Sunday, August 22, 2010

View From The Flagstand


The View from Bristol was definitely clouded by towering, smokey, victory donuts. Mmmm, victory donuts. History was finally made as Kyle Busch pulled the hat trick,and won all three races in one weekend. He's been close before, yet never nailed it down until now.

CHECKERED FLAG

Do you think that, maybe, Kyle Busch has Bristol figured out? He won all three of NASCAR's major touring series' races here this week, and has won three of the last four Cup races here. Winning three in one weekend, The Kylefecta, may never be duplicated, and one day folks will reminisce and tell the kids about the time that jerk did it.

GREEN FLAGS

David Reutimann held off Jamie McMurray in a battle for second. A bit of a surprise there, and no doubt aided by several top guns having issues on the night. Cint Bowyer (4), and Kasey Kahne (5) rounded out the top-5. Ryan Newman and Juan Montoya had a dog fight for sixth place, with Newman holding on until the checkered flag flew.

YELLOW FLAGS

Did these pretty boys forget that Bristol is a short track? Jimmie Johnson pulls up into Montoya's left front fender, and thinks that JPM is just going to back off? Ain't happenin'. In the NNS race, Kyle Busch was hit by Brad Keselowski after getting himself loose right in front of Keselowski. Instead of accepting even partial blame, Busch ran him down and dumped him in the next turn.

Maybe we should give the driver's decisions a pass at Bristol? Things happen in eyeblink quickness when you're making laps in 16 seconds. This claustrophobic environment, where the car is virtually up on its side most of the time, can not be conducive to sound judgments. It brings out the worst in the best. That's why we love it.

RED FLAG

The pre-race shows. An hour and half for the Nationwide pre-race show? Really? Who thought the lame blacksmith opening bit on Saturday was worth airing twice, in less than an hour? At least they had a huge talking point before the Cup race, Kyle vs Kez, which they then proceeded to pound into the ground. Lone bright spot was Dale Jarrett saying if he were Keselowski he would punch Busch in the nose and tell him, "Now we're even." Funny stuff, DJ.

BLACK FLAG

NASCAR's points system. Among the 12 drivers now in the Chase, half of them do not have a win this season! While four others who have fought for a win, have their noses pressed against the window looking in. The ten point bonus for winning a race is a joke. They don't get it unless they make the Chase. So, half of them merrily row along, points racing, satisfied to merely make the Chase.

After 24 races here are some of our playoff pretenders....

Clint Bowyer, zero wins, four top-5s.
Matt Kenseth, zero wins, five top-5s.
Jeff Burton, zero wins, four top-5s.
Tony Stewart, zero wins, six top-5s.
Carl Edwards, zero wins, five top-5s.

Jamie McMurray, TWO WINS, SEVEN top-5s. Uh, scratch that, J Mac is not currently in the Chase!

Should NASCAR go to an F-1 type system? Twenty points for first, counting down to one point for 20th place? No points for 21st or lower?



13 comments:

  1. I like it Gene!

    The Kylester done did good! I think he lives to rub his detractor's noses in it! LOL

    Now, do ya think they leave Bristol out of the championship races for a good reason?

    I completely agree with your take on the NASCAR point system. It's all about winning isn't it? The answer's yes and with that being the case then wins should be rewarded to a much higher degree and cut out this crap of rewarding all the also-rans...

    I know Jeff Gordon is winless this season too while accumulating enough chase points to stand in second place... The one bright spot is his 10 top 5 finishes, but still, no wins??? Second place???

    BTW... JPM definitely took JJ out on purpose.

    Thanks Gene!

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  2. I agree, NASCAR's point system is ridiculous. Oh, the Chase format it's self is a blot on the history of NASCAR!

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  3. D-One... Maybe Bristol should have three races a year, including the Chase finale?

    Ten top-5s in 24 races should get you in the playoffs... even without a win. But, I don't know about 2nd place. All the drivers know how the points/Chase system works, so they all have the same parameters to work within.

    JPM stood his ground. Typical short track racing. They had just restarted. There were about 30 cars on Montoya's tail. He lets off the gas there, and he may be getting hit from behind. A lot happens, very quickly, at 16 seconds per lap.

    Thanks Dwind!

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  4. CR... True enough, bro.

    Is there anyone who gets excited about the Chase? I guess if they stick with it for 15-20 years they will have a new generation of fans who don't know any better. If they can attract any new fans, that is.

    NFL fans get excited for their playoff races. They worry about their team making it, or wonder who they will face in Round One. NASCAR's playoff doesn't deliver that same anxiety, hope, or excitement. Not even close.

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  5. Katie really wanted to tear into that M&M voodoo doll Friday night(she had Brad K in the Trifecta).

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  6. I'm glad she didn't. I bet she'd rather have a nice, tasty greenie than an old, dry M&Ms doll anyway. lol

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  7. the F1 prerace (from BBC anyways) goes for about 45 minutes. They focus on qualifying, practice times, what the weather may do and any grid penalties. The rest of the time they show segments featuring particular drivers (Hamilton at Monaco springs to mind right now since that's the prerace I watched, lol) and a bit of history about the track they're on before Brundle does his track walk where he tries to speak to any drivers/team owners/etc...it's not bad actually, lol

    I'm giving a red flag to Sadler by the way....him taking out Peters in the Truck race was more idiotic than the Kyle/Brad stuff IMO.

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  8. *sigh* I wasn't going to do it this year....but alright, I'll do my points system. Based on an old V8 supercars (top 17 only), races 400 miles or less get half points for the RC (as do ones over 400 miles that don't go 75% distance), washouts in qualifying don't count for the QC.

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  9. Tez... the F-1 pre-show on Speed sounds quite similar. A lot of pertinent info... without chuckleheads like K Wallace or J Spencer. I've seen Varsha do that track walk. He knows what he's doing.

    Keep doing the points until JJ doesn't win it again...LOL

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  10. How about hiring Varsha from F1 to NASCAR? Since I'm on the west coast, I rarely get to see a live F1 race unless it's from Australia or a western Pacific Rim nation. Most of the time the races are in Europe or the Middle East and they're shown at 2 am here.

    Okay, enough of my mini rant. Upon further review, I give a green flag to JPM for punting JJ. JJ, payback's a bitch, isn't it? I also like the idea of NASCAR adopting a similar scoring style to F1.

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  11. Way late to the party this week...congrats to your boy Gene but I would have respected his history making run more if he hadnt intentionally punted BK in NW. That lacked some class.

    Points are definitely a bit "wackadoo" as my clients like to say but they involve doing math so I try to pay as little attention to them as possible.

    Now we'll see what JJ is made of - he's off a bit and drivers are gunning for him. If he 5-peats under these circumstances it will be unbelievable.

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  12. The European race are 5am for us, Jon....and yes, I'm a very sad person with no life since I stay up until 1 or 2 on Saturday night to chat to the gf (only day we get the chance during the week) then get up to watch the F1 and keep going to Cup :P

    That was before I figured out my recorder though....now I can sleep in a bit and watch the F1 instead of the Cup prerace show, LOL!

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  13. Jon... JJ brought it on himself. He wasn't clear and just pulled up across JPM's front end.

    KLV... I didn't like seeing Kyle blame BK for his own mistake.... Kyle would have still won if he had taken his time.

    Tez... it's usually 7am on Sun mornings here on the east coast. Way too early!

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