While watching the final moments of Sunday’s Carfax 400, at the Michigan International Raceway, we learned that the second place car can save several valuable laps of Sunoco race fuel. In comparison the race leader doesn’t enjoy that luxury if he seriously wants to win the race.
We also witnessed a 2009 dream come true for NASCAR and its fans: The Chase is seriously getting dramatic.
We even got to see smiles on the faces of the Junior Nation for the first time since forever.
We got to see the one thing that NASCAR’s Nationwide Series really needed the most: a last lap drama win and two angry guys squaring off of pit road.
Oh yeah, Jeremy Mayfield’s crazy step mother paid him a visit last Saturday. With all that in mind let’s begin with:
HOORAH to Brian Vickers for getting his second career Sprint Cup win at Michigan. The fact that he won the race from the pole position makes it even sweeter.It was Red Bull Racing’s first Cup win and Toyota got their first win at Michigan: the back yard of America’s big three auto makers.
HOORAH to Vicker’s crew chief, Ryan Pemberton, for willing to push the poker chips “all in.” Stretching a tank of fuel 51 laps, something never seen before at this track, was a very gutsy call but he knew that he had the one driver who could conserve the fuel needed to finish the race. Vickers was told he needed to conserve approximately two and one half laps to make it to the end. Vickers responded by drafting race leader Jimmie Johnson and saved close to five laps of fuel. His reward was a green light to victory lane when Johnson ran out of gas with three laps to go. Ironically Vickers ran out of gas enroute to victory lane. After the race Vickers admitted that, during the final two laps, he really wasn’t watching where he was driving. He was too busy looking at his fuel gauge.
Just how big were the rewards from this gamble? Prior to the race Vickers and company were trying to find the back door to the 12 man line up for the Chase. The win elevated him to 13th in the points just 12 markers away from that highly coveted last Chase spot.
That leads to a never before issued ONE HALF OF A WAZZUP to Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, for taking the 51 lap fuel gamble. This situation really had to hurt because it was the second time this year Johnson lost a Michigan race due to lack of fuel.So, why the one half WAZZUP? That’s because it was a gamble well worth taking that could have paid off huge. Johnson, and his #48 team, is so well entrenched in the Chase standings that Knaus felt they could roll the fuel dice to try to collect the winner’s ten bonus points which could have loomed large in the final championship numbers. The only real pitfall, from running out of gas, is the fact they team fell from second to third in the current rankings.
Now we have a rarely issued DOUBLE WAZZUP to Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports team mate Mark Martin and his crew chief Alan Gustafason. They also tried the 51 lap fuel gamble and turned up to be the big losers of the day. The big difference was the fact that Johnson, again, had very little to lose. Martin’s position in the Chase standings wasn’t exactly a done deal and team plumented to 12th in the standings and will have to dig themselves out of this hole during the course of the next three races to make the Chase.
HOORAH to Dale Earnhardt Jr who showed us that he still knows how to charge to the front when his car is handling right. When Earnahrdt took the race lead you could hear the cheers from the Junior Nation for miles. Another HOORAH goes out to crew chief Lance McGrew for the pit stop timing that placed his driver in contention, with fuel to spare, to win this race. That third place finish was something this team really needed.
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