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First, can I just say God bless whoever invented the DVR? Unlike everyone who tuned in at the start of the race, I got to FF through the entire thing, and I just watched the last green flag-stint. At least they didn't wreck and have to add to the misery and ridiculousness with a green/white/checkered-finish.
The thing I take away from the weekend, as always, is how NASCAR's point-system punishes teams for things beyond their control. There were seven cars who failed to finish on the lead lap yesterday. Three of them are major contenders for spots in the Chase - none of the three high enough in the points to afford a DNF without severely hampering their Chase hopes. Here is the bottom of the finishing order from yesterday's race, and how they got there.
43 Michael Waltrip - crashed on lap 5
42 Brian Vickers - blew engine on lap 106
41 Paul Menard - collected in 55 accident
40 Kurt Busch - crashed on lap 14
39 Juan Pablo Montoya - blown tire on lap 29
38 Matt Kenseth - blown tire on lap 47
37 Kevin Harvick - collected in 2 accident
So, you've got Vickers' blown engine, which puts him now 132 points out of the Chase - can't blame anyone other than the team for that, I suppose, though a faulty part could easily be the culprit. However, Harvick and Kenseth - do their teams deserve ANY blame for what happened to them? Kenseth (and Montoya) was just a victim of the tire nonsense - what could they have done about that? Now, after being the hottest driver on the circuit - even moreso that Kyle Busch for a six-week stretch - thanks to Goodyear and NASCAR they find themselves barely in the Chase, only six points above the cutoff.
That's better than Harvick can say, though. Thanks to being collected in Kurt Busch's accident - a classic wrong place, wrong time deal - Harvick is now OUT of the Chase by two measly points. TWO POINTS! That's one position at the tail end of the field. If ONE more car had blown a tire and been forced to DNF, Harvick would be IN the Chase. It's just more bad luck for him that he's currently out.
At least there aren't millions of dollars at stake or anything, right?
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