Surpisingly Good Finisher--Going to start right at the top and give it to the race-winner Kasey Kahne. What a summer it's been for Kahne so far, having won 2 of the last 3 races, in addition to taking the All-Star Challenge. Honorable mentions: Brian Vickers (2nd), Mark Martin (10th), Bobby Labonte (11th), and AJ Allmendinger (12th).
Most Impressive Run--Again, Kahne. He had his Dodge up front the entire race. In the process, he's now in the top 10 in the point standings. Honorable mentions: Brian Vickers, Mark Martin & AJ Allmendinger.
Perserverance--A few drivers stood out. The one that stood out the most to me was David Gilliland. For a great portion of the race, he was running outside the top 25, as he was caught up in an early-race caution. At the halfway point, he was 34th. Gilliland ended up finishing in the 16th spot. Honorable mentions: Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte, & Kevin Harvick.
Deserved a Better Finish--This one is pretty simple. Tony Stewart. He was running top 10-top 15 for well over half the race, but a speeding penalty on pit road took him off the lead lap and it was hard for him to catch up from there. He was headed towards at least a top 10 finish, if not for the infraction. Ended up finishing 35th. Not a very good start to the Summer part of racing for Stewart, finishing 41st at Dover.
Surprisingly Bad Finish--Gotta look at the top for this one. What I mean, is, is the point leader coming into the race. Kyle Busch got into Jamie McMurray on lap 48, and spent the next 80 laps in the garage for repairs and wasn't able to pick up any positions before bringing out the race's last caution flag with 20 laps to go and finished 43rd. That's 2 straight races a Gibbs driver has finished in that position (Denny Hamlin at Dover). Honorable mentions: Clint Bowyer (39th) & Tony Stewart (35th).
Should've Stayed in Bed--Again, Kyle Busch. What looked to be a promising weekend of triple-crown racing by going to Texas for the Trucks, Nashville for the Nationwide series and then to Pocono turned into a nightmare. After wrecking the primary car in practice on Saturday, he had to start from the back and wasn't able to get much past the top 30 until the previously mentioned caution put him back in 43rd again. And that's where he stayed. Honorable mention: Clint Bowyer.
Surprisingly Good Finish--Greg Biffle. A nice 3rd place run. He continues to surprise me, race-in & race-out. Honorable mentions: Martin Truex Jr. (6th), Dave Blaney (9th), Jamie McMurray (10th), and Travis Kvapil (11th).
Most Impressive Run--Again, Greg Biffle. He led a handful of laps, and outside of pit stops, he was running in the top 3 almost the entire race. Honorable mention to Biffle's teammate, Jamie McMurray. Every time I looked he was running in the top 10.
Perserverance--This is an award I'd much rather give an incomplete to. It just seemed like everyone ran in the same areas from start to finish. So, I'm digging at the bottom of the barrel for this one. I'm going to go in the direction of 19th place finisher Robby Gordon. He had what was no better than a 25th place car and wound up in the top 20.
Deserved a Better Finish--Again, this could almost go incomplete. The drivers that ran good, finished good. If one driver sticks out, I'd say is Clint Bowyer. He should probably had a top-20 finish, as he was running in the top 15 for a handful of laps. He had just sniffed the top 10 at the halfway point of the race when a shock mount broke and relegated the team to a 36th place finish.
Surprisingly Bad Finish--Gotta go with the 43rd place finisher, Denny Hamlin. He was involved in the first caution of the race that ended his day. Honorable mentions: Tony Stewart (41st), Kevin Harvick (38th), Clint Bowyer (36th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (35th).
Should've Stayed in Bed--I'm leaning in the direction of Kevin Harvick. The 38th place finisher, had a weekend he'd like to forget. They didn't qualify well (34th), and had only advanced barely into the top 30 by lap 16 and was trying to avoid hitting the spinning car of Elliott Sadler, but was slammed from behind and ended spending 50 laps in the garage for repairs. Honorable mentions: Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Surprisingly Good Finish--This one goes right to the top: Kasey Kahne. This season's first two marquee events has seen some feel-good winners (Ryan Newman in the Daytona 500, being the other). Nice to see Kahne parlay his All-Star race win into his 2nd 600 victory. Honorable mentions: Greg Biffle (2nd), Elliott Sadler (8th), David Reutimann (10th), and Bobby Labonte (11th).
