Could this be a familiar sight as the 2009 season grinds on?
Only Jeff Gordon won more champions than the two competitors fighting for the honor of taming the Monster Mile in the Sprint Cup Series’ first visit to Dover in 2009. Three time champ beats two time champ with one time champs in fourth and fifth, just another day at the office for Sprint Cup drivers, eh?
Jimmie Johnson had the most dominant car but withstood a vicious challenge from Tony Stewart late in the race before taking the lead for good with an ever widening distance out front of the surging new car owner/driver. Matt Kenseth remained in the mix in a good old Dover race with all the elements that make the Delaware races so much fun to enjoy.
Speak of ironies, Tony Raines was the second car out of the race with a blown tire shredding the dickens out of the rear quarter panel in a car surely intended to be a start and park ride putting in its obligatory laps before the 30 lap competitive yellow. Just as the top was dominated with champs, and near champs, the bottom consisted of the usual bottom feeders, Nemechek, Blaney, Bliss (though James Finch racing is more than a start and park operation), Skinner (Tommy Baldwin’s new hope), Raines, and Gilliland.
It was a bad day to have the last name Gordon as Jeff Gordon struggled all afternoon struggling to get a backup car to perform but ultimately managed a 26th place finish dumping him from the points lead. Robby Gordon got caught in a wreck.
A green flag pit stop knocked Kyle Busch back to 23rd while the Dover crowd erupted in applause as the #18 Toyota entered the pits for service.
The Junior watch surely had to feel some encouragement with the #88 car finishing in 12th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sounding very assertive in his instructions to the crew on the radio.
Tony Stewart’s team surely is the talk of the race as Stewart took the points lead with his 2nd place finish while Ryan Newman added another top ten finish in 8th. Roush-Fenway needing a big boost got one with Greg Biffle 3rd, Matt Kenseth 4th, Carl Edwards 7th, and Jamie McMurray 14th though David Ragan continues to struggle in 24th. Richard Childress made up some ground though not having any spectacular performances other than Casey Mears breaking into the top 10 in 9th. Despite an awesome start with several cars high in the starting order, finishing was more difficult for Richard Petty racing. Kasey Kahne, with the new Dodge engine, finished 6th. Their next competitor, Reed Sorenson only managed to finish 19th. Surely, Dover was a letdown for Michael Waltrip’s gang. Despite starting on the poll, David Reutimann finished in 18th while big boss man finished in a miserable 35th.
The standings reflect the power of Stewart Haas racing with Tony Stewart in front by 46 points over Jeff Gordon. Ryan Newman picked up two positions to secure 5th place, 173 out of the lead. No drivers entered or left the all-important top 12, but Denny Hamlin fell two positions to 7th and Jeff Burton dropped two spots to 10th. Johnson, Kenseth, and Biffle advanced on spot.
Further down the order, Junior advanced one spot but at -501, he’s still 215 points out of 12th place. Joey Logano gained two positions now in 23rd closing in on the top 20, 56 points from that position. Sam Hornish Jr. takes aim at the top 25 in 26th gaining four positions while teammate, David Stremme dropped three spots. Frustrations continue for Kevin Harvick and former champ, Bobby Labonte, dropping one position each; Harvick down to 24th and Labonte falls to 28th showing that the Yates operation simply fails to live up to being a competitive operation with Paul Menard buried in 33rd after having to disband the #28 operation after four races at the start of the season. Clearly, NASCAR Would benefit from a greater Ford presence since if a blue oval entry is not a Roush Fenway car, forget it.
The series moves north of the Mason-Dixon line to Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The 2.5 mile, almost 77 thousand seat track noted for its almost flat surface and unique triangular configuration offers unique challenges for the competition as only the Indianapolis Motor Speedway requires a remotely similar car setup.
One additional note, today’s race marks the end of Fox’s coverage of NASCAR for 2009. Traffic was blocked headed north on Delaware Highway 1 as highway officials attempted to identify road kill just outside of Smyrna. Reports indicate a highly animated figure wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, tremendously oversized workman’s boots, and a TNT baseball cap sped away from the scene in a red pickup truck/camper combo. A motorist witnessing the encounter indicated the hit and run driver answered to “Buddy” in chatter among race fans at the Dover track. The deceased was identified as “Digger” an image savvy, likewise highly animated character, who operated a remote camera for the Fox broadcasts. Apparently, Fox and TNT lawyers are engaged in a hot dispute while ESPN has dispatched members of its “Outside the Line” series to report on this bizarre motor vehicle tragedy. Larry McReynolds and Matt Yokum, members of both the Fox and TNT broadcast teams are apparently distraught over this event having severe emotional difficulty dealing with conflicting emotions. Digger’s godfather, Darrell Waltrip could not be reached for comment as apparently he left the track with his brother, Mikey, in the company of the “Lucky Dog.”
