This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is on hand in the heart of the Midwest, Chicagoland, for this week's edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, complete with Chicago-style hot dogs and pizza, washed down with copious amounts of the beverage of your choice. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
David Reutimann: as the race winner, he gets first billing. He was strong in practice, strong in qualifying, and got stronger as the race went on. He FINALLY won one that went the distance! Night time was obviously the right time for Reuty, as once he overtook Jeff Gordon for the lead, he checked out on the field. Good job Reuty!
Carl Edwards: like Reutimann, he got stronger as the race went on. He even led a lap during a round of green flag pit stops, gaining the five bonus points he sorely needed. This run is what he sorely needed in order to improve his tenuous chances of making the Chase.
Jeff Gordon: he was at the point until late in the race, when Reutimann took over the lead. He took advantage of points leader Kevin Harvick's misfortune (more on that later) and cut Harvick's lead to 103 points.
Clint Bowyer: after his misfortune at Daytona last week, he came into the race sorely needing a good run. He got it. He now sits in 12th place, 15 points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jamie McMurray: Cupcake started on the pole and stayed in the top 5 for the whole race. The McDonald's Chevrolet got a LOT of face time during the race, bringing cha-ching to McDonald's franchises throughout.
Jimmie Johnson: he led the first 93 laps of the race and ended up leading the most laps.
Honorable Mention: Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Paul Menard.
THE BAD
Joe Nemechek: he drew the short stick this week at the start and parkers' meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. He ran a grand total of 20 laps before declaring himself done for the day.
Kevin Harvick: as good as he was at Daytona, he was equally as bad at Chicagoland. The 29 crew totally missed on the setup and no matter how hard they tried to adjust, the 29 car got worse as the race went on. At one point, the car lost significant fuel pressure and had to go to the garage to replace the entire fuel system. But once Harvick got back out, he was as fast as the leaders--too bad he was 16 laps down when he returned to the track. A sub-Good for gaining two positions through attrition.
THE UGLY
Jimmie Johnson: it's not common I put a guy in both the Good and Ugly categories, but tonight I must. His race went downhill after Lap 93, when he missed the committment line and lost the lead to McMurray. Then on Lap 138, he takes a slide through the grass when he got loose coming out of Turn 2. At the ensuing green flag, he restarts 24th. Then on Lap 174, he slapped the wall and had to pit, going three laps down.
Robby Gordon/Bill Elliott: Elliott cut a tire on Lap 180, hit the wall, and stopped into oncoming traffic. Gordon hit the brakes as hard as he could, but was unable to stop in time and T-boned Elliott. Fortunately both Gordon and Elliott were okay, but both drivers' days were ruined.
The race itself: it was a snoozefest, particuarly for the first 93 laps, when JJ threatened to run and hide from the field.
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours!
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10 comments:
Good read, Jon...At my mothers' 70th birthday party last night, courtesy of my sister with the big house, as we entered the kitchen for refreshments, I had to pass the TV where the children were watching the Disney Channel. Upon them leaving the room, somehow the TV was flipped to the race just in time to see Jamie leading and JJ spinning! My brother-in-law had been making homemade ice cream on the back porch, all the time listening to the race on the radio, giving his snide remarks as I'd walk by since JJ had lead 93 laps!Grrr It gave me great pleasure to shout about JJ spinning and Jamie leading; but it also was embarrassing since I had been busted for taking a sneak peek at the race at my mother's milestone birthday party!lol HAPPY 70TH TO MY DEAR MOTHER!!!
Missed chatting with you Jon - hope your event was fun....you picked a good race to miss.
Gotta put Kurt in the Ugly or Bad category as well - they really missed the set up and changed shocks before Happy did making for some lively radio!
Beverly, Happy belated birthday to your mother! Hope you all had a great time! I could almost taste the homemade ice cream from here!
Kristen, I ended up not going to the event once I found out the price--it was a little too steep for my budget. I ended up taking a nap through a good portion of the race. I did wake up to see JJ lose the lead to Cupcake. The 29 crew basically changed everything but the engine--he returned 16 laps down and finished 16 laps down.
I have to agree with all your picks, Jon. Don't be so hard on Harvick... they were due for some bad luck. Better now than in the Chase. How they bounce back will tell whether they are championship material, or not.
Robby had the ugliest wreck I've seen in years. Not a veteran maneuver!
Gene, I was just being factual about Harvick and the 29. They missed the setup by a mile and never recovered. It was fortunate he had a 212 point lead coming into the race. That was his mulligan, so to speak. I think he'll bounce back with a strong effort at Indy in two weeks.
yeah, I'd agree with pretty much evrything you have here, jon. But, like klv, I'd add Kurt in 'ugly' too...never got a handle at all which was odd given their form on the 1.5 milers this season.
Tez, the whole race was a crapshoot. You either hit the setup like JJ and Reuty did, or totally missed it like Kevin and Kurt did. But what's going to help drivers like Kevin and Kurt is a consistent practice, qualifying, and race schedule. I look for both of them to rebound and have strong runs at Indy.
I not only missed the set-up, I missed the race! Seems to me these guys have got a great big book that goes something like this: If it's a concrete surface, go to page 152, if not go to the next question... That book should have every possible contingency covered. If the car and driver don't respond, there should be time to re-set.
It was interesting to me that Kyle had such a strong NW car and yet his Sprint Cup car just wasn't dominant. Oh well!
Thanks Jon!
Good points throughout this week. Having a top 5 full of guys without a win this season was interesting, and what a great job by that #00 team this week. They got it done. I'm not saying Johnson wouldn't have beat him if he hadn't spun out, though. That was an incredibly dominant car at the start.
Dwindy, I can see the day where Kyle will very rarely run in Nationwide Series and Truck Series races. What works in Nationwide more often than not won't work in Cup.
JM, thanks. It was refreshing to see different drivers in the top 5, Gordon being the exception, as he has a slew of top 5 finishes. Who knows what Johnson would have done had he NOT spun out? A lot of guys that ran strong in the day struggled at night, and vice versa.
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