Most Impressive Run--The race-winner Kasey Kahne. He had his car up front for almost the entire race. Honorable mentions to Greg Biffle & David Ragan.
Perserverance--Gotta look in the direction of Jeff Gordon on this one. He found himself off the lead lap a couple of times during the race. He had no better than a top 20 finish facing him. However, they gambled on fuel and ended up with a 4th place finish.
Deserved a Better Finish--This was a tough one to choose because there were some good candidates....but since I only pick one driver, I'm going to say Brian Vickers. Vickers tied for 2nd in the number of laps led in the race, and it looked like he was headed towards at least a top-10 finish, until he had wheel problems about the midway point of the race. It knocked him out of the event, finishing 42nd. Honorable mentions to Jimmie Johnson.
Surprisingly Bad Finisher--The aforementioned Jimmie Johnson. A 3-time winner of this particular race, it appeared Johnson might be headed to another victory. However, his engine had other ideas, as it let go with about 50 laps to in the race. Johnson wound up a disappointing 39th. Honorable mentions: Clint Bowyer (25th) & Denny Hamlin (24th).
Should've Stayed in Bed--I gotta say Clint Bowyer. This team struggled all weekend with this car. He qualified 39th and they had to make an unscheduled pit stop early in the race, and they were playing catch-up for the next 4 hours. Bowyer didn't crack the top 30 until the halfway mark, and only improved another 5 positions after that.
Before I close out this post, I just want to take the time to mention, as Fox approaches their final Cup race of the '08 season next week at Dover, that this has actually been a pretty exciting season of racing in NASCAR. One-third of the season is complete, yet all three national series (Cup, Nationwide & Craftsman Truck) have a point-differential of less than 100 between the point leader & the 2nd place driver. A year ago now, 2 of the 3 series were looking at point leads over 200.
Before I start in with this week’s race awards, I want to congratulate everyone involved with Darlington Raceway, whether it’s people that’s associated with the track, or people in the area who bought tickets. When many said the Mother’s Day weekend wouldn’t work, the Lady in Black has proven them wrong. Now, if we can just get NASCAR to take a hint and reward these fine people by moving Darlington’s lone date back to the Sunday night of Labor Day Weekend, and bring back the fans the Southern 500 (even if they have to call it the Dodge Challenger Southern 500).
This week is busy in the awards, as it’s that time of the month to look at the “Season-To-Date” awards. First, the awards for Darlington itself.
Surprisingly Good Finisher—How can I go wrong with David Ragan? A nice 5th place finish for a driver who was running into everything in sight in 2007. Honorable mentions to Travis Kvapil (8th), Dave Blaney (9th), Jamie McMurray (11th), and Scott Riggs (17th).
Most Impressive Run—I’ve gotta go with Martin Truex Jr. He had that car running around the top 5, even led a handful of laps. His 14th place finish is no indication of how well he ran. Honorable mention to Dave Blaney.
Perserverance—No one really stood out when it came to this category, but the driver I’m going to go with is someone who’s been getting a lot of negative awards lately. That’s Matt Kenseth. He would sometimes be running top 10, and then next thing I know he was down around 20th and then back around 10th…..but they kept working on it to an eventual 6th place finish. Honorable mentions: Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer & Tony Stewart.
Deserved a Better Finish—Greg Biffle. What more can be said? He had at worst a top 5 finish. But mechanical problems just past the halfway mark spelled doom for Biffle.
Surprisingly Bad Finisher—Kevin Harvick. He finished in 39th position after an early race incident when he was running in the top 10 at the time. No one else even comes close.
