The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- 2011 Kobalt Tools 500

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the desert, the PHX, for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, southwestern-style, served with spicy BBQ beef and washed down with PLENTY of Red Bull. Enjoy!

THE GOOD

Kasey Kahne: he gets this week's top spot as the race winner. With the win, Kahne breaks an 80+ winless streak. More importantly, he gains momentum going into next season with Hendrick Motorsports. Good job Kasey!

Carl Edwards: he's becoming a regular in this neck of the woods. He led 27 laps and was pretty much in the top 3 all day. The Aflac Ford was steady, consistently fast, and experienced very little dropoff in speed after a long run. He's in the driver's seat to be the new champion. All he has to do is finish higher than Stewart, or within 3 positions of Stewart, provided Stewart does not win the race.

Tony Stewart: Smoke led the most laps, 160 in all, and it looked like he had the car to beat for much of this race. But a bad pit stop fairly late in the race doomed his chances. It wasn't bad as far as time goes, but in terms of throwing the car's balance off. He remains 3 points behind Edwards. To win the title next week, the formula is simple: win the race and lead the most laps, or finish at least four positions higher than Edwards.

Jeff Burton: another very solid run by the 31 today. He took four tires during the competition caution while everyone else took two tires. That brought the 31 car to life and he gained numerous positions during that run. He was able to gain more positions through solid pit stops, good pit strategy, and passing cars. Unfortunately for Burton, Luke Lambert, his current crew chief, will be the crew chief for Austin Dillon in the #3 Nationwide car next season. Shane Wilson, Clint Bowyer's current crew chief, will be Burton's crew chief next season.

Ryan Newman: he had a "quiet" top 5 finish. He didn't have much face time, and I'M left scratching my head at that. But Phoenix has always been a good track for Newman: he got SHR's first win in April 2009 at Phoenix driving the Tornados paint scheme. Good job Ryan!

The Veterans: to all those who have served and are currently serving in the military, a hearty THANK YOU for your service. Thank you to all the brave men and women for fighting for our freedom.

Honorable Mention: Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann, Paul Menard, and Clint Bowyer.

THE BAD

Travis Kvapil: he ran a grand total of 20 laps before declaring himself done for the day. He drew the short stick at the start and parkers' meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room before the race. He hotfooted it out of town with his earnings faster than he turned laps on the track.

Hendrick Motorsports: they were uncharacteristically bad today, with the exception of Mark Martin. Jeff Gordon had brake issues, and Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr totally missed on the setups. Usually they are pretty stout at Phoenix, but not today.

ESPN's coverage: even by their standards, they were atrocious. Missed restarts. Missed cautions. Not adequate explanations as to WHY cautions came out.

THE UGLY

Brian Vickers: WHY cannot he let Martinsville go? His dumping of Matt Kenseth was TOTALLY uncalled for. A Good to Kenseth for taking the high road. (He probably knows that Vickers won't be in a Cup ride next season.) He effectively eliminated Kenseth from running for the Cup title next week. NASCAR should have parked his butt, or at least penalized him five laps for rough driving. If you're going to penalize Kyle Busch for rough driving, then do the same for Vickers. A BAD goes to NASCAR for inconsistently enforcing penalties.

Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours. 

My Sonoma Weekend

This past weekend was one of the most awesome, memorable weekends I have had in a long time. I'll give you a brief synopsis of my weekend.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009

9:00 AM: left the house to pick up my rental car at the Fresno Airport. Made a detour en route.

10:45 AM: picked up rental car at the airport.

11:00 AM: left Fresno en route to Vallejo.

2:15 PM: arrived in Vallejo, ate lunch prior to checking in to The Ramada Inn.

2:45 PM: checked in, unpacked, and relaxed prior to dinner.

6:00 PM: arrived at La Strada Nostra, an Italian restaurant on Hwy. 29 in the south part of Napa, to meet my fellow Fox Sports Bloggers (above image) for dinner. A fantastic time was had by all that were present, including a blogger from Yahoo Sports (not pictured) that was in our dinner party. The food was fantastic, the drinks flowed freely, and the company was even better. We hung out at the restaurant until 8:45 PM. A few of us then hung out at the lobby of the Gaia Hotel just south of the restaurant until 10 PM.

11:30 PM: lights out.

SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2009

5:30 AM: awoke and got ready for a VERY long day at Infineon. Made arrangements with YeeMum to pick her up at 7:00 AM.

7:00 AM: YeeMum and I left for the track, arriving at 7:45 AM. We had hit some traffic about a mile east of the track, and there was a slight delay in parking. We waited about 10 minutes for a shuttle to pick us up and transport us to the track.

8:15 AM-12:00 Noon: several of us hung out with Kristen at Kurt Busch's pit to start out. It was interesting listening to Larry, one of Kurt's crew members, explain the process of constructing and deconstructing the pit area before and after a race. I also hung out at Kevin Harvick's and Kasey Kahne's pit areas. (I must have brought Kasey some luck, as he ended up winning the race, LOL.) Jeff, Kasey's catch can man, and I had a good, but brief conversation. I ended up taking a picture with two of Kevin Harvick's crew members (below).

