This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the lengthy shadow of Philly to bring you this week's heaping helping of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Philly-style, with plenty of cheesesteaks and crab cakes and washed down with PLENTY of Miller Lite (be sure to drink responsibly). Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Kurt Busch: he gets this spot as this week's winner. While he had a strong car throughout the day, it was in the second half of the race that the Double Deuce got better. Props to the crew for making the necessary adjustments to get the car better. The real key was getting past Jimmie Johnson on a late restart to take the lead. He was able to hold off JJ and Carl Edwards, who was making a late charge.
Jimmie Johnson: JJ started sixth, and was solid throughout the race weekend. He led early through a round of green flag pit stops. Solid, not spectacular. He sorely needed a top 3 run and got it at one of his favorite tracks. With the runner up finish, he moves up five spots in the standings, to fifth, 13 points behind co-leaders Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.
Carl Edwards: he looked like he had the car to beat throughout the race. But he got popped for speeding on pit road, and had to serve a drive through penalty that put him a lap down. He subsequently became the beneficiary of a free pass to get back on the lead lap. Then he made his charge. He was 20th on the final restart. He finished third. Good job Carl!
Kasey Kahne: he was finally able to put together a solid run from start to finish and avoid the bad racing luck that has plagued him for much of the season. Although he didn't lead a lap, he was solid throughout. Well done.
Richard Petty Motorsports: with AJ Allmendinger (7th) and Marcos Ambrose (9th) having strong runs, it was a strong team effort. Ambrose passed Kevin Harvick on the white flag lap to gain a position to finish 9th.
Honorable Mention: Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick.
THE BAD
ESPN'S coverage: normally I would put the first start and parker here, but the coverage was PUTRID. While I like the Nonstop Coverage, CUT AWAY from the commercials when a caution comes out!! Sheesh!! I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to Fox's All-Waltrip All The Time Coverage next year, though.
Travis Kvapil: he was the first start and parker. He drew the short stick at the start and parkers' meeting held in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room before the race. He ran a grand total of 12 laps before declaring himself done for the day and hotfooting it out of town with his earnings.
Stewart-Haas Racing: it was a horrid day for both Ryan Newman (p23) and Tony Stewart (p25). As bad as they were, it could have been worse had it not been for some late cautions. I'm sure THEY hotfooted it out of Dover shortly after they took the checkered flag. Stewart even lost his points lead and maybe a bit of his swagger he had built up after winning the last two races.
THE UGLY
Weather: the race was run under cloudy and occasionally rainy conditions. In fact, there were a couple of cautions for sprinkles. Hopefully the weather will be better in Kansas next week.
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours.
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4 comments:
pretty much spot on, Jon. I thought Maaaaacos had a great shot when he moved his way up to the top 5 but that 4 tyre call at the end left him with too much to do.
still, we've got a bunch of guys in contention but Vader isn't going to roll over and give it up by the looks of things.
Good one Jon...
Stewart-Haas struggled from the time they unloaded their haulers... Hard to figure how they can be so good on some tracks and then just flat hit the wall on others... And it's not like they don't have a book on Dover...
When are we going to see some fireworks? The fuel mileage racing and single file, "play nice" is getting old... LET'S BANG EM BOYS!
Tez, it's looking like you're going to have to rip it from Vader. Fortunately they've left his best track on the circuit in Dover. He'd have had something for Kurt if there had been one more lap. Here's who I think has a chance, and it's a short list: Harvick, Edwards, and Kurt Busch. Of those three, Edwards is the most up and down.
Dwindy, thanks! SHR TOTALLY missed the setup on both cars. The only thing that kept them from finishing worse was all those late cautions towards the end of the race. Had there been a very long green flag run (at least two consecutive green flag pit stops), they'd have finished double-digit laps down; they were THAT bad and THAT slow. And with no start and parkers, they'd have finished mid-30's, easy.
Hey Jon! Sorry so late to comment...
WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!! Kurt rebounds nicely after a rough week at Loudon. Impressed that team is showing some pop with adversity. And loved that he smoked JJ on the restart...geez wonder why none of the media asked him if he could race JJ clean in the chase this time?
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