Well, after the busiest weekend in motorsport with a fourteen hour drool-fest for us…uh, those channel surfers, not me, I had to go to work since everything happened on Monday morning for me…as attentions turned from the streets of Monte Carlo to the Brickyard before coming to a bleary-eyed stop in Concord, things stayed pretty much the same in both the QC and the RC.
Qualifying had Kyle Busch start from the pole with Kasey Kahne alongside…which meant that Kyle further extended his lead over the rest and is just 16 points away from having enough points that he could take a race off and still retain the lead. The others will hope Kyle has done exactly what the All Blacks do in rugby union; peak too early.
Dropping out of the top 20 this time are Bobby Labonte and Joe Nemechek, making way for Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers. Among the frontrunners, Kahne was the biggest gainer going from tenth to sixth while Denny Hamlin went the other way; sixth to eighth. All up, 46 drivers have scored at least one point in qualifying as the season kicks off its middle third.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 12 rounds:
The race saw, predictably, Kyle shoot off into the sunset and, but for losing voltage, he would most likely have backed up his win in the Nationwide race the night before. But, thankfully for the rest of the field, he did have issues and the lead was mainly traded between Kyle, Dale Earnhardt Jr (hmm, I probably shouldn’t have put those two together like that, there could be some trouble there), Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Kurt Busch (ta muchly for reminding me about him, klv), Kahne and Tony Stewart.
Kyle, despite his problems finished in third while Jr had an eventful night blowing a tyre and getting whacked up the back by JJ Yeley before rebounding to wind up fifth. Kurt also whacked the wall a couple times but still managed to finish in the top 20. Vickers and Johnson didn’t last the distance as Brian lost a wheel and Jimmie grenaded an engine…first time in nearly 100 races that’s happened to the #48. However, all that paled into insignificance as Stewart easily had the roughest time.
Having closed down the gap to Kahne, he then passed Kasey in the pits and was cruising to victory having over a five second lead with three laps to go…before his tyre let go. Tony did an amazing job to keep his Camry off the wall but his dream of a win on Memorial day vanished as Kasey went by to take the win, becoming the sixth driver to win the All-star race and the Coke 600 in the same year. Greg Biffle followed him home, just like he did last week as well (not the first time that’s happened as tyler did a bit of scouting around). Kudos to Elliott Sadler, David Reutimann and Sam Hornish Jr who all wound up with great finishes too.
No changes in the top 20, just a bit of shuffling around. Biffle’s up four spots to eighth and Johnson dropped two spots to ninth. Due to Carl Edwards running out of fuel on the final lap, Kyle’s lead now exceeds 100 points…but remember, Jeff Gordon was on fire in last years TNRC around this time of the year and Jimmie managed to nip past him at the end (and that was without the Chase I’m using this year) so there’s still hope for the rest. At one third through the season, we have 37 guys who have scored points.
Tez's NASCAR Race Championship - top 20 standings after 12 rounds:
To Dover then where Martin Truex Jr dominated this time last year…but he’ll have to contend with all three JGR cars as well as Roush-Fenway, Dale Jr and, after the last week and a bit, a resurgent Kasey Kahne.
On a side note, it took a full year after williamwilman put the idea out there, but we finally had someone go three-for-three in the trifecta. Dwindy hosted it this week and not only was it a first 'perfect' score, it was also a first time trifecta winner. But, as Dave pointed out on Dwindy's blog, picking the F1 and/or Indy winner is somewhat easier than Cup...most likely since there's only a handful of cars capable of winning whereas there's at least 10 in Cup. So, I guess that means I need to send Lewis Hamilton, Scott Dixon and Kasey Kahne a card or something…hmm, anyone know their addresses?
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
