This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is at the home of NASCAR, Concord, NC, for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. This week's serving is BBQ-flavored, complete with all the fixin's and washed down with PLENTY of Budweiser. (Remember, drink responsibly!) Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Kevin Harvick: he gets first billing as the race winner. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. For the first 100 miles of the race, he may as well have been driving a dump truck. But crew chief Gil Martin reassured him that it would get better as the race went on. And it did. But Harvick wasn't consistently in the top 10 until the LAST 100 miles of the race. TWICE, he got bit with a caution while a lap down (he had just pitted under green on two occasions when the caution flag flew). Without the wave around rule, he wouldn't be here, and he certainly wouldn't be celebrating in Victory Lane with DeLana, Gil Martin, Richard Childress, and the rest of the 29 crew. A shout out also goes to Paul Menard for pushing Harvick around the track during the final caution, allowing Harvick to conserve fuel by shutting off the engine. The win was Harvick's third this season, and he becomes the first driver to reach the three-win mark this season. It was also his first Coca-Cola 600 win, and only his second top 10 finish in the race. (He finished 2nd in his rookie season of 2001.) In the three wins, he has led a grand total of--wait for it--NINE laps. He led two laps tonight, six at Martinsville, and the final lap at Fontana. He all but locks himself into the Chase now, and with 10 bonus points per win, that's going to be HUGE. GOOD JOB HAPPY!! WOOHOO!
David Ragan: he was stout all evening, and was hanging around the top 5 pretty much the whole race. He was actually the fourth best Roush driver at the first 100 miles of the race, but as the other three Roush drivers faded, Ragan stayed strong. Congratulations on a career-best second place finish. Your first win will come sooner rather than later.
Joey Logano: like Harvick, he battled a car that was plowing. Like Harvick, he benefitted from pit strategy (staying out and conserving fuel). Logano battled his car and the heat and persevered to a third place finish. He was there at the end because he ran a smart, sound race.
Kurt Busch: another strong top 5 finish and another round of giving his crew hell. I imagine they probably shrug their shoulders and say, "That's Kurt being Kurt. We expect nothing less." Major props go out to the crew for staying on their games for the 610 miles the race ended up going, and for pumping up Kurt when he needed it. When it was Go time, Kurt went. Good job Double Deuce and the crew!
Richard Petty Motorsports: with AJ Allmendinger (5th) and Marcos Ambrose (6th) being strong, both drivers deserve this spot TOGETHER.
Dale Earnhardt Jr: he was strong throughout, even leading late in the race and looking like he was on his way to breaking a long winless streak, but he ran out of gas in the middle of turn 4. Dale Jr will win at a track very few expect him to win at (a road course, perhaps).
Honorable Mention: Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, and Kyle Busch.
THE BAD
Mike Skinner: he ran a total of four laps before hotfooting it home to watch the rest of the race on TV like the rest of us. He drew the short stick today at the start and parkers' meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. Not a bad gig in this horrible economy if you can get it.
Debris cautions: the first three cautions were for debris, with ONE legitimate debris caution--when Casey Mears' car was spewing parts all over the track after Landon Cassill made contact after Mears checked up.
THE UGLY
The first 100 laps: there was a VERY LONG green flag run to start the race, and the Roushkateers basically checked out. It was about to turn into a snoozefest until day transistioned into night. Once night time came, the Roush cars suddenly looked very ordinary, save for Ragan's car.
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours!
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6 comments:
Here's an app that lets you vent your road rage and rate bad driver online.
Jon, your "Harvick Howl" was heard around the world last night!
Congrats to Happy! He definitely stole one last night in fine style. Cant disagree with any of your picks, I'd give Hamlin's team a good for fixing his engine issue and salvaging a great finish in a race super hard on engines.
HMS was heartbreaker heaven last night between JJ blowing up at the end and Junior falling to the National Guard curse...
Oh, come on. You dissed Kasey in his last points Cup win saying he only won due to having a short run car so you didn't put him first yet you put Kevin first for this?! :P
I have to say that I thought Ambrose was well and truly screwed after having to stop to fix that wheel problem or whatever it was with 60 to go....couldn't believe he rallied back to 6th :o
Hey Bev! It sure was! AND I was doing the Happy Dance on top of that!
Kristen, as I said in my GBU, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I almost had to create a Lucky category for Happy! Hamlin's crew DESERVES props for replacing the carburetor and NOT going a lap down!
Tez, I'm surprised you remembered that! I was frustrated at that time because Harvick was going to break a LONG winless streak had it stayed green! (Bowyer spun out and brought out a caution with 10laps to go. It would be nearly TWO MORE YEARS before Harvick would win again. I was frustrated at Bowyer bringing out that caution because Kahne was MUCH BETTER on short runs and Harvick was leading by seven seconds at the time.) I put Ambrose in the Good category because he was stout.
Hey jon!
Looks like Mr. Harvick is residing in the cat bird seat! I like that nickname "The Closer". A driver's got to have good equipment and teamwork backing him up to be in a position to close as he has.
We're 1/3rd of the way through the 2011 season (seems like yesterday I was at Daytona) and as it stands Happy should be the odds on fav to win it all.
How high can you fly?
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