Monday, June 14, 2010

View From The Flagstand

Well Michigan International Speedway certainly lived up to its reputation on Sunday. What a thrilling day of close competition we enjoyed! Hah, just kidding. The 103 degrees worth of Southern swelter must be getting to me. It wasn't the worst race of the year (Hello, Fontana), but it was far from the best, also. A very wise person once said, "The best thing about Michigan is that Sonama is the next week." Truer words...

CHECKERED FLAG

Denny Hamlin toyed with the other 42 racers, in route to his fifth win of the year. His crew is on top of their game right now, and even a road course next week shouldn't slow their momentum. Of course, all this regular season stuff doesn't mean a hell of a lot. Ten bonus points per win going into the Chase is not enough for actually trying to win during the regular season, and can disappear in the first Chase race. Don't use up all your mojo too soon, Hamster.

GREEN FLAGS

Kurt Busch won the pole and came home third. Second place finisher, Kasey Kahne had a strong outing, and should win one of these very soon. A rare visitor to my green flags section, or to the top-10, was... gee, I hope I spell this right... Dale Earnhardt Jr, in 7th. The entire top-10 looked like a preview of the Chase contenders.

YELLOW FLAGS

Points leader Kevin Harvick (19th) picked a bad week to come back down to earth, as red hot Hamlin made up a lot of ground. Kyle Busch (20th) looked even worse than Harvick while trying to hold onto his second place spot in the points race. Matt Kenseth, struggled to a 14th place finish, and dropped a spot in points.

RED FLAG

Please stop allowing morons to give the 'Start your Engines' command. So-called movie stars, Adam Sandler and Kevin James totally wrecked the command. Would it be so bad to have a professional announcer to give this proclamation at every event? For about 30 years, when you heard Michael Buffer "get ready to ruuuuummmble" you knew you were going to see some professional action.

BLACK FLAG

The phantom debris cautions. Yes, we know the race is boring, and NASCAR wants to tighten it up. What about those teams that had their entire game plan based on a fuel mileage strategy? Should there be a new rule that we can not have two green flag pit cycles in a row? Or, that a 'competition' caution will fly EVERY race with 25 laps to go?

20 comments:

  1. This was just a no comment kind of a race! Couldn't tell you a thing about it except Moseby won again!!!

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  2. oh, did I hear Junyer came in 7th?:P

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  3. Hey Gene!

    Sounds like we need that North Carolina Democrat Congressman to slap around these NASCAR officials and straighten out this phantom track debris caution deal! He'd sure put the fear in 'em!

    The 88 ran strong all day. From the sound of it Jr. only had one complaint instead of multiple problems. Maybe the pit boss, crew and driver are finally getting onto the same page. What's it taken? 18 months? Let's face it, NASCAR needs this guy to perform well.

    Kyle dropped 7 points to Harvick but hangs onto second.

    Tell me, of the drivers currently in the top twelve, who's the best road course driver? (I need a good pick for the trifecta and I'm sure you'll shoot straight with me!) lol

    Thanks Gene!

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  4. I barely watched the event. Never saw the "start your engines" debacle. Understand Hamlin won it... news to me. Guess I just wasn't into this NASCAR weekend from the get-go. Spent my late night, early morning watching real racing, over in France. Sorry, but Brian has no connection to the France I'm referring to...

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  5. Sorry, but I voted for Clint Bowyer twice on the poll. Oh well, he still only has two votes total..

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  6. ATH...yeah, Jr got his first top-10 in months.

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  7. Dwindy....The road courses are tricky to pick a winner on. So much is dependent on pit strategy and plain luck. A dominate car can get punted entering a turn on the last lap, and go from top-5 to 25.

    The best in Cup racing would be JPM and Ambrose... neither in the top-12.

    Strong road racers.... Harvick, Kahne, Kyle, Stewart, both Gordons, Edwards.

    I'm expecting Kurt Busch and Hamlin to do very well at Sonoma.

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  8. CR.... The only excitement was the Red Bull teammates getting together, then hearing Scott Speed on the radio.

    Clint Bowyer, huh? I guess of the ones listed, he has the best shot at making the Chase.

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  9. Aw shucks thanks Gene! Wise or hopeful one of the two!

    If JJ doesnt punt us again we should be good but the road course is as big of a crap shoot as Dega is.

    Hope to have garage reports up throughout the weekend ... everyone save your bail money!!

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  10. Every flag was right on this week. Just once I want to see a race that has at least four green flag stops. Gonna have to dig in the archives to find the last time that happened.

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  11. KLV.... We'll be looking for all you Lug Nuts on TV this weekend. Hope you guys get to see a great race.

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  12. JM.... Four green stops? Wow. I can't remember the last time they had two green stops in a row. I do remember J Burton winning about 10 years ago in NH with no yellows. I was at work and missed it on TV... didn't sound real exciting though.

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  13. Gene, good View as per usual. I'd say the two best road racers are J. Gordon and Stewart, with JPM and Ambrose right below them. I look for both Busches to run strong along with Harvick and Hamlin.

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  14. Jon... Recently, Ambrose and Gordon swapped rides at Watkins Glen.... Jeff said that Ambrose ran better than he did in the #24.

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  15. Thanks Athens! Wish I was as lucky at playing Powerball...

    This debris caution thing has been out of hand for awhile. We're not talking about the frontstretch at narrow tracks like Bristol, Dover or Martinsville. Michigan has at least 4 lanes in the corner and 5 on the straights. Use radio control to let the teams know and use your damn eyes.

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  16. Didn't get to see the race but heard it on the siris satelite radio comming home from of all places Charlotte N.C.

    It didn't sound too exciting over the radio but am glad Hamlin won. Any body but JJ winning is a good race.

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  17. Mose.... Loved Hamlin's comment about racing being 'show biz', and that the drivers expect the late caution every week. LOL

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  18. Photo....At least it was only two and a half hours long. I can handle boring... if it's not 4-5 hours of follow the leader.

    Did you get to check out the Hall of Fame?

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  19. Hey Gene - Hope everything has been well. Great comments as usual. There's quite a few discussions about the "phantom debris cautions" going on. NASCAR's refusal to admit they want to see a double file start to the end of a race only adds to the conspiracey theory. Inconsistent caution calls on spinning cars (depending on who is spinning or who is about to lose the "lucky dog") doesn't help the matter either. I'm going to make an effort to stop over here more often. Have a great day...Don (aka bluejay39)

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  20. BlueJay..... what's happening, bro. Always glad to get your point of view on the racing thing.

    NASCAR will be shooting themselves in the foot if they penalize Hamlin for saying what everyone already knows.

    Drop by more often... heck, throw a post or two our way here at Lugnuts.

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