Should’ve Stayed in Bed—No one stood out. At the outset, I’d have said Tony Stewart. But he battled back to a respectable 21st place finish. I’m going to give this to Kyle Petty. This was just one of those races for Petty. He started 35th and dropped like a rock. When you start 35th and drop like a rock, it’s a pretty good indication how a driver’s day (or in this case, night) is going. He was running either 41st or 42nd the entire race. An obvious honorable mention to Elliott Sadler.
Ok…..how is the season to date looking…..
Most Surprising Driver…..I’m going to stay with Greg Biffle on this. He’s currently 11th in points. But right on his heels for this category is his teammate David Ragan, who would also be in the Chase. Ryan Newman joins Ragan as an honorable mention, as would Kasey Kahne & Martin Truex.
Most Disappointing Driver: This is a no-brainer in my opinion. The only driver that comes to mind is Kurt Busch. He’s had just 1 top 10, and that was his 2nd place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. Not to mention 3 DNFs, and only 5 lead lap finishes so far this season. And before anyone brings up Matt Kenseth, consider Kenseth has finished in the top 10 in 5 of this season’s first 11 races.
Surprisingly Good Finish: I'm going to give this to Mark Martin. A tremendous 3rd place finish for Martin. Honorable mentions to: Martin Truex Jr. (5th), Ryan Newman (6th), Kasey Kahne (10th), and Reed Sorenson (12th).
Most Impressive Performance: A repeat in this category. Mark Martin. He had that car running in either 2nd or 3rd as much as Denny Hamlin was in the lead.
Perserverance: I'm going to go rather deep in the finishing order on this. I like Scott Riggs, who finished 19th. The first half of the race Riggs was no higher than 32nd after starting 30th. He eventually made it to the top 25 with 100 laps to go and kept improving. Honorable mentions: Travis Kvapil (16th), Regan Smith (21st).
Surprisingly Bad Finish: Here's his name again in one of the negative categories: Kurt Busch. Caught up in the Richmond "big one" and finished 42nd. Honorable mentions: Matt Kenseth (38th), Jimmie Johnson (30th), and Denny Hamlin (24th).
Deserved A Better Finish: This one is quite obvious. Denny Hamlin. After setting a record for laps led in a single race at Richmond, Hamlin had tire problems with about 25 laps remaining. Up until that point he had dominated the race, but finished in 24th.
Should've Stayed in Bed: I feel like the names remain the same. I'm flipping Matt Kenseth & Kurt Busch from their awards after last week's race at Talladega. So, for Should've Stayed in Bed this week, it's Matt Kenseth. They struggled early on, eventually improved to the top 20, but was caught up in the same caution as Busch. From that point on it was simply making laps for points.
The question is becoming: Matt Kenseth is one of the few drivers to be in the Chase every year since it's inception....is that streak coming to an end this year?
Following next week's Darlington race, I'll offer a season to date rundown.
Surprisingly Good Finish: Gotta give this one to the runner-up finisher, Juan Pablo Montoya. Honorable mentions: David Ragan (4th), Brian Vickers (5th).
Most impressive performance: The aforementioned David Ragan. It seemed like everytime I looked he had his Roush-Fenway Ford running around the top 5.
Perserverance: Giving this to Casey Mears. He had nothing more than a 25th place car for the majority of the race, but wound up being the highest finisher from the Hendrick brigade. He was 16th with just 8 laps to go, but finished 7th.
Surprisingly Bad Finish: I'm giving this to Matt Kenseth, as he finished 41st. Honorable mentions: Carl Edwards (40th), Kurt Busch (39th), and Tony Stewart (38th).
Deserved a Better Finish: No doubt this was Tony Stewart. He had at worst a top 5 finish, but a multi-car crash with about 15 laps to go spoiled that.
Should've Stayed in Bed: Some might think Matt Kenseth, but I'm going to go with Kurt Busch. It seems like he's been getting this award quite a bit this year. He spent most of the day running outside the top 30, and it wasn't until late he crept into the top 10, but was caught up in the same caution as Stewart.
