race winner was stout throughout, rarely staying outside of the top 5. He led a few laps during green flag pit stops. Good job David!

Honorable Mention: Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Matt Kenseth, and Kevin Harvick.

THE BAD

Dave Blaney: he drew the short stick at the start and parkers' meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. He was the first to start and park, turning in a cool 25 laps before calling it a night.

Kyle Busch: on the final restart, he turned right into Jeff Burton, cutting his left rear tire and costing Burton a shot at winning. Burton wasn't pleased, and he let Busch have it after the race. Good for Jeff!

THE UGLY

Kyle Busch: rarely do I put a driver in all three slots, but Busch deserves all three today.

Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to chime in.

9 comments:

tezgm99 said...

I'd have to throw Truex in the 'bad' after how promising last week and the first 50 odd laps tonight were and Ambrose in the 'ugly'....he never got a grip on the handling all race :(

a very 'good' for Chip Ganassi who nearly pulled off the double :)

jon_464 said...

Tez, I could have added JJ in the ugly as well. If your car is a bit loose, you don't LOOSEN it more!! You tighten it a little bit and let the track come to you; it would have come to JJ had his crew been patient.

SpeedBeagle said...

You need to add a special Indy 500 ugly for that crash between Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay. That was even scarier than when Carl hit the fence at Dega last year.



(and why is it that everytime I comment on your blog, the word verification word is "danica"?)

jmayer1843 said...

Nice rundown. It wasn't that great of a night overall for Hendrick Motorsports. Had Gordon and Martin not stayed out, there may not have been a Hendrick car in the top 10. Gasp.

klvalus said...

I'll stick with my comment from last week...

WOOOHOOOO!!!

and thats pretty much all I have to say to that!

Dwindy1 said...

Jon, Jon...

What can I say to get you to think more highly of Kyle?

The dude is a winner!

Thanks Jon, and don't you dare change!

jon_464 said...

Sorry for the late replies.

SB, that WAS ugly. Hopefully, Mike Conway will have a full and complete recovery.

JM, thanks. Only because Gordon and Martin stayed out were they able to have the finishes they did. In Martin's case, it was a 15th place car finishing in the top 5.


Kristen, LOL! Psst, the calendar turned the page into June, and that's Smoke's time of year...

Dwindy, it's EXACTLY because of crap he pulls like that stunt on Burton and the incessant whining about Hamlin after the All-Star Race is the reason why I don't think higher of him. Burton had a car that could have had something for Kurt Busch. I agree that he's a winner--he's won almost 70 races in his career between NASCAR's three divisions. I'll keep calling them as I see them!

jon_464 said...

Oh, and SB, I'll try to change it from "Danica" to "Dale Jr"!

Dwindy1 said...

Fair enough, Jon!