Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at the Dover International Speedway was a spectacle that NASCAR really needed. The race was outstanding from start to finish and was loaded with drama especially during the final laps. It was also an opportunity to raise awareness for autism. That effort was strongly supported by Heluva Good Sour Cream Dips and Cheese who presented the Autism 400.You could even go so far to say that it was a Heluva of a good weekend
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The WAZZUP/HOORAH award for making chicken salad out of chicken do do absolutely goes to race winner Jimmie Johnson and the Lowes Chevrolet team. It’s very rare that you see this team make a major mistake on pit road. However, during their final stop, the process of changing the left side tires resembled an old “Key Stone Cops” film. Johnson entered pit road as the race leader and exited the pits in ninth with time running out.
Johnson pretty much had this race in his hip pocket all day long and led a career high 298 of the 400 laps on the track known as “the monster mile.” But the miscue of pit road had him restarting ninth with only 36 laps left in the race. Johnson referred to the incident as “a minor hiccup” and began the process of chasing down race leader Tony Stewart. Johnson passed Stewart with two laps left in the race in what turned out to be a very exciting finish.
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Another HOORAH goes out to Johnson for graciously allowing team mate Mark Martin to pass him so he could lead a lap and collect the five bonus points. Martin started the race 12th in the Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship standings and was only 13 points ahead of David Reutimann. Those extra bonus points from Johnson could loom large later this fall when the 12 man Chase line up is announced.
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HOORAH for Tony Stewart and another top five finish that now has him on top of the Sprint Cup points standings. Stewart left Delaware with a 46 point lead over former series leader Jeff Gordon. It marks the first time that an owner/driver has led the NASCAR championship standings since 1992.
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Speaking of Jeff Gordon: WAZZUP with his weekend in Delaware? He finished 26th, two laps down, in a backup car. The primary car smacked the wall hard during qualifying. I’m sure it didn’t help that chronic back pain situation he’s been dealing with since last year.
But his day at Dover did prompt one of the better lines heard during the Fox broadcast. Chris Meyers said “I’m beginning to think that Hendrick Motorsports put one of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s old engines in the 24 for this weekend.” Sidekick Jeff Hammond replied “Let’s not start any new rumors now.”
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Speaking of Dale Earnhardt Jr” HOORAH for a solid 12th place finish following his formal debut with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Junior’s spot in the finishing order does not properly reflect the good day this beleaguered team had. At one point in the race he was in third and spent a majority of the afternoon running in the top ten.
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There were some handling issues here and there but overall the communication, heard on “Trackpass”, was mostly positive between driver and crew chief. The pit work was quite good also. It’s of course too early to say that the problems the #88 team has been having is officially resolved but there does seem to be a sense of relief that things may now be headed in the right direction. When you consider the performance level of this team over the past several weeks a 12th place finish is practically cause to pop champagne corks.
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HOORAH to David Reutimann for an outstanding job of defensive driving while avoiding hitting a spinning David Stremme. The moved prompted Fox broadcaster Larry McReynolds to quip “he’ll be coming to pit road to get four tires and a new set of drawers.”
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