Sorry for being late with this. Going to go right to the awards (this also includes season to date awardings):
Suprisingly Good Finish: David Gilliland. This guy has been posting several top 15s lately, including a 15th place finish at Phoenix. Honorable mentions: Sam Hornish (20th) & Paul Menard (21st).
Most Impressive Performance: Mark Martin. He gave the U.S. Army Chevy a great run....he had a top 5 car almost the entire race. Honorable mentions: Martin Truex Jr. & Greg Biffle.
Perserverance: Sam Hornish. He took a car that spent the majority of the race running outside the top 30, yet wound up with a nice 20th place finish. Honorable mentions: Casey Mears & Bobby Labonte.
Disappointing Finish: Matt Kenseth. Someone you expect to finish in the top 10, winds up in 38th, following an early race caution.
Deserved a Better Finish: Ryan Newman. The pole-sitter was headed for no worse than a top 15 finish. He led 37 laps, but motor problems relegated Newman to a 43rd place finish.
Should've Stayed in Bed: The aforementioned Kenseth. His run reminded me of Jeff Gordon's day at Texas last week. Got behind the 8-ball early on, and was never able to catch up.
Some Season To Date Awards:
Most Surprising Driver: This one hasn't changed from the last time. Greg Biffle is still my selection for most surprising. While he's slipped some in the last month, he's still sitting top 10 in points.
Overachieving Driver: I'm going in the direction of David Gilliland for this. I thought he'd have problems getting into the top 30 in driver points. Yet, 8 races into the season, he's just 17 points from being in the top 20.
Fortunate To Be Where He Is In Points: This one has shifted. No one really sticks out, but I had to pick a driver, it would be our points leader, Jeff Burton. Yes, he has the victory at Bristol, but even then, he fell into the victory. If a person went by from just watching each and every race, but didn't ever look at the point standings, not too many would guess that Burton was leading the points. In fact many would probably think he wasn't even in the top 5.
Most Disappointing Driver: I'm probably thinking out of the box on this, but I'm looking in the direction of J.J. Yeley. He should be solidly in the top 20 to 25 area in the points. But like our selection in this category a month ago (Jamie McMurray) found himself in, Yeley is sitting on the outside looking in in terms of the top 35.
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.
While battling the elements, the Sprint Cup drivers were able to get in all 500 laps of Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway, with Denny Hamlin taking the checkers for the 4th time in his Sprint Cup series career.
For Martinsville, I felt this was one of the better races at the facility in several years. The race produced 20 lead changes, over half of which occurred under green flag conditions.
As for the awards, here's what I have:
Surprisingly Good Finish: I'm going to go with Regan Smith for this. He was the top finishing rookie for the race, winding up in 14th. Honorable mentions: David Ragan, Paul Menard & Travis Kvapil.
Most Impressive Performance: Jamie McMurray. McMurray, who came into the race outside the top 35 in points, ran right around the top 5 the entire race. Honorable mentions: Casey Mears & David Ragan.
Perserverance Award: No one really stood out in this category. But if I had to give this award to someone, it would be Paul Menard. Menard spent well over half the race running outside the top 20, and it wasn't until there were just over 100 laps to go that he was able get around the top 15, and had an eventual finish of 16th.
Most Disappointing Finish: Hands down, this goes to Kyle Busch. Busch came into the race with the points lead, was involved in a caution early on and finished 38th. Honorable mentions: Kurt Busch & Matt Kenseth.
Deserved a Better Finish: I'm going to go in the direction of Dave Blaney on this one. Blaney desperately needed a good finish to get in contention for a top 35 locked in spot, and appeared to be headed that way, but engine problems saddled Blaney with a finish of 43rd. Honorable mentions: Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch & Ken Schrader
Should've Stayed in Bed: Kurt Busch. Kurt and his team just couldn't get anything going at Martinsville. He was involved in a couple of cautions, spent almost the entire race running outside the top 30, finishing 33rd. Honorable mention: Matt Kenseth
Gotta start off by congratulating Jeff Burton on winning the Food City 500. While he may not have had the best car, he certainly was in the right place at the right time to pick up his 20th Cup victory. It completed a remarkable top 3 sweep for Richard Childress Racing.
