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Last Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega ran the full gamut. It began with the fans wondering when these NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers were actually going to start racing restrictor plate style. That was due to a NASCAR mandate on bump drafting in the turns. It ended with the customary Talladega action that was completely out of control during the final five laps of the race. That was due to bump drafting on the straightaways.
We also saw a would be four time NASCAR champion prove that he’s equally as lucky as he is good. We also witnessed some really great runs from drivers and teams who seriously needed the boost from a great race. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:
HOORAH to series points leader Jimmie Johnson who earned this week’s making chicken salad out of chicken do do award. Johnson and company’s game plan was to hang out at the back of the pack. This team’s sterling performance levels doesn’t apply to restrictor plate tracks and the idea was to run in the back of the field to hopefully avoid the big one, or multi car crash, that Talladega is famous for and then charge to the front in the final laps of the race.
When the first of two big one came, with five laps left in the race, Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, earned a HOORAH for making a brilliant move. Knowing that the seriousness of the Ryan Newman crash was going to create a red flag stoppage, Knaus called his driver down pit road, while the field was still under yellow, for the extra fuel needed to complete the race.
With the field rolling under yellow again prior to the restart of the race, several cars in front of Johnson had no choice but to come to pit road because they were literally running out of gas and that allowed Johnson to pick up a ton of track position.
When the second big one occurred at the end of the race, Johnson new track position allowed him to witness that event from his rear view window. The result was a sixth place finish. The second big one involved Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. They are, of course, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports team mates and his chief rivals for the 2009 Chase For The Championship. Johnson arrived in Alabama 118 points ahead of Martin. He padded that lead to 184 points. It’s probably time to notify the official engraver of NASCAR and tell him to start putting Johnson’s name on the trophy.
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HOORAH to race winner Jamie McMurray. This couldn’t have come at a better time. NASCAR’s new four team ownership cap starts next year. That forced Roush Fenway Racing to disband McMurray’s team in order to comply with the new rule that starts next year. It also left the race winner in a position of looking for a job for the 2010 season.
McMurray has been heavily rumored to be taking over the #1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing ride that will be soon vacated by the departing Martin Truex Jr. But there were reports that this impending deal wasn’t exactly locked in. His outstanding performance Sunday will likely accelerate this process.
HOORAH to the Junior Nation. Did you hear them screaming when Dale Earnhardt Jr took the lead for the first time in the race? It was hoped by many that this driver’s excellent record at Talladega would the be the catalyst towards turning around the horrible season this team has endured. Unfortunately, fuel issues at the end of the race forced him to pit road for a splash of gas which led to an 11th place finish. But, prior to that, the car was strong and it was good to see that again.
Double HOORAHS goes out to Richard Petty Motorsports and their drivers Kasey Kahne and Elliot Sadler. Kahne had a strong run and overcame some early race adversity to finish second.
Sadler gave his team a badly needed needed top ten and was often a player in the early part of the race. He did that in a new Ford Fusion. Richard Petty Motorsports is in the process of completing a merger with Yates Racing that will require a switch from Dodge to Ford next year. Sadler ran the Ford Sunday to allow RPM to get a head start on 2010 and did a very good job.
On the subject of Ford, HOORAH to their new FR9 engine. Created specifically for NASCAR racing by Roush Yates Engines and Ford engineers, this power plant was put in the cars driven by Matt Kenseth and David Ragan and ran strong all day.
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In a honesty and fairness it’s only right to issue a HOORAH to NASCAR for safety considerations that made them ban bump drafting in the turns. The concept can lead to frightful results. There was also a concern over bump drafting impacting the competitive level of the race. With the aerodynamics package in NASCAR’s new C-O-T cars bump drafting can cause two cars to break away from the field and seemingly run away with the race.
The ban on bumping actually began during Friday’s final practice session when NASCAR officials sent radio warnings to drivers advising them to cease the activity or they would be parked for the remainder of the session.
That leads to our first WAZZUP which goes to Michael Waltrip for not getting the message. During practice Waltrip was observed bump drafting Jimmie Johnson in the turns and was quickly warned to cease and desist. Amazingly, approximately one lap later, Waltrip climbed on Johnson’s bumper again and was parked with a very valuable half hour still left in the practice session. Apparently Waltrip didn’t consider the fact that NASCAR was standing in their sky box with binoculars not to mention overlooking the presence of live television cameras. What were you thinking Mikey?
Following a pre race announced moratorium on bump drafting in the turns issued by NASCAR during Sunday’s driver’s meeting, the Sprint Cup drivers apparently decided to err on the side of caution and stay off of each other’s bumpers. The message was clear: bump drafting in the wrong places will result in a drive by penalty and possibly a lost of position.
WAZZUP with that massive line of cars all running on the speedway’s upper groove? Drivers felt like they could not run a second, lower, line without employing bump drafting to they lined up single file on the high side with plenty of the mandated “daylight between the bumpers while racing in the turns.” It actually resembled heavy traffic on a single highway lane returning home from the holidays. While safety was the primary concern, the result was some extremely tedious racing. It got so bad that a scheduled airing of an infomercial promoting a miracle mop was starting to look good.
The WAZZUP for what can only be described as simulated bump drafting goes to Clint Bowyer who accidentally rammed the rear of A J Allmendinger’s car entering pit road resulting in a spin out.
