Before I get to my weekly awards, I have to say this Texas race may have been THE worst held at that facility. There wasn't much for racing up front. Pretty bad when there's only 16 lead changes and half of those occurred under caution! Should also be noted only 10 cars finished on the lead lap. Of the 7 races this year, the Samsung 500 has been the worst.
No matter how bad the race was, there's still awards to hand out.
Most Surprisingly Good Finish: Giving this one to David Gilliland. Gilliland started 41st and wound up finishing 15th. Honorable mentions: David Ragan (13th), Brian Vickers (16th), Paul Menard (17th), & Travis Kvapil (18th). Ryan Newman would've been an honorable mention, but with his car being found too high, he stays off the list.
Most Impressive Performance: Again, was thinking of giving this to Newman. But scratch his name off! So moving into the space, is a driver I don't believe received much camera time, despite running in the top 15 in the 2nd half of the race: Mark Martin. Honorable mentions: David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne & Martin Truex Jr.
Perserverance: This was a hard award to give to anyone, because there really wasn't much movement during the race. However, I'm going in the direction of Bobby Labonte. Yes, finishing 20th may not seem like much of a feat, but when you consider 80 laps into the race, he was running in 35th. But they kept working on the car, and had it in the top 25 with about 100 laps to go. Honorable mention: Kevin Harvick
Most Surprisingly Bad Finish: This is a no-brainer. Jeff Gordon. For only the 2nd time in his Cup career, he ended up with a 43rd place finish. No honorable mentions for this.
Deserved a Better Finish: Martin Truex Jr. Truex had no worse than a top 15 finish headed his way. He was in the top 10 most of the day. But with 5 laps to go, his motor blew and Truex was forced to settle with a 36th place finish. Honorable mention: Greg Biffle.
Should've Stayed in Bed: Again, this is a no-brainer. Jeff Gordon. From the drop of the green flag, Gordon dropped like a rock. And never got it going.
As far as Surprisingly Bad Finish & Should've Stayed in Bed, while his day wasn't nearly as bad as Gordon's, a person could throw in Kurt Busch as a distant honorable mention.
You're more than welcome to differ on any of the choices!
Since there's no race 2 weeks from now, next week's Phoenix race will serve as a season to date update.
I would have to agree that Jr. has to think he's done the right thing when he sees the same things happening to Truax that happened to him how many times? I would hate to think that anyone would get any real satisfaction from seeing a team struggle so hard to finish, but maybe. DEI gets their parts from the same parts bins as HMS. Why their engines only last 495 miles in a 500 mile race is beyond me. I think they need to be paying closer attention to the laps run and less on winning at this point. Engines can legally be made to go the distance. They now have to figure out how the rest can do it, when they cannot. I always thought Jr's anchor was cuz Tony E., and I still see signs of the pit crew not helping him to stay up front...and that is all Tony.
Watching JG spin tells us that HMS still has not got the handle on the COT (Pun intended). it may be a long year for Chevy if the RCR cars are the only ones really competing.
Does anyone doubt the result of bizillions of dollars Toyota was willing to pay? It reminds me of Ford in the 60's, with unlimited budgets to beat Ferrari for a slight Henry II got when he couldn't buy the factory.
Last edited by BeaverNut on April 7th at 12:14 PM.
BeaverNut ~ of course Jr. isn't as sadistic as my comment suggests. Not suggesting I WANT Truex to perform badly, or rather his engine perform badly, either.
Yes I could tell you had just an evil gleam in your eye, but that you didn't really want bad things to happen. Evil Theresa needs some humbling that is sure!
Heard Truex's motor had a Jr. sticker on it. It was pulled from the back. The crew thought it was special. Special it was. It was to be used last year in the #8. Kinda makes me wonder. Was it Dale Jr.s motor from last year.....Anyway. The #24 team needs COT testing and alot of it.
Nascar needs to loose the bump stop, and give setup back to the teams.
Newman was the only one caught trying to put more down force to the rear. As loose as those cars are you can bet alot of teams are doing everything they can to do that.
