This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the picturesque hamlet of Loudon, NH, for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, served up New England-style, with clam chowder, lobster chowder, and any kind of chowder you can think of, and washed down with PLENTY of Coke. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Ryan Newman/Tony Stewart/Stewart-Haas Racing: Newman gets first mention, and Smoke goes in here as well because Newman and Stewart qualified 1-2 and finished 1-2. Both drivers worked on long runs in practice, and when they unloaded, they were stout. Newman set a track record in winning the pole. An extra Good goes to Newman for winning the Modified race (from where else, the pole) yesterday. SHR became the first team to qualify AND finish in the front row since the 1989 Daytona 500, when Darrell Waltrip (qualified 2nd, won race) and Ken Schrader (qualified 1st, finished 2nd) accomplished the feat for Hendrick Motorsports. With the win, Newman now has a win in hand, and that helps his Chase chances. GREAT job SHR!
Denny Hamlin: the victim of a spinout, the 11 team fought back and through sound pit strategy and timely cautions (more on those later) put themselves in contention to possibly steal a win. That didn't happen, but Hamlin goes here because the crew did a great job in the pits and Hamlin did the rest.
Joey Logano: did he steal Kevin Harvick's playbook? Because he was a nonfactor until very late in the race. He gets a much-needed top 5 run.
Jimmie Johnson: he still has that lucky horseshoe, because he was a nonfactor for about 250 of the 301 laps of the race. He took advantage of Kyle Busch's early accident, Kevin Harvick's troubles, and Carl Edwards' fade to take over the points lead.
Bobby Labonte: he was solid today, and came away with a much-needed top 10 finish. For Labonte, it was his first top 10 finish since the Daytona 500.
Kasey Kahne: the driver of the #4 Red Bull Toyota was racy today. He was in the top 10 for a good portion of the race, even leading for a time. A good solid run.
Honorable Mention: Martin Truex, Jr, Marcos Ambrose, and Kurt Busch.
THE BAD
Jeff Green: he drew the short stick at today's start and parker meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. He ran a total of 11 laps before declaring himself done for the day and hotfooting it out of town with his earnings.
Debris cautions: EXACTLY one was warranted--when a piece of metal came onto the track and lay in one of the grooves. The one on lap 216 I did not see debris ANYWHERE. NASCAR, STOP throwing phantom cautions when green flag pit stops are coming up! (Had there been NO caution, and green flag pit stops, JJ would have lost AT LEAST two laps, if not more, because of a missing lugnut. This is a case of a favor being called in; JJ was struggling the whole race and NASCAR saved his bacon with that phantom caution. Just sayin'.)
THE UGLY
The race itself: there was no rhythm to the race; it kept getting interrupted by cautions.
TNT: we bid adieu to them for another season. Until they run the split screen on a consistent basis and get new announcers (Carl Edwards, please retire and join the TNT crew; you're better than what they have now!) they'll continue to be in the Ugly category. After a week break, ABC/ESPN will take over for the remainder of the season.
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours.
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5 comments:
jon,
Have to agree on everything you've got here.
I was looking at the track and seating... Coming into turn two they could extend the track out another 500 yards out, then back and end up with a 1.5-2 mile tri-oval... Throw in a high banked turn on the new addition and they'd really have a unique track... Guess that's out of the question but something needs to be done about these tracks that NASCAR feels they have to throw up phantom debris cautions on...
Don't know how else to solve the problems with these boring races but one way or another change the layout or the venue to tracks more condusive to competition...
Thanks jon!
Nice rundown, Jon.
I remember that 89 Daytona 500. My favorite, Schrader, had the car, led over half the laps, then had to pit for gas with 7 to go. DW stretched the mileage and won his only 500!
JJ had a fast car all day, and came from the back to the front 2-3 times. I'm not positive that his crew would have dropped a lug under green just because they did it under yellow. There was a car blocking JJ in on that last stop, and threw them off their rhythm. I had JJ in the trifecta, so I was watching him closer than I normally would have. LOL
Good ending to an otherwise boring race. Even though my driver led the most laps, I still fell asleep 2 or 3 times! Must be old age setting in!
Nice rundown Jon...cant say I disagree with anything.
Not looking forward to Rusty babbling on and on for the rest of the season I will say that!
I'll give a shout out to Pat Tryson who left #56 to help Labonte, I think he is...helping!
Thanks guys! My take: NASCAR has to do something about the empty seats disguised as fans. I'm not sure if lowering ticket prices will help if the racing is so predictable. There was only one legitimate debris caution: when a piece of metal was laying in one of the racing grooves. As for ABC/ESPN, I'm not looking forward to Rusty's babbling, either. I'd rather have his brother Kenny in the booth, and pair him with Charles Barkley. You'd have MUST-SEE TV. That, or two guys trying to drown out each other!
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