Bristol Wrap Up
The fishbowl has come and gone, here are some of my random thoughts and highlights from Sunday:
Another Busch brother win, making three in a row. Can they match their four from last year? Kyle has the best chance at this, Martinsville is Kurt’s worst track.
Jeff Gordon continues to run strong and remains atop the leaderboard.
Greg Biffle went home early, not because of his sore ribs, but with a dropped cylinder. What’s up with Rousch engines this year? Rousch drivers are currently 5th, 10th, 18th, 26th & 28th in the point standings. Bringing up the rear of the Rousch-keteers, Jamie Mac…and we all thought he’d turned the corner onto relevance.
Marcos Ambrose surprised everyone with a top 10 finish. Note that he was one of my low cost drivers to watch! I also hit my Ryan Newman prediction of finishing 10 places better than his boss Tony Stewart. Newman was 7th, Stewart was 17th. I did miss Newman having a top 5 though. Dang. Also in the ‘got-em-right’ column: Kasey Kahne [5th] predicted top 15+, Juan Pablo low cost to watch [9th], Denny Hamlin [2nd] predicted top 10, Carl Edwards [15] predicted top 15, Reutimann predicted top 15 [12], Vickers predicted mid-pack [29] . Missed Truex Jr. predicted top 15 [26th].
Fox Sports continues to ANNOY with their horrid RaceTrax redesign. I hope their page count has plummeted and they fire the idiots responsible and put it back the way it was. Wishful thinking I know. * big sigh *
Dale Jr. did not win. Again. And Tony Eury Jr. could not make his car better. Again. And Kyle Busch got more ‘looks’ [153] to Jr.’s [30] which means he can be a profitable spokesperson too. Even if he feels unpopular. And does this twitter quote from DW mean he agrees with my assessment of Dale Jr. needing a crew chief change?
Jeff Hammond on Lap 343 (via Twitter): Time to find out if Tony Jr. can make a difference for Junior now. If they don’t figure this out, they may need to make a change.
Travis Kvapil had a great finish [for him!] of 18th, only to say goodbye due to lack of sponsorship. Would he ever become a top tier driver - probably not. Still, he had potential to run well and probably is more deserving of a spot on the track than guys like Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip. [It was a great 3 races Mikey, back to reality now.]
Wrinkled Raisin Man came thru [SHOCKER!!!] with a top 10 finish. Will this tempt fantasyland to confidence once again? Or do we all wait for further proof?
Jimmie Johnson had a strong finish at Bristol and heads into his second best track. He is a monster at Martinsville averaging 1.75 AF in the COT era [and pretty much the same pre-COT].
I give up on Kevin Harvick for now. The bad luck gremlin is having a field day with him. Clint Bowyer is a keeper though.
And finally, the top 35 in owner points has shaken itself out. Joey Logano fans breath easy, he won’t be required to qualify on time - yet. In fact the whole need to qualify on speed may become anti-climatic with the number of teams lacking sponsorship bringing the qualifying numbers down to only 36 or 37 teams each week.
Our short track journey continues this weekend as we head into Martinsville….until then,
xox, mb
