The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- 2011 Quaker State 400

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is somewhere between Louisville and The Natti aka Cincinnati for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, thoroughbred-style, complete with all the food you can eat, and mint juleps to wash them down. (Be responsible when partaking of the juleps.) Enjoy the inaugural GBU from Kentucky!

THE GOOD

Kyle Busch: stout. That's one way to describe him. Dominant. The BEST way to describe him. The 18 crew NAILED the setup and I got the feeling about 30 laps in that everyone else was running for second place. I remember reading a piece by Larry McReynolds and he stated that the team that hits the setup right will look like King Kong. Kyle Busch WAS King Kong tonight. It didn't matter which line he was running; he was stout wherever he was running. At times his lead was 10+ seconds over second place. He got away with one bad restart when Dale Earnhardt Jr cut a tire shortly after that restart and brought out a caution. It was his night.

Brad Keselowski: he was the best of the rest, even though he got shuffled back on the final restart. He led 79 laps but finished seventh.

David Reutimann: he was strong, stayed in the top 10 for pretty much the entire race, and kept his nose clean. Kentucky is very similar to Chicagoland, where Reutimann won last season. Had the final caution not come out, he may have stole this one, as Busch was low on gas. With good pit stops and strategy, he was in a position to win or get a strong top 5.

Kurt Busch: he was strong early in the race, being at the point up to the competition caution at Lap 30. He never really dropped out of the top 10, but got shuffled back late. He led 41 laps en route to a ninth place finish.

Denny Hamlin: he started at the rear of the field due to an engine change. Must have worked, because he charged towards the front in a hurry. He even led five laps during a round of green flag pit stops.

Jimmie Johnson: it's been awhile since we've seen you here, JJ. Although he didn't lead a lap, he was strong and stayed within striking distance.

Ryan Newman: he was the beneficiary of good (and lucky) pit strategy, as he at one point pitted out of sequence. But it worked to his favor late in the race. He got a MUCH needed top 5, finishing fourth.

Honorable Mention: Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and David Ragan.

THE BAD

Big Red: they sponsored three different makes of cars--Dave Blaney (Chevrolet), Mike Bliss (Ford), and Mike Skinner (Toyota). Skinner was a start and parker and finished DFL. Bliss did a LITTLE better, finishing 34th, three laps down. Blaney did the best, relatively speaking, finishing one position ahead of Bliss. He also finished three laps down. They'd have done better with JJ YELEY, had he run!

Mike Skinner: start and parker. He hotfooted it out of town with his earnings before the traffic got too bad.

TNT: TOO MANY COMMERCIALS. A sub-Good for the enhanced coverage, though.

Kevin Harvick: as big a Harvick fan as I am, I've got to put him here. The 29 crew missed the setup, making for a LONG night. The car started loose and finished loose. No matter what kind of adjustments they made to the car, it would not respond. They would have done well to read the notes from previous Chicagoland races, where they have run well. He was never a factor, and as a result, he drops to third in points, with Kurt Busch looming large in his rear view mirror.

THE UGLY

The race itself: it was a SNOOZEFEST, as most 1.5 mile races are. WHY does NASCAR INSIST on having 1.5 mile races when they KNOW most fans check out before halfway through the race? I'd be in favor of having FIVE races at most on 1.5 mile tracks. I even fell asleep!

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