The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- Good Sam RV 500

This week, the Crappafoni Pictures crew is in the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania for this week's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, served up on a platter of Pennsylvania-style sandwiches, and washed down with PLENTY of Miller Lite. (Drink responsibly. And have a designated driver.) Enjoy!

THE GOOD

Brad Keselowski: he gets this slot as the race winner. Bad Brad did a masterful job just a few days after sustaining a broken ankle in a crash at Road Atlanta while testing for the Watkins Glen race. He took the lead for the first time on a daring three-wide pass in which he had a tremendous run. He held off Kyle Busch from that point on. With the win, Keselowski becomes the first wild card, as he has two wins on the season and is in the top 20 in points. Good job Brad!

Kyle Busch: he was the class of the field for the middle third of the race, and at one point he had a nearly 4 second lead on his brother Kurt before a late race caution wiped that out. He got shuffled back on the subsequent restart, losing the lead to Keselowski.

Kurt Busch: he was on the point for 38 laps and was stout throughout. He even survived a late-race skirmish with Jimmie Johnson. (More on that later.) But at one point, he berated his crew after he got shuffled back to mid-pack. Great job in fighting his way through that mess to finish third.

Jimmie Johnson: while he didn't lead a lap, he was able to drive his way towards the front, and if not for the great final restart by Keselowski, we might have been seeing JJ in Victory Lane instead.

Ryan Newman: must be the Tornados paint scheme. Or the driver. He, and not Smoke, have been heating it up this summer. Seems like every time he drives the Tornados scheme, he finishes in the top 5! (I think he's only finished outside the top 5 ONCE driving that scheme; that came as a result of a crash.) Whenever the 39 is in that scheme, it agrees with the car. Just sayin'. Newman was able to drive towards the front, even leading a lap during a round of green flag pit stops.

Denny Hamlin: he led the most laps in the race, but on the final pit stop, they made several key mistakes and lost 14 positions. They came in fifth; they came out 19th on the final pit stop. He's now in the second wild card position (he is currently 11th in the standings).

Honorable Mention: Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Paul Menard.

THE BAD

JJ Yeley: he was the first start and parker. He ran a grand total of seven laps before declaring himself done for the day and hotfooting it out of town with his earnings. He drew the short stick at the start and parkers' meeting, held in the Todd Bodine Meeting Room.

The race itself: now you know why Pocono is a snoozefest. Dull, boring action. LONG green flag runs. A VERY LONG racetrack and race. If you reduced the mileage to 400 miles I think it would be better. Still, it's better than soccer.

THE UGLY

Jimmie Johnson: it's not often that I put a driver in both the Good and Ugly categories. While Johnson WAS very solid today, it's his very late race and post-race antics that also put him here. On the final lap, he went down and made contact with Kurt Busch as he was trying to pass him. Busch didn't appreciate that and hit him back, causing a tire rub on the 48 car. (These two have a LONG history; the most memorable being Sonoma in 2009, when Johnson flat-out PUNTED Busch late in the race, costing him a top 5 finish.) AFTER the race, Johnson confronted cried to Busch to show his displeasure. Busch was like, "What the hell are you talking about?" As Johnson was ranting on, Busch's look turned from quizzical to getting pissed off. Then in the subsequent post-race interview, HE TRIED TO BLAME BUSCH!! I CALL BS ON THAT! (He was clearly trying to hide behind the safety of the TV cameras, probably to keep from getting his @$$ kicked by Busch.) The replays CLEARLY showed that Johnson made contact with the 22 FIRST. Man up JJ, and admit that you were wrong!! (IF I'm Kurt, I wait until late in the Chase, Phoenix perhaps, and exact my payback on the 48.)

Denny Hamlin's crew: they TOTALLY screwed up Hamlin's final pit stop, costing him 14 positions on the track. He might have made it up if there were 30 laps to go, but there were half that many.

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