CHECKERED FLAGS
Gordon looked to be the class of the field after Carl Edwards was taken out in one of them racin' deals. In fact, Gordon was involved in Edwards' mishap, but it didn't affect his 'hunger' to win. Ouch. Gustafson has now won at PIR with three different Hendrick drivers, any guesses out there?
GREEN FLAGS
After winning the preliminary truck and Nationwide events on Friday and Saturday, Kyle Busch was in a prime spot to hit the trifecta again. Instead, he coughed up the lead to the hard charging Gordon with eight laps left, and settled for second place on Sunday. Ryan Newman (5) and Kasey Kahne (6) had good, quiet runs, and were up front most of the day. AJ Allmendinger (9) and Dale Jr (10) had even quieter runs, and were not up front most of the day.
YELLOW FLAGS
The 43 best drivers in the world (sorry Vettel, and Button), for the second week in a row, found it hard to negotiate their way around a huge circuit without framming into each other.... early and often. Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne returned to reality after wrecking in practice, then wadding his back up piece during the race.
RED FLAG
The non-blame game appears to be over. After a wreck filled 500 at Daytona when no driver called out another driver, PIR caused the wronged to call out their abusers. Brian Vickers sure sounded like he was giving Matt Kenseth a warning. Meanwhile, Carl Edwards looked and sounded like he is one opportunity away from ditching his new kinder, gentler, gimmick.
BLACK FLAG
It's not just for seniors anymore, is Phoenix also the place where losing streaks go to die? Gordon halted his 66 race winless run on Sunday. Last fall Edwards broke his 70 race dry spell, and last spring, Ryan Newman put the brakes on a 77 race skid.
Okay, so is Kyle now on Carl's "To Do" list?
ReplyDeleteI understand the PIR will have increased banking on one set of turns (to 10 degrees instead of 4) so it's not only a resurface job but a reconfiguration. Sounds like they had to do the re-pave.
You gonna run off and hide now that you've got a trifecta win under your belt?
Hang in!
Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Jeffie G (the talking heads made reference to it often enough- do they think we have the attention span of a gnat?)
ReplyDeleteDwindy... I'd say he's at least on Carl's bucket list.. LOL
ReplyDeleteI heard someone compare how the new PIR will look to Pocono...UGH!
Those trifecta wins are rare. Like Jeff, my new crew chief is paying off early.
Speedy... I only heard it once, of course I block out most of Larry and DW's mishmash. Bzzzz. lol
ReplyDeleteSo glad I picked to go to Daytona for the weather alone. Man it looked cold in PHX!
ReplyDeleteI got nothin to add to this stellar blog Gene!
Hey Kris... thanks. Every year the weather is a crap shoot early in the year. I've been in Daytona when it was cold on Saturday and hot on Sunday, or vice versa...lol
ReplyDeleteno arguments this week Gene! although i hated to see Gordon win. He cost me a hundred bucks this weekend!
ReplyDeleteStork... Come on, It was good for business to see Gordon winning again. A hundred bucks! That's almost a full tank of gas these days.
ReplyDelete