2 comments:
A few quick observations:• As the sun came out from behind the cloud, the 100,000+ fans began to filter into the stands. It is interesting to note that Dover has a seating capacity of over 130,000. The event was far from a sell out as many empty seat were noticed in the upper sections of turns 1 & 2 as well as turns 3 & 4. Also, two large sections in each of turns 2 and 3 were covered with advertising banners and not with fans. Also missing from the event were companies participating in the fan zone. While there were a number companies handing out goodies, it was not as many as in past years.
• The new pit road configuration seemed to be a big hit with the teams. With more space to work, pit road incidents were non-existent. The new soft-wall technology installed between the front stretch and pit laps will minimize big hits in the future.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief change appeared to make a difference. However, Dale will need to continue to work to provide good feedback on the performance on the car. As his team started to chase the set up, Jr. dropped the F bomb on the radio and told his new crew chief what change to make. However, as the handling improved, he actually thanked his crew for making good changes.
• Jeff Gordon started 42nd after wrecking in qualifying. While he initially showed promise, his car was ill handling during several segments that put him 2 laps down. He too improved and could run with the leaders at the end but couldn’t make up the two laps.
• Jimmy Johnson was the class of the field. During the long green flag run between laps 170 and 231, Jimmy actually backed off as he hit the tail end of the field with his closest competitor more than 8 seconds behind him. It almost seemed as if he didn’t want to put his teammate Jeff Gordon down a second lap. However, he managed his tires and again began to march through the back-markers until his closest competitor, Denny Hamlin blew a tire.
• Kyle Busch’s bad luck this weekend continued on Sunday. While competitive early in the race, he was put a lap down toward the end of the green flag segment between laps 170 and 231. However, he was a benefactor of the “Lucky Dog” when the caution came out at lap 231. He was again competitive for the second half of the race but his chances for victory slip away from him late in the race due to a loose time at lap 344.
• Tony Stewart showed a workman like attitude the entire day staying on the lead lap and soldiering on that almost set him up for the win. He was gracious in his second place finish say, “The fastest car won today.” For his efforts thus far this season, he now sits atop of the points, the first owner-driver to do so since Alan Kulwicki took the points lead and won the championship on November 15, 1992.
Final Notes:While the writer of this comment is named Buddy, I am not the driver of the car who took out “Digger” in a road kill hit and run incident. While I say a fair number of road kill on my trek up Route 1, I too was stuck in the back up caused by Digger being put out of his misery – at least for the rest of this season.
All great observations, and after the week where NASCAR put its situation on the line with owners and drivers, Sunday proved all is well. Though around 100k fans might not be upto the 130k capacity for Dover, just how many tracks have 100,000 or more seats? A 65,000 sellout at some of the intermediate tracks is not as big a cha-ching a less than ideal crowd in Dover.
What great news it is that pit road has been brought up to modern standards and some safety concerns addressed.
Looking over the field, one would have to assume the championship will likely come from one of the Stewart-Haas team, the #24/#48 tandem from Hendricks, perhaps the evil empire will propel Kyle Busch into the promised land, but it's too soon to count out one or two entries from Roush-Fenway having a strong second half propeling them into contention -- Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle are all in the mix. Kurt Busch should make the chase but won't have enough for a championship run. This is shaping up to just be a darned rotten year for Childress. Nobody seems to know where the negative mojo is coming from but it seems even steady Eddie, Jeff Burton is bitten by the bug in that garage. There's more to digest that we'll talk about when we preview Pocono.
NASCAR television coverage deserves a posting of its own. while DW is a fine analyst, but haven't we all had enough of Digger and "Let's Go Racing Boys." It looks like TNT is working with the same formula with a different cartoon character and a different song, this year a remake of a an old Deep Purple classic.
Don't we all have in our hearts the old team of Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, Gentleman Ned, and Dr. Jerry as the best NASCAR broadcasts for all eternity. The new ESPN is cold and perhaps too professional, but adding its own cartoon isn't the answer.
What's going on in IRL? Tony George is up to something, just what, nobody knows yet.
Post a Comment