This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is doing a rapid-fire The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, in honor of NASCAR's shortest track. Plenty of Martinsville Hot Dogs were consumed, washed down with lots of Coke. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Denny Hamlin: he won the race. Best car at the end. Cuts points lead to six in arrears. Popular win at M'ville.
Mark Martin: where did he come from? Great rally by the Old Man. Still very competitive.
Kevin Harvick: best career finish at the Big Paper Clip. Also gained some points going into Talladega. Great rally from 36th starting position!
Kyle Busch: another superb rally from deep in the field. Ran a smart race. Avoided brake issues. Was good on long runs.
Jimmie Johnson: always runs well at the Big Paper Clip. But he did have his points lead over Hamlin and Harvick cut.
Dale Earnhardt Jr: used sound strategy in staying out during a caution to get track position. Led at one point in the race, making Jr Nation very happy. Faded a bit at the end, but was still strong.
Jeff Burton: led the most laps and got the additional five bonus points.
Honorable Mention: Joey Logano, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Brad Keselowski.
THE BAD
Greg Biffle: had all kinds of issues. Stick a fork in him, he's done.
Sam Hornish Jr: tete-a-tete with Scott Speed sent Regan Smith behind the wall when Smith was punted into the wall. It was a blatant punt of Speed. Hornish should have been parked for the rest of the race.
Jeff Burton: gotta put him in here because so many drivers were complaining that he was brake checking on restarts. NASCAR warned him on that. Later he and teammate Kevin Harvick had a brush-up on track. Should make for an interesting drivers' meeting at the RCR camp this week.
THE UGLY
Tire issues: there were a multitude of drivers that cut tires in the last few laps of the race. The last run was the longest of the race, and it was nearly 100 degrees on the track.
That's it from Martinsville. See you all at Talladega!
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8 comments:
cheers to Ambrose for leading the most laps he's ever led on an oval track (he might have even beaten his previous high of 35 at Sonoma) in Cup :)
jeers for having issues with the car for the umpteenth time in 2010 :(
Well jon...
I know we all profess being good sports and all... BUT how many chances did chase drivers have at JJ and let them go by? JJ literally held up the 18 for what 25 laps before Kyle finally got around him? Then he jumped out of his teammate Martin's way... I'd have been impatient enough to punt JJ... It would have had darn near everyone in the stands on their feet cheering as if Junior just made it into the lead! LOL
On to the big line dance... Oh well...
Missed you again today in the chat! Great GBU as always!
Remember when Kevin Harvick had the E.T. decal on his car back in the early 2000s? We bought one for Holly's E.T. collection. Of course, she put it on the shelf with all the rest. But this week, I will be wearing it proudly! Because my hair is trailer park trash blonde!!! GO, KEVIN!lol
Tez, Ambrose was stout at the beginning, and I thought he would have had something for Denny. He's the most UNLUCKY guy out there! In the event RPM goes under, I hope SOME decent team snags him. (Perhaps MWR in a third car?)
Dwindy, you have a point there! Kyle would have had LEGIONS of new fans had he punted JJ into the wall!! Can't wait for Big Bad Talladega!! Gonna make JJ and Hamlin a WEE bit nervous!
Beverly, I remember that scheme. I think it was the 20th anniversary of E.T. being released, and I think he ran it at one of the Talladega races. (The spring race, I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong.)
We either bought it at Martinsville or Bristol, never went to any other races.lol I remember seeing Kevin riding a golf cart out of the Martinsville track cause there was no other way to get to their haulers without going thru the crowd. I have his photo somewhere unless I gave it up in the divorce.lol
Beverly, I think you're right now that I think about it. It was before the spring Bristol race in 2002. Harvick ran a special Reese's Pieces paint scheme honoring E.T.'s 20th anniversary.
Hey I think you have to give it to Penske racing - both Sam and Kurt were punting when roughed up out on the track. Sam is frustrated when his good runs get ruined by others and Kurt finally got back at HMS a little. I'd stick'em in good but I am sure others would stick'em in Bad...
Great to have a close Chase, problem is I don't pull for Hamlin - almost rather see JJ set unprecedented history!!
Kristen, the only problem I saw with Sam was that he took out a good car in Regan Smith's. Smith was pretty much in the top 15, although due to strategy he was shuffled back at that point in the race. Smith had NOTHING to do with the tete-a-tete between Hornish and Speed. I thought Hornish could have run Speed up alongside the outside wall to teach him a lesson. As far as the Chase, I think Hamlin's going to struggle at the tracks ahead, and you're going to see a two-man race between JJ and Harvick.
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