In terms of a Bristol race, I felt this '08 Spring event was a pretty good race. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it 7.5. There was some good racing up at the front, and the race obviously wasn't decided until the very end.
Let's take a look at my awards for this race. As I wrote last week, a look at the season so far will be offered this week as well.
Surprisingly Good Finish: Hands down this one goes to Aric Almirola. He wheeled his #8 DEI Chevrolet to an 8th place finish. His finish was so good that I'm not even going to give any honorable mentions.
Perserverance Award: With this, I'm going to go in the direction of Kasey Kahne. Seemed like most of the race he was running around 20th, but he was able to come home with a 7th place finish. Honorable mentions to Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Gilliland and the aforementioned Almirola.
Deserved A Better Finish Award: I was thinking of giving this to Tony Stewart, as there's no doubt he had the car to beat. However, he still managed to finish 14th. While it wasn't a trip to victory lane, all-in-all 14th isn't too shabby. So, I'm going to hand this to Casey Mears. Casey was in the top 5 early on and I really feel could've had a top 15 to top 20 finish. He ended up finishing 42nd, a finish that team didn't need. The #5 crew finds itself sitting 33rd in owner points, just 16 points ahead of 36th.
Disappointing Finish: No one's finish really stood out to me, but if I was forced to pick a driver for this award, I'd give it to Jimmie Johnson. He started on the pole, and ran in the top 5 most of the day. But from the moment he made contact with Jeff Burton with just over 100 laps to go in the race, Johnson's car dropped, to an eventual finish of 18th.
Should've Stayed in Bed: Again, this was a category that didn't stick out, either. So, this is nothing more than a forced choice. I'm giving it to Mike Skinner, who finished 40th. From the time his car caught on fire, they were playing catchup.
For most impressive performance from Saturday's Nationwide race, it doesn't feel right to name someone when it's a rain-shortened event. However, in order to pick a driver from it, I say David Reutimann. I truly believe he's going to be running neck-and-neck with Clint Bowyer & Carl Edwards in pursuit of the Nationwide Championship.
That's a wrap on Bristol. Now that we're 1 month into the season, and headed for the first off-week of the '08 campaign, here's a look at some "through the season" awards.
Most Surprising Driver: I have to say it's been Greg Biffle. After finishing 14th in the point standings in '07, Biffle finds himself sitting 2nd this year, just 30 out of the lead. While he's still seeking his first win of 2008, he has chalked up 3 top 5 finishes in the season's first 5 races. And it's not like Biffle fluked his way into those finishes. He's been running right around the top 5 in every race so far this season. A week ago, this award would've most likely been going to Brian Vickers. But a poor finish at Bristol dropped him to 17th in the current point standings.
Fortunate To Be Where He Is In Points: For this I'm looking at Ryan Newman. Yes, he won the season-opening Daytona 500. But since then, Newman has run decent, but really hasn't set the world on fire. Yet, he finds himself sitting in 8th in the point standings. He's going to need a strong run soon if he wants to maintain his top 10 positioning.
Most Disappointing Driver: I'm going to look at two ends of the spectrum with this one. On one end, I could say teammates Jimmie Johnson & Jeff Gordon. But I'm going to the other end of the spectrum and say it has to be Roush-Fenway driver Jamie McMurray. A driver you'd expect to be at least top 20 points is in a situation where he has to time his way into the next race at Martinsville.
Should Be Higher in Points: I mentioned him in the previous category: Jeff Gordon. He's currently 14th in driver points, but that's no indication of how well Gordon has run during the 1st month of the season. If it wasn't for a handful of circumstances, there's no doubt in my mind he'd be sitting in the top 5 in points right now.
