The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- 2011 Kobalt Tools 400

This week the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in Sin City for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, served buffet-style with any kind of food you want to eat, and any kind of beverage you want to drink. Gamblers especially welcome.

THE GOOD

Carl Edwards: this is his third win in the last five races, dating back to last season. (He was also second at Daytona and had the car to beat at Phoenix, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time.) As such, he gets first billing. He was stout, and was up front pretty much the whole race. (He was second in laps led.) He's looking more and more like the Edwards of 2008, when he was ripping off wins in bunches.

Tony Stewart: Smoke led the most laps in the race (163), but when he took four tires on the final pit stop, he lost his track position. But what was his ultimate undoing was a speeding penalty on pit road. He tipped his hand too early in the race when he took two tires to gain track position; the rest of the field saw that it worked and later on Stewart was cooked. He did real well in finishing second. Stewart felt that he gave the race away. I disagree. Edwards was too strong for the field.

Juan Pablo Montoya: he was unusually strong (by Vegas standards). LVMS has been a graveyard for the Colombian driver; usually this is one of his worst tracks. Not today. He was strong throughout, even leading seven laps en route to his third place finish. He's a legitimate threat to make the Chase this year IF he's consistent. An oval win is coming in the not too distant future. (Perhaps at Bristol?)

Marcos Ambrose: "Kangaroo Meat" (as Kevin Harvick nicknamed him when Ambrose broke into NASCAR) took advantage of a strong qualifying effort (2nd) and ran up front most of the race. Looks like the decision to drive for Richard Petty is paying off. Good job Marcos! Hope we see you in this category more often!

Ryan Newman: back to back top 5s! He followed up his fifth place effort in the desert with another fifth place finish in Sin City. Props also go out to his pit crew for consistently fast pit stops and more often than not gaining ground through pit stops.

Brian Vickers: in his third race back from battling blood clots and missing most of last year, he scores a top 10 finish, and has shown no ill effects from surgery last year to repair a hole in his heart and the medication he took for the clots. Good job Brian!

Sub-Good: Paul Menard, for running the fastest lap of the race, 176.039 MPH.

Honorable Mention: Dale Earnhardt Jr, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr, and Kurt Busch.

THE BAD

Greg Biffle: or more specifically, his pit crew. On more than one occasion, the gas man didn't put enough gas in the tank. Biff had to return the first time because it was under caution, and the second time it was during a green flag pit stop that cost him THREE LAPS. I'm sure that had one of the RFR cars been out of the race, Greg Erwin would have swapped crews a la Chad Knaus. Better to get the kinks out now rather than near the Chase. Biffle had a car that was capable of winning the race, but he had a ten cent pit crew, at least for today.

The race itself: BORING. Long green flag runs on a mile and a half track do not make for good racing. The Fox crew had to describe it somehow. The next guy that can comment with excitement on watching paint dry will be the first. That's how the racing was--like watching paint dry. Can we just have two 1.5 mile tracks, Charlotte and Atlanta, and either blow the rest of them up or shutter them?

Landon Cassill: he was the first start and parker. He was the unfortunate soul that drew the short stick at the Start and Parkers' meeting in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room. At least he went longer than the typical start and parker--he went 33 laps!!

THE UGLY

The race itself: see above.

Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in and comment.