Green Flag 11.1.07: Spooky Around Atlanta and Monsters in Memphis
Posted by Jim Carson on 11.01.2007
The NASCAR weekend had 42 cautions, leading to even more opinions.
Four half-hearted cheers for the Red Sox and their World Series Sweep. At least the Yankees didn't win, but I'm sick of both of them, and the Mets too. I'd love to see Ohio State drop a game in the next two weeks, so that Boston College can be #1 when the Eagles come to Clemson; it'd look awesome if the Tigers could pull that upset, and we'd have nothing to lose.
Of course, that'd probably mean a high-profile sideline reporter would come along with the ABC/ESPN crew, and most of those guys and gals tend to be annoying. Racing has its pit reporters, and they often fit into the same category, but most of them do know the sports to which they're trying to contribute. That brings me to Bob Dillner, the Speed Channel garage-area reporter whom I accused in last week's Green Flag of egging things on between Backflip Boy and Matt Kenseth after the Martinsville. I was a bit harsh on him; any investigator would have done the same thing and shouldn't have been called a shit stirrer by yours truly. Now that thing last year with Happy Harvick and his wheels ... you're on your own there.
Now to the stuff that Bob helped cover last weekend.
A FEW STRINGS BROKEN IN THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION
Non-racing junkies will often say that it's only worth watching the last 10 laps of a race. Usually I say that's sacrilege, but in the case of last week's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it rang true. There was some decent action in most of the race, especially from about third on back.
But unless you're a fan of someone who dropped out of contention early, such as Baloney Stewart or crash victims Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya, nothing that happened before Johnny Sauter's tire-induced crash had anything to do with the outcome of the race. The first 310 laps meant about as much to the finishing order as Richard Petty losing his ball cap from the honorary starter's stand.
So after Sauter slammed the wall, everybody hit pit road for their needed splashes of fuel. Some, such as Jimmie Johnson, Junior and Backflip Boy, got two fresh tires, while others figured they'd need four, including runaway proper points leader Jeff Gordon. Back up a minute ... Hurricane Hamlin's crew chief figured he was OK on fuel with the caution laps, so he stayed out. And scratch Shrub from the list of contenders with a slow pit stop.
Then the Hurricane was instantly downgraded to a depression, sputtering in front of the whole field on the restart with three laps to go. A few cars had fender benders in the stackup, but the fifth-car-back syndrome hit Martin Truex and he planted Hamlin. It was green-white-checkered time, but that lasted only half a lap before one of Junior's unchanged tires flew off the Bud can. The field was frozen and the race was over, and there was a total of about 800 feet of green-flag racing for everyone on their fresh pit strategy.
There are many complaints about a NASCAR race when it boils down to fuel strategy, like what often happens at Michigan or California; some leading cars run out with a few laps left while some midpackers stretch it and have career days (see Mears, Casey). That could lead to some fluky results, but the Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta was worse. OK, it was pretty good for JJ, and for third-place Reed Sorenson, and for matching-hat-wearing Roushketeers Kenseth and Edwards, and a couple of Toyota guys in the back of the line. And it was pretty crappy for Truex (who had led a race-high 135 laps), and Junior, and Shrub, and Jamie McMurray ... and the line was probably pretty long of people who wanted to choke Hamlin. But for the fans, true racing fans, it was a really disappointing end at NASCAR's fastest track.
QUICK LAPS
- 25 cautions in the Busch Series race at Memphis; in the words of Ron Simmons, DAMN! (And it's not a good DAMN, but more like a pissed-off one when he was kicking Dr. Steve-O's ass out the door.) It was not only a 3 1/2 hour marathon, and one off the all-time NASCAR record of 26 yellows in the Hickory Busch race in '92, but it was also an indication of what the Busch Series has become since so many Cup guys are invading. In the majority of weeks where Cup and Busch race at the same track and there are 20-24 Cup guys in the field, that keeps the young up-and-comers or underfunded independents (which the series was largely intended for) away from the track for another week. So when guys like Brian Keselowski and Ron Young and Chase Austin and Brad Baker do get the chance to compete in a stand-alone event like at Memphis (or Martinsville last summer), they're not really ready, and the result is a cluster like this.