And, finally, the driver who's season has been a nightmare: How can I look at anyone else for this but Kyle Petty. While Bobby Labonte has been running in the top 20, Petty has been totally out to lunch this year. Not only has it been a chore to stay in the top 35 in points this year, it's been just as tough for Petty to even get past 35th at any point in a race! Here's hoping they can get things going in the right direction.
Last, but not least, let me close by saying I'm glad NASCAR waited until now to take a week off in the Cup Series. The past 4 years saw the series run just a couple of races before the first off-week, and it did nothing but break the momentum for the season. This year, they put 5 races in the record books and when the series resumes at Martinsville in 2 weeks, they'll be qualifying off of this year's points. And it gives teams just enough races to assess how the season has been going.
The first of two visits to Atlanta in 2008 is in the record books with Kyle Busch picking up his 5th career victory. Busch becomes the first driver to win the Cup & Craftsman Truck series races in the same weekend. There's no doubt the driver of the No. 18 Toyota is the hottest thing going this early in the season.
That being said, it's been awhile since I've seen a race this bad at Atlanta. Sure, there were 26 lead changes, but only 10 of those occurred under green flag conditions. With all due respect to The Rock, with the temperatures in the 50s, tires going away quick, and with the 20th place driver 2 laps down, this reminded me of watching those February North Carolina Speedway races from not so long ago.
Let me present my awards for the race:
Surprising Good Finish: For the 2nd time this season I'm handing this one to Brian Vickers. He finished in the 9th position, and with being just a couple of weeks from using this year's points to determine who's locked into the shows, the #83 has clinched being in such a position going into Martinsville at the end of this month. The #83 is 211 points ahead of the 36th place in owner points. So, even if Vickers would fail to qualify for Bristol next week, he'd still be in the top 35. For this category I'm going to go down to the 18th place finisher for an honorable mention to Scott Riggs.
Perserverance: Again, giving this to Vickers. Vickers started 35th, as the laps clicked off he continued to pick up positions. The first-fourth of the race was running below 25th.....from lap 80 to the crossflags had it in the top 25.....then by the three-fourths mark was in the top 15, and eventually ended up with the aforementioned top 10. Honorable mention to Matt Kenseth
Deserved a Better Finish & Surprisingly Bad Finish: Seems like a pattern here, with everything leaning towards the Roush teams. As this one goes in the direction of Carl Edwards. It appeared Edwards was heading to a 3rd straight checkered flag, but had an engine go sour on him while he was leading the race with about 50 laps remaining.
Should've Stayed in Bed Award: It's hard to find a driver to give this to. Yes, I could give it to Edwards, but it's not like his entire day was bad. As I said, he was leading late in the race. I could give it to Elliott Sadler, but I'm going to go in the direction of Kyle Petty for this. Petty finished in the 41st position. Petty's PEAK position for the race? 38th!!!. At no time in the race was he higher in the running order than 5 competitors! In turn, the #45 is 81 points out of 35th in owner points, and he's undoubtedly facing a go-or-go home situation following Bristol next week.
From Saturday's Nationwide race, my selection for most impressive performance to Dale Jr's driver, Brad Keselowski. Nice 6th place finish. And he didn't fluke his way into that finish. He was running there nearly the entire race.
Next week, not only will I look at Bristol on an individual race basis, with that race marking 1 month point of the season, I'll be putting out my first "through the season" award selections in these various categories.
I'll leave you with this thought: Any chance of Tony Stewart applying for a Goodyear dealership anytime in the near future?
First, what a relief not to have weather issues cause havoc on the race weekend. Secondly, congratulations to Carl Edwards on winning the race. He's definitely had the best car on the track 2 races in a row now. They'll head to Atlanta next week to try and make it three straight.
Let's move on to this week's race awards:
Surprisingly Good Finish: I'm giving this one to Travis Kvapil. He took the unsponsored #28 of Yates racing to a top-10 finish. Honorable mentions go out to David Ragan and Jeremy Mayfield.
Most impressive performance: Going to give this to one of the Roush drivers. And that's Greg Biffle. He had that #16 near the top 5 the entire race, and wound up in a much-deserved 3rd.