These guys are cool! One of them complimented my Harvick crocs that I was wearing! I couldn't resist having my picture taken with these guys. The picture was taken around 9:30 AM (approximately). I had bought a Pit Pass earlier; that's why I was down in the pit area hanging out and taking pictures of various crew members, some of the cars that were racing that day, some pit signs, and other unusual objects. I even had a few pics taken of me sitting in front of Harvick's pit.

Some unusual pics:

Lugnuts from Jeff Burton's pit (left); Kevin Harvick's pit sign (right). Could the missing Maltese Lugnut be in Burton's pit? Nah, Burton's not running well enough, LOL.

12 Noon: I decided to take my seat. I was sitting where I had a clear view of Jimmie Johnson's pit, as seen below. Chandi (Jimmie's wife) was not there at the time of the picture, but was there during the race.

2:20 PM: Green flag waves, Brian Vickers takes the green flag. He led the first few laps of the event. He was strong at the beginning but faded down the stretch.

The race was scheduled for 110 laps, but a caution with two laps to go extended the race another three laps. Had the caution come on the final lap, the race would have ended under caution. Green-White-Checkered finishes are always exciting, and especially on road courses. Everyone knew that this was the last restart of the race. Kasey Kahne was in front of Tony Stewart at that point.

5:05 PM (approx.): Kasey Kahne takes the checkered flag roughly a second and a half ahead

of Tony Stewart. Here are a couple of pics to mark the occasion:

The picture on the left is Kahne taking the checkered flag with Stewart giving chase. The picture on the right is Kahne's right arm extended as he emerges from the #9 car.

7:15 PM: after a nearly two-hour wait, YeeMum and I finally board a shuttle to take us to the parking lot. We're both exhausted, but she's a happy camper because her driver (Kasey Kahne) won the race and she was able to see him win in person. Once we got to the car, it took us an hour and a half to finally hit open traffic just west of Napa.

9:00 PM: we stop to get a burger and fries in downtown Napa. After not having eaten all afternoon, a burger and fries was a welcome sight (and taste).

10:00 PM: I drop off YeeMum at her motel. I thank her for a great time together and that I am glad that she was able to make it to Sonoma.

11:30 PM: Lights out.

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2009

6:30 AM: awoke and decided to take my time showering, getting ready, packing for the trip home, etc.

9:00 AM: left Vallejo after a light breakfast and filling the car up with gas. Took my time getting into Fresno. Surprisingly, there was very little, if any, congested traffic.

12 Noon: pulled into Fresno.

12:45 PM: returned rental car without problem.

2:00 PM: arrived home.

That was my Sonoma weekend. I had a fantastic time, and my life is richer for not only the experience, but for the new friends that I made. Thank you all, and I'll see you down the road. Let's make this an annual event!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- Toyota/Save Mart 350

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew presents the wine (or whine) and cheese version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, served up Northern California style.

THE GOOD

Kasey Kahne: as the race winner, he automatically gets first billing. He led the most laps in the race and had the best car out there. He was able to hold off a hard-charging Tony Stewart on several late-race restarts. The win was the first for Richard Petty as a car owner since John Andretti’s win at Martinsville in April 1999. For Kahne, it was his first win on a road course, and he led the final 38 laps of the race. More importantly, the win moves him into 13th place in the standings. Good job Kasey!

Tony Stewart: Smoke had a strong car as well, as he led 11 laps. He kept waiting for Kahne to make a mistake, but it didn’t happen. He was strongest in the middle thirds of the race.

Marcos Ambrose: he had to start at the rear of the field due to an engine change. But he kept plugging away and kept moving up. Plus he was the beneficiary of a caution flag that occurred shortly after he left the pits on a pit stop. He moved way up when several drivers ahead of him pitted during that caution, and he stayed out. He tied his career-best finish of third.

Jimmie Johnson: while he’s not the best on road courses (he’s never won at Sonoma or The Glen), he gets this spot because he dramatically improved on his average finish at Sonoma before this race. While he never led, he hung around and the crew kept working on the 48 to make it better, and the results showed.

Denny Hamlin: another driver with an unexpected result on a road course. Hamlin was stout, leading 33 laps and hanging around the top 5 much of the race.
Honorable Mention: Juan Pablo Montoya, AJ Allmendinger, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Elliott Sadler, Patrick Carpentier, and Max Papis.

THE BAD

PJ Jones: he did Todd Bodine one worse. He only completed TWO laps before he was done for the day, finishing in an amazing 43rd place. Dead Freaking Last. Dude, next time you pull this crap, give up your spot in the field to someone that wants to RACE. That was a disgrace to NASCAR and sports in general. That left a BAD taste in my mouth.

Dave Blaney: another S & P—this time he completed an amazing FOUR laps to finish 42nd and run off with his paycheck. Both he and Jones probably did faster times running off with their prize money than doing laps on the track DURING the race. Perhaps the FBI should issue posters with both Blaney’s and Jones’ faces on them with the caption: WANTED: ROBBERY AND GRAND LARCENY.

THE UGLY

Jimmie Johnson: it’s rare that I put a driver in both the Good and Ugly categories, but I do this week. Johnson was trying to pass Kurt Busch in the esses. First of all, it’s next to impossible to pass in the esses. Busch was running very well, and his chances of winning evaporated when Johnson punted him and sent him into the tire barrier to bring out a caution at Lap 90.

Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours! For all you fellow bloggers that made it to Sonoma, I had a GREAT time! Thank you for a memorable weekend!