Monday, March 7, 2011

View From The Flagstand


With three races down, the contenders for the Sprint Cup championship are stepping forward, a little. The next scheduled race, in Bristol, will shake them out a bit more. Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch are tied for the points lead, with, Sunday's winner, Carl Edwards close behind.

CHECKERED FLAG

Edwards has looked like a contender so far this year, and he finally cashed in at Vegas on Sunday. He was strong in Daytona, had the fastest car in Phoenix, yet was winless until hitting the jackpot in Vegas.

GREEN FLAGS

Juan Montoya placed third in the race, and is tied for third in points right now. Ryan Newman had his second 5th place run in a row, and is 5th in points. Marcos Ambrose qualified 2nd and finished 4th. Martin Truex Jr (6th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (8th), and Brian Vickers (10th) all had good finishes.

YELLOW FLAG

Where was the late race caution for debris? The only exciting racing we saw in Vegas was during the restarts.

RED FLAG

The Danica Patrick has arrived talk after a 4th place finish in Saturday's Nationwide race. I know ABC/ESPN and NASCAR think she is ratings gold, but can we hold off on engraving her series' championship trophy until she earns another top-5 finish?

BLACK FLAG

Robby Gordon beats up Kevin Conway in the garage area on Friday night at Vegas, and gets put on probation. There is a difference between 'boys have at it' and a hostile work environment. Maybe another lawsuit will get NASCAR's attention.

10 comments:

  1. About the only thing I liked about the winner was the paint job on his Scott's Ford...

    I saw Danica walking on water today!

    That Extenze deal just keeps getting more and more media mileage... Guess Gordon owes Conway a few grand while Gordon claims Extenze owes him over a hundred grand. Conway was told he'll get his when Gordon gets paid... Then came the altercation. WTG Robby...

    You gonna be in Darlington for the trucks next Saturday?

    Thanks Gene!

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  2. Don't give them any ideas! lol. The lack of a debris caution kept the finish legit. Otherwise, Stewart would've won and the penalty+bad strategy wouldn't have mattered. Edwards deserved this one more.

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  3. I look for Conway to wreck Gordon at Bristol, Gordon returns to the race after a couple of hundred laps just to wreck Conway and mess up his day. Then they both get out of their cars and have at it and beat the $#!T out of each other. Then they get into it again as they're going into the infield care center. This thing will "ExtenZe" for a LONG time! (At least a fan can dream, can't he?) But I digress. As far as the view, Carl earned that win. (As you know, I'm one of the most anti-Carl fans around, but I call 'em as I see 'em.) He had the better car at the end than Smoke, plus the better strategy.

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  4. Dwindy... yeah, that was a sweet paint job.

