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During last weekend’s NASCAR action we witnessed a young super talent win his first ever Sprint Cup event. We watched his team mate return to victory lane in the Nationwide Series after beating the super talent who eventually won the Cup race the following day. We also witnessed a truck racing legend take Elvis home for the third time. With that in mind let’s begin with:
THE LENNOX INDUSTRIAL TOOLS 301.
HOORAH for Joey Logano who used fuel mileage to score his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Sunday. He had some help from Mother Nature who shortened the race to 273 laps. Logano, aka the best thing since sliced bread, became the youngest Sprint Cup winner in NASCAR history at age 19.
This wasn’t the prettiest win that we’ve seen. Logano brought out the ninth, of 11, yellow flags when a cut tire found him spinning and bouncing off of the wall. The pit road work also put him a lap down although he was later awarded the lucky dog pass.
That now leads us to a HOORAH to crew chief Greg Zippadelli who very calmly guided his teenage driver through the presence of mother nature, the stronger presence of Jeff Gordon right behind him as well as a crash course on extreme fuel conservation.
In the waning laps of the race the front runners came in for a final splash of fuel. Zippadelli decided to gamble on mother nature and kept his driver on the track. It became the winning move. The final yellow flag of the race was due to rain. During the six yellow flag laps, Zippadelli calmly told his driver when and where to shut down his engine and when to start it again to save the fuel that led him to the red flag and later his first win. This is why “Zippy” is a superstar crew chief who makes the big bucks.
In direct proportion WAZZUP with that horrible luck Ryan Newman had to endure in the final moments of the race? Fuel strategy had Newman in the lead just as the early signs of rain began. Unfortunately he ran out of gas, had to coast down pit road and then the car wouldn’t start. He wound up three laps down and a 29th place finish. If his mileage could have lasted three more laps he would have been the race winner.
WAZZUP with that eight car big one? Following a double file restart, midway through the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr experienced some tire chatter heading towards turn three. Martin Truex Jr saw it and lifted to allow Earnhardt to get his car under control again. That resulted in Kyle Busch ramming the Truex car which in turn launched a savage pile up. Busch escaped the melee and wound up with a seventh place finish.
That leads to a HOORAH to Truex for exercising some calm in the midst of extreme anger. Prior to climbing aboard the ambulance for the obligatory ride to the infield care center, Truex saw Busch coming down the backstretch and clearly looked like he was going to toss his helmet at the Busch Toyota. He did the wind up but did not deliver the pitch. Good for him.
Believe it or not we’re issuing a HOORAH to Kyle Busch for manning up to his involvement in that eight car wreck. During the course of a live television interview Busch admitted that he made a mistake and apologized to the impacted drivers.
HOORAH to Dale Earnhardt and crew chief Lance McGrew for pulling off the performance that the “Junior Nation” fans have been waiting for all season long. Granted Earnhardt finished 13th at New Hampshire but that was due to a needed fuel stop prior to the rain out. All during the race he was racing in the top ten and got as high as third at one point. Keep an eye out for this team next weekend at Daytona.
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HOORAH to Kyle Busch for winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race last Saturday at New Hampshire. Busch passed his Gibbs Racing team mate Joey Logano on lap 165 for what turned out to be the race winning move. The event marked the “rowdy one’s” fifth win of the season and his 26th career series win. This is the fifth time that the two Gibbs Racing team mates has finished one-two in a Nationwide Series race. However Logano has won the previous four races so last Saturday was sweet redemption for Busch.
HOORAH for a very impressive streak remaining intact. The NASCAR Nationwide Series has raced at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway 23 times and those events has produced 23 different winners.
On the subject of team mates, WAZZUP with Brian Vickers and Scott Speed and that stunt they pulled at the end of the race? On the final lap Vickers was racing hard to take over third when he was hit from behind by Speed. Vicker’s car slammed into the fourth turn wall and a sure fire top five finish turned into a 12th place finish. Speed made a quick recovery to finish eighth. While they were driving for two different teams in the Nationwide Series race, both drivers are team mates, for Red Bull Racing, in the Sprint Cup Series.
But the real nature of this WAZZUP is about what happened after the race was over. During the cool down lap a very angry Vickers found Speed and began ramming the back of his team mate’s car. Coming down pit road Speed did a break check on Vickers. The result was moderate damage to both cars.
