Please don’t try to tell me that the Auto Club Speedway, in Fontana-California is incapable of presenting its fans good racing. We’ve all read those stories, as well as watched the television reports, in the past. Anyone who was watching Sunday’s Pepsi 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, or Saturday’s Copart 300 Nationwide Series event, now knows better. Both races had thrilling green white checker finishes that had the fans jumping out of their seats. With that thought in mind lets’ begin this week with:
HOORAH to Jimmie Johnson and the #48 Lowes Chevrolet team for once again showing us why they’re a three time, and possibly four time, champion. Johnson’s fifth win of the season allowed him to take home maximum points including the bonus for leading the most laps in the race. More importantly. Johnson and company left California as the new Chase leader with a 12 point lead over team mate Mark Martin.
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This week’s HOORAH for making chicken salad out chicken do do goes to Tony Stewart who had to overcome adversity to score a fifth place finish. On lap 163 Stewart got nailed for speeding on pit road and had to observe a pass through penalty. That incident put him a lap down on the field. The Lucky Dog pass didn’t work out for Stewart so he had to make up the lap the hard way: via aggressive driving and good pit strategy. It also placed him fifth in the Chase standings and only 84 points out of first.
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WAZZUP with the decision to bring Dale Earnhardt Jr down pit road for tires following a lap 236 caution flag? Earnhardt was strong all day and was riding eighth at the time of this caution. With the amount of cars still on the lead lap, and only 14 laps left in the race, a sure fire top ten finish was placed in jeopardy. It got worse of lap 244 when Earnhardt got caught up in the multi car crash that placed the race under a red flag condition. The result was a damaged car and a 25th place finish. Had he stayed out on the track with the race leaders, Earnhardt would have been in front of the wreck and dodged the bullet.
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On the subject of that big wreck that red flagged the race for a little over 20 minutes, WAZZUP with wreck victim Kasey Kahne and his bizarre post wreck comment? Kahne claimed that NASCAR threw a bogus yellow flag for debris just to make the finish of the race more interesting for the fans and that set the stage for the big wreck. That, of course, was not true especially in light of the fact that the ABC television cameras actually did find debris on the track.
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HOORAH to Richard Childress Racing drivers Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears who finished ninth through 11th in the Pepsi 500. The overall ineffectiveness of this organization has been a major mystery this year and RCR really needed that strong showing. This is especially true of Casey Mears. A recent announcement that said his primary sponsor, Jack Daniels, will not be returning next year has placed the team’s future in jeopardy. A great run like this one could hopefully entice a new sponsor to look at this team.
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HOORAH to Joey Logano for winning the Copart 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race under some rather trying circumstances that also qualifies for making chicken salad out of chicken do do. Logano suffered right front fender damage early in the race following contact with Greg Biffle. His crew spent the majority of the race trying to get the car’s handling back. After diligently working his way towards the front, a late race caution set up a green white checker finish and allowed Logano to take the lead with only two laps left.
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That leads to a WAZZUP with Greg Biffle and those allegations that said he intentionally put Logano into the wall? The allegations inferred that Biffle had a problem with the young driver from the Kansas race held the week before which Logano also won. There was a reported radio transmission from Biffle that said “the 20 car better have casters on it because I’m going to fence him.” It was further reported that NASCAR officials are going to be looking into these allegations this week.
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