- Ron Hornaday Jr. is one of my favorite Craftsman Truck Series drivers and has been since the series began in 1995; if Rick Crawford can't win, I'm cheering for old Ron. And you know how I feel about Cup guys winning in Busch, and it's a little of the same in the Trucks. It was a fantastic streak heading into Atlanta that no Cup driver had won in a Truck all season. And to top that off, Shrub isn't my favorite Cup driver anyway. But it didn't break my heart to see Shrub breeze past Hornaday for the final lead change late in last week's Atlanta race, just this once. Here's why: with about 30 laps left, Hornaday passed Shrub for second, and then radioed to his crew chief and in turn to NASCAR that Shrub's window net was falling down. Shrub, who for a few laps drove with one hand and held up the net with the other hand trying to get it back in its slot, was black-flagged for the violation, although a caution came out on the next lap to save him. I know that it's a safety thing and that Ron wasn't trying to get a rival contending truck out of the way, but I don't think it was Hornaday's place to be a stool pigeon.
REAL FULL-SEASON POINTS
With the #24 and #48, it's looking almost 50/50 on whether Gordon and his bunch will collect their fifth well-deserved Cup championship or JJ will become racing's biggest fake since Kurt Busch.
In drag racing, where the Auto Club Finals are this weekend in Pomona CA, it's looking 50/50 also. Hot Rod Fuller and ol' boring Greg Anderson are heading toward honest titles, but Tony Pedregon and the other Hines would now be "countdown" phonies (Tony P has a good chance to earn it for real if he goes one round farther than Ron Capps at Pomona).
---NASCAR NEXTEL CUP
1. Jeff Gordon, 4864
2. Jimmie Johnson, 4381
3. Tony Stewart, 4313
4. Denny Hamlin, 4161
5. Carl Edwards, 4122
6. Clint Bowyer, 4119
7. Kyle Busch, 4057
8. Matt Kenseth, 4013
9. Jeff Burton, 3964
10. Kevin Harvick, 3831
11. Kurt Busch, 3777
12. Martin Truex Jr., 3758
13. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 3626
14. Ryan Newman, 3560
---NHRA TOP FUEL
1. Rod Fuller, 1605
2. Larry Dixon, 1426
3. Brandon Bernstein, 1376
4. Tony Schumacher, 1354
5. J.R. Todd, 1165
6. Melanie Troxel, 1139
7. Bob Vandergriff, 1120
8. Doug Herbert, 1036
9. Doug Kalitta, 1014
10. Whit Bazemore, 989
11. Dave Grubnic, 971
12. Cory McClenathan, 955
13. Hillary Will, 859
14. Clay Millican, 816
---NHRA FUNNY CAR
1. Ron Capps, 1360
2. Tony Pedregon, 1342
3. Robert Hight, 1297
4. Gary Scelzi, 1174
5. Jack Beckman, 1162
6. Mike Ashley, 1128
7. John Force, 1093
8. Del Worsham, 1018
9. Jim Head, 956
10. Cruz Pedregon, 915
11. Tommy Johnson Jr., 906
12. Ashley Force, 906
13. Jeff Arend, 876
14. Kenny Bernstein, 869
---NHRA PRO STOCK
1. Greg Anderson, 1861
2. Dave Connolly, 1735
3. Jeg Coughlin, 1519
4. Allen Johnson, 1226
5. Jason Line, 1175
6. Kurt Johnson, 1103
7. Richie Stevens, 1002
8. V. Gaines, 993
9. Larry Morgan, 968
10. Warren Johnson, 927
11. Jim Yates, 861
12. Max Naylor, 797
13. Greg Stanfield, 791
14. Kenny Koretsky, 712
---NHRA PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
1. Matt Smith, 1214
2. Andrew Hines, 1159
3. Angelle Sampey, 953
4. Chip Ellis, 925
5. Peggy Llewellyn, 849
6. Craig Treble, 818
7. Karen Stoffer, 776
8. Eddie Krawiec, 745
9. Steve Johnson, 714
10. Chris Rivas, 669
11. Antron Brown, 635
12. Matt Guidera, 613
13. Hector Arana, 561
14. Geno Scali, 534
That'll do it for this week. If you get the Speed Channel, Saturday night will be well worth your interest, as the World of Outlaws Sprint Car and Late Model Series will hold their season finales at the dirt track on the other side of the street from Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. And if you're in the Nashville area, there's the annual All American 400 pavement Late Model race Sunday afternoon at my favorite racetrack at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.