Perserverance: I'm also going to give this one to Kvapil. The first 100 laps, this car was mired outside the top 30....a 100 laps later, the car was in the top 15. He took what was barely a top 20 car and turned it into an 8th place finish. Honorable mention to Kasey Kahne, for taking a car that was at one time 1 lap down and finished in the 6th position.
Deserved a Better Finish: For the 2nd time in 3 races, this one goes to Jeff Gordon. Had a top 5 headed his way, until his car slid up and made contact with Matt Kenseth late in the event and had to settle for a 35th place finish. Honorable mentions to Kenseth, Scott Riggs, & Kurt Busch
Should've Stayed in Bed: While some would say Jimmie Johnson, I'm going in the direction of Clint Bowyer. Bowyer spent most of the first half of the race running outside the top 35, and it wasn't until the very end of the race that he finally cracked the top 30. Johnson & Tony Stewart get honorable mentions in this category.
Surprisingly Bad Finish: I mentioned his name in the previous category. None other than Tony Stewart, who finished in the shotgun position, 43rd. Let's add Gordon, Busch, Johnson and Bowyer as honorable mentions.
From Saturday's Nationwide race, my impressive performance recipient is David Stremme, taking a 5th place finish.
Next week it's Atlanta. Atlanta is one of my favorite tracks. For one reason, it's one of the quickest, if not the fastest track on the circuit, and it offers side by side racing. All 3 of NASCAR's national series will be taking to the track with Trucks on Friday, and the Nationwide Series on Saturday joining the Cup series.
First, thank GOD this racing weekend is finally over! In the decade or so of following the sport, I can't recall a weekend anything like this!
Next, congratulations to Carl Edwards on the win. He definitely had the car to beat today, so he deservedly picked up the win.
Now for my awards of the race:
Surprise finisher: How can a person go against Brian Vickers? A nice 11th place finish. And it's not like he fluked his way into the finish. He had that car running top 15 almost the entire race.
Perserverance: This was one of those races where I look at the finishing order, and it lines up with how everyone ran most of the race. Case in point: 7 of the top 10 finishers were in the top 10 at lap 120. So, in terms of a driver, I'm going to leave this category incomplete for this race. If anything, the whole NASCAR community, (drivers, crews, officials, fans, television/radio, etc.) need to be given the perserverance award.
Hard Luck Ace: Again, I'm going to leave this award incomplete. The drivers that finished bad, ran bad.
Should've Stayed in Bed Award: This one goes to Denny Hamlin. He hit the turn 3 wall on lap 15 and was playing catch up from that point forward and never caught up, finishing 41st.
Surprisingly Bad Finish: Again, going to give this one to Hamlin. I don't think anyone expected him to finish that low. For honorable mention, let's throw in Dale Earnhardt Jr.
From today's Nationwide race.....While Tony Stewart was destroying the field, I'm going to give my impressive performance award to David Reutimann in finishing 4th. In my opinion, he had the next best car following Stewart. And another David R, David Ragan, had a pair of top 15's on the day.
And lastly, I'd be remissed if I didn't mention Kyle Busch's name. He pulled the triple, running all 3 of this weekend's events and finishing top 4 in all 3 races.
I'm ready: Let's go to Vegas! And sayonara California!
The 2008--and 50th--running of the Daytona 500 is complete. Congratulations to Ryan Newman on picking up the victory. This version of the 500 reminded me very much of last year's rendition. A year ago, Kurt Busch & Tony Stewart had the dominant cars through the first 150 laps, much like Kyle Busch & Stewart did this year. And, just like a year ago, the first 150 laps were pretty tame, and then things began to get crazier in the final 50 laps.
While it took awhile for the race to get going, I thought this was one of the most competitive 500s in recent years. On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give this race a 6 1/2.
One of the things I'm going to do for each race is hand out various awards. Most of these are self-explanatory. And after each month or so take a look at the various categories for the season.
