This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is deep in the heart of Texas to serve you a heapin' helpin' of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, complete with Texas-style BBQ, all the fixin's, and washed down with plenty of Crown and Coke. Enjoy!
THE GOOD
Matt Kenseth: as the race winner, he gets first billing. He was so dominant it looked like he was going to lap the entire field. (I think had there been fewer cautions, or a 120+ lap green flag run, Kenseth WOULD have lapped the field; he was THAT good.) Everyone else was battling for second place. Kenseth led 169 of 334 laps, or just over 50% of the race. You want to know if it's your day? He was trailing leader Clint Bowyer by about a second when Brian Vickers made contact with Bowyer and nearly spun him out. While Bowyer made a great save of the #33 Cheerios Chevrolet, he lost the lead to Kenseth, who promptly checked out. The win was Kenseth's first since the spring 2009 race at Fontana. Props also go out to the Killer B's, who kept increasing Kenseth's lead with every pit stop. Good job #17 team!
Clint Bowyer: he led 44 laps and was strong all race long. But as said earlier, drivers not named Matt Kenseth were battling for second place. Bowyer ended up being the best of those drivers.
Roush-Fenway Racing: with Kenseth (winner), Carl Edwards (3rd), Greg Biffle (4th), and David Ragan (1st career pole, 7th place finish), all four RFR drivers had stout runs. When your lowest finishing driver finishes 7th, that's pretty darn stout. At least this week, they seemed to have it together.
Paul Menard: he continues to impress with strong runs. You cannot overlook the connection he has with Slugger Labbe as his crew chief. They united in the second half of last season when both were with Petty Enterprises. Although Menard never led tonight, he was in the top 10 pretty much the whole evening.
Marcos Ambrose: he deserves props for having a strong car that stayed on the lead lap the entire race, and staying in the top 10 for pretty much the entire race. Ambrose even led a lap under green flag pit stops.
Kurt Busch: he goes in this category for leading 50 laps, mainly in the last third of the race. He rolled the dice on pit strategy, hoping for a caution to extend his fuel mileage near the end, but it stayed green.
Honorable Mention: Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr and everyone else that finished on the lead lap.
THE BAD
Mike Skinner: he was the first start and parker, running a grand total of 36 laps before declaring himself done for the day and hotfooting it out of town with his prize money. Word has it the start and parkers meet in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room to pick numbers to see who draws the sticks first. Skinner drew first, and drew the short stick tonight.
Kevin Harvick: he was uncharacteristically bad tonight. He had a poor qualifying showing (29th) and even though he finished in the top 20, he was never a factor. He was consistently 3-5 mph slower than Kenseth. Only on occasion (and it was usually on a short run) was he either even with or slightly faster than Kenseth. The 29 crew did everything they could to try to tighten up the car, but it wouldn't tighten. It stayed loose throughout the race. Just one of those days when nothing worked. To his credit, the 29 team stayed focused and determined and were able to salvage a 20th place finish.
David Reutimann: a bad season got that much worse. He couldn't seem to stay out of anyone's way on pit road. That, and he blocked in his fellow competitors. He blocked in Kevin Harvick right after Harvick's crew gave him his best pit stop of the night. Reutimann made contact with Joey Logano as he was exiting his pit and ended up blocking Harvick's exit from his pit. That cost Harvick about 10 seconds on pit road, dropping him from potentially in the top 15 to 28th. Harvick never recovered, eventually finishing two laps down. Needless to say, Happy wasn't too happy. Reutimann finished 29th, five laps down.
THE UGLY
Brian Vickers: hate to do this to BV, but his contact with Bowyer cost Bowyer a shot at a win. At that point, Bowyer HAD the car that could go toe to toe with Kenseth. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING RACING WITH BOWYER? You were already a lap down, and Bowyer gave you room to pass him because you were faster at the time. If you had been a little more patient, BV, you'd have made up your lap the hard way!
Those are my nominees for the race. Feel free to come in with yours!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Clint said the Vickers thing was his, Clint's, fault...said Brian gave him plenty of him but he slid up into the 83 or something in his postrace interview. Until then, I was with you in going "what the heck are you doing, Vickers?!"
As much as SB might hunt me down, I'll give Smoke a bad tonight...he wrecked the car in pitlane after colliding with someone (the 36? I can't remember...the car that ended up facing the wrong way anyway), then the speeding penalty cost him any shot at all at the end. Finally, to add insult to injury, he ran out of fuel....had he not got pinged, he probably could've saved *just* enough to make it.
I tell you, if there had have been a late yellow, Marcos might have had a shot...he was an absolute demon on the restarts they had, made up a couple spots each time. Definitely can see him win on an oval on pace now rather than luck into one via fuel mileage, lol
Tez, Marcos was stout tonight. He could have had a shot had there been a late caution with less than 10 laps to go, as Kenseth wasn't as strong on restarts and short runs as he was on long runs. As far as Smoke colliding with Blaney, I think it was a matter of Smoke going out at the exact same time as Blaney coming in. An unfortunate accident that hurt both cars.
Have to agree with all Jon, except for Vickers. Wasn't he up against the wall when Clint came up on him?
Also agree with Tez on Smoke's bad night.
***Shocker Alert*** I'll give a good to NASCAR for not throwing a debris caution at the end and costing the best car the win. I've seen it happen to Kyle enough.
Gene, you're right. I did see the replay and Vickers was running high. Bowyer gave him PLENTY of room. In fact, I think Bowyer apologized to Vickers for starting the incidental contact. It was one of those bobbles that cost Bowyer a chance to win.
Well I'd certainly concur with Tez on Smoke being in the bad section with all his mishaps last night. Kurt really wasn't any better - they missed the set up big time and I am shocked they came away with a top 10. At least Addington figured out a way to keep Kurt quiet on the radio! LOL
Marcos was entertaining to watch as was Ragan finally...
I will have to go with Your picks Jon. Stewart stunk with bad luck in this race. Jr., I don't know yet. JGR racing wasn't too hot for some reason. Sorry to see Truex get his bell rang again. Those ecrashes have got to hurt.
Hey jon!
I'll tell ya what's ugly... Me having to work at night on the weekends and missing the night races.
I did see the first 100 laps, after that I'll take your word for it. 6 different winners in 7 races is a good thing (especially if your driver is the one with 2 wins! lol)
Thanks jon.
Kristen, they didn't miss too badly--they were on the lead lap for much of the race. Now Kevin Harvick's team TOTALLY missed on the setup. Setting up for night races is a gigantic crapshoot. No matter what they tried to do to the 29, it wouldn't tighten up. They tried air pressure, track bar, wedge, chassis, and any kind of adjustments in existence and it STILL wouldn't tighten the car up. Just one of those days.
Photogr, JGR is SUPER on the short tracks and road courses but they struggle on the 1.5 mile and longer tracks. If they go for speed, eventually they blow an engine. If they go for engine longevity, they aren't up to speed and they struggle on long runs. As far as Truex, it certainly hasn't been good the past couple of weeks. I just hope he has a strong run at Talladega, but you know in the back of his mind he's a bit nervous.
Dwindy, hate that you have to work during the race! I'm hoping that Harvick gets his third win of the season at Big Bad Talladega! (Although Dale Jr MIGHT have something to say about it!)
Post a Comment