After an unexpected week hiatus, the Crappafoni Pictures crew brings you this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, southwestern-style, complete with hot and spicy snacks provided by Tornados. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Ryan Newman: as the race winner, he gets first billing. He was the beneficiary of a very late caution caused when Scott Riggs slapped the wall. Crew chief Tony Gibson gambled by taking two right side tires and the #39 driver came out second, behind Jeff Gordon. He took the lead shortly after the restart and made it hold up. Newman's win was his first since the 2008 Daytona 500, and the first-ever win by a driver with the number 39. Those two laps were the only two laps Newman led the entire race. What makes this win sweet for this blogger is that Tornados snacks are manufactured in Central California. Good job Ryan!!
Jeff Gordon: try as he might, he wasn't able to overtake Newman for the win. I could say this as well for everyone NOT named Kyle Busch: he was the beneficiary of that late caution flag. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good; he turned a marginal top 10 car into a second-place car.
Jimmie Johnson: as usual, he was stout. Even though he started 16th, it didn't take him long to march to the front. He led the most laps in the race and got the extra five bonus points. But as the race wore on, the #48 car tailed off a bit. He actually increased his points lead a bit over Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle.
Mark Martin: night time was the right time for the driver of the 5 car. For much of the race, he was hanging out in low-2o'sville. But as day transitioned into night, the 5 car got stronger. He didn't have a car that could win, but he got the most out of the car en route to a fourth place finish.
Juan Pablo Montoya: he was at his best in the twilight part of the race, just before dusk. He led over 100 laps, but got bottled up on the last restart, running in seventh with two laps to go. He had a good rally to finish fifth. For the 42 team, that was huge. They needed a top 5 finish and got it.
Robby Gordon: I've gotta put him here. I've bagged on him many a time through the years, but not today. He was barely in the top 35 coming into the race. (He was 35th in points coming in.) But with Travis Kvapil losing his engine on Lap 314, that was the break he needed. He finished 14th, and was strong throughout. He's now 34th in points, and he's automatically qualified for Texas next week.
Honorable Mention: Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano.
THE BAD
The Fox announcing crew: Kyle Busch was within seven laps of taking the checkered flag when they said that Kyle Busch is the one guy that doesn't want to see a caution. Guess what? The caution flag flies!! DON'T JINX IT by saying that Kyle Busch (or whoever's leading late in the race, except for Jimmie Johnson--you can do THAT to him!) doesn't want to see a caution!! WHY do Fox, or ESPN, or ABC, or TNT's announcers DO this?? ESPN did the SAME thing last summer at Atlanta when they said the last thing Kevin Harvick wants to see is a caution. And guess what happened? Caution for Clint Bowyer spinning out. They get another bad for turning the race into a snoozefest.
THE UGLY
The race format: by extending the race another 100 km, it meant more face time for Fox's crew. The race could have started a half hour later, and under the old format, it would have still ended at night.
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours.
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11 comments:
oh come on, if that had been Harvick leading until that final caution, you so would not have ranked Newman first :P
Tez, LOL!
Agree on Fox TV! DW gets worse every race. The whole night, every time they mentioned someone, you could bet bad luck was coming. It wasn't long aster they bragged about Riggs that he brought out that unwelcome last caution!
Oh, come on, y'all! You can't give 'em that much credit! Coincidences!lol
JON,
WE GOTTA QUIT COPING EACH OTHER LOL LOL GOOD POST,
HAD NOT EVEN THOUGTH ABOUT THE JINX THING BUT YOU ARE RIGHT FOR SURE.
GUNAQUAT
Gene, they mentioned Harvick climbing into the top 5 and immediately thereafter he went backwards! Riggs WAS having a solid run and bad racing luck bit him.
Beverly, LOL! Or conspiracy theories!
Gunaquat, great minds think alike!
I'll give a kudos to my man Ambrose. He was pretty much screaming all night on the radio about how he was practically crashing every lap but the team gave him those fresh Goodyears at the end and he turned, probably, a 15th place car into 11th. He also moved up 5 spots in the points to (I think) 24th.
I am shocked neither of you put Kurt on the bad or ugly side of things! Was his fault and knocked us for a loop in the points...sigh.
That race was WAY too long!! Single file racing for another 60 laps didnt do much for me...
Good GBU. I've gotten to the point where I don't even watch the FOX pre-race show anymore. It's just too painful. If things keep on getting worse, I may even have to start watching the actual race on mute...
Tez, hopefully Phoenix will give Ambrose the necessary momentum he needs for the rest of the season.
Kristen, even though it was Kurt's fault, he and his crew did their best to get him the best position possible. Just one of those bad nights that was beyond his control.
Gonger, thanks. I'm with ya there on the Fox prerace show. I may have to put the race on mute in order to watch it.
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