The first one is the Surprisingly Good finish.....for the Daytona 500, it has to go to the race winner Ryan Newman. While I had Newman as my darkhorse, his victory was totally unexpected. He rode in the top 5 almost the entire 2nd half of the race.
Next, is the "Didn't Give Up" award.....for this one, I'm going with Newman's teammate, Kurt Busch. For the most part, Busch had about a top 25 car.....yet wound up pushing Newman to the victory and finishing in the runner-up spot.
The hard-luck ace.....the driver who ran stronger than his finish shows. No doubt this one has to go to Jeff Gordon. He was running top 15 for the majority of the race, but suspension problems led to him finishing in the 39th position.
The "Should've Stayed in Bed" award.....going to the driver who simply had a bad day. I'm giving this one to Joe Nemechek. From the early point in the race, they were having problems, and were never able to right the ship, and wound up in 41st.
The last one is the Suprisingly Bad finish.....for this, I'm again going to go with Jeff Gordon.
From Saturday's Nationwide race, while Tony Stewart was the victor, the performance I was most impressed with was former champion Brian Vickers, who finished 4th.
It's now on to California, with the Auto Club 500 next weekend.
At the time of this writing, the Nationwide race hadn't taken place yet.....but once it's completed, all of the attention can finally be turned to the Daytona 500 on Sunday, to bring down the curtains on Speedweeks 2008.
There's several storylines at play for the race. Obviously, we have to start with Hendrick Motorsports. Can anyone derail this operation in the Daytona 500? and more specifically, can anyone derail Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Jr. has taken the Shootout, and his qualifying race, and is now setting his sights on winning his 2nd Daytona 500. Which would be a first. No driver has ever been able to win all 3 in the same Speedweeks.
Whoever wins the race, let's think about what it'll mean. No one else, but the winner, can say they've won the 50th Daytona 500. Also, this begins NASCAR's 60th season. So there's quite a few historical notes.
Something many people will be keeping their eyes on Sunday will be to see how the open-wheel drivers do. While Patrick Carpentier & Jacques Villeneuve failed to qualify for the race, Sam Hornish Jr. will roll off from the 19th position and Dario Franchitti starts 40th. Both of those drivers also are running for the Rookie of the Year award, 2 of 3 rookies in this race, with Regan Smith being the other.
How will the various manufacturers do? Is Chevrolet going to win their 6th straight Daytona 500? Or will Toyota be able to break the streak? Or can Dodge & Ford burst through and steal the thunder?
One of the trends the Daytona 500 has had in recent years is we've had many big name drivers DNF early and finish 43rd. Last year, was somewhat an exception. While Tony Stewart finished 43rd, he didn't go out early. He was able to complete 152 of the 200 laps, and was 2nd in terms of laps led.
However, if a person goes back, it has been rather interesting. In the 2006 race, Carl Edwards finished 43rd after completing just 78 laps. Edwards was coming off a 2005 season in which he finished 2nd in the point standings. In 2005, former Cup champion Bobby Labonte (while still driving for Joe Gibbs Racing) was the first one out, blowing an engine just 14 laps in. In 2004, Mark Martin blew an engine after 7 laps, to finish 43rd that year.
Ryan Newman finished 6th in the 2002 point standings, but when it came time for the 2003 Daytona 500, he finished 43rd after completing 56 laps. And, who can forget the 2002 Daytona 500? Tony Stewart had just completed 2 laps and KABOOM--his motor went and he was making the first exit that year. Although, what we have to remember about 2002 is after that dismal finish for Stewart, he went on to win the championship that year.
That's 6 straight Daytona 500s where the 43rd place finisher hasn't been a slouch......so will that trend continue and, if so, who will that driver be?
As I say, there's many different storylines that'll be playing itself out during over the 200 laps of the race.
As far as my pick to win the Daytona 500, I'm going to say Chevrolet's winning streak will come to an end and take Tony Stewart. And as far as a darkhorse pick is concerned, I'm looking at Ryan Newman.
