But the worst was still to come when a belt that powers the oil pump fell apart. That result was an expired engine and a caution flag due to oil on the track. A broken oil pump belt is one of those one in a million incidents that is an indicator of the bad luck this team has endured all year long.
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HOORAH to Joey Logano who clearly proved that he was just fine with that horrific roll over he went through in the Dover race. The 19 year old driver hammered that point home last Saturday by winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Kansas Speedway.
Logano passed Gibbs Racing team mate Kyle Busch with four laps left in the Kansas Lottery 300 using a surprising, but beautiful, pass on the outside high line of the track. It was the fourth time that the two team mates finished one-two in a Nationwide Series race. It was Logano’s fourth win of the season meaning all four wins came after passing Busch.
A HOORAH goes to Busch for being gracious during his post race interview. After giving up yet another Nationwide Series win in the eleventh hour, Busch said “he just out drove me.” He also made it a point to thank his crew for a job well done.
Another HOORAH goes to Busch for setting a new series record for the most laps led in a single season, 2,226, which broke the previous 1984 mark set by series icon Sam Ard. Busch also broke another one of Ard’s records last Saturday but he’s probably not too thrilled about it. He now holds the Nationwide Series’ record for runner up finishes with ten.
Meanwhile in victory lane Logano said he went from the letter “A to Z within the last week” and he needed this win to end all of the talk regarding the roll over at Dover.
Needless to say that didn’t happen.
On Sunday Logano was the in car reporter for the ABC broadcast team and that leads to a WAZZUP for Television analyst Dale Jarrett for immediately bringing up the wreck from the week before. It’s probably the last thing a driver wants to hear moments before taking the green flag for a 400 mile race.
But another HOORAH goes out to Logano for taking it all in stride by saying “it is what it is, I’ve gotten more notoriety from the wreck than I did for winning my first Cup race.”
Unfortunately Logano found himself in an early race spin when he car snapped around in turn two. He spent the entire race driving an ill handling car to a 28th place finish.
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HOORAH to driver Parker Klingerman who made his Nationwide Series debut as a development driver for Roger Penske Racing. Klingerman was on the go or go home list meaning he had to make the starting line up based on qualifying speed. He stunned everyone by setting the fast time.
But a WAZZUP goes to his crew who kept their driver sitting on pit road for a whopping 23 seconds which eventually led him to going one lap down. Despite that, Klingerman drove his way back to a very credible 16th. Keep an eye on this young driver. He’s going to become very impressive.
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Finally this week the next to the last HOORAH goes to Cup driver Kevin “Happy” Harvick for one of the better lines heard from an in car radio system. During Saturday’s Nationwide Series race Harvick was extremely unhappy with his car. Over the radio he told his crew “the car is riding like crap. It’s riding just like it was yesterday when we thought the problem was the wind. At lease then we had an excuse.” But it all turned for the best when a simple adjustment in air pressure helped the car’s handling allowing Harvick to drive to a fourth place finish which made him “Happy” again.
The final HOORAH of the week goes to the great racing fans of the mid west. This is racing country and they proved it on Saturday by creating one of the best looking crowds we’ve seen for a Nationwide race in quite awhile. Then they did it again by filling the grandstands for Sunday’s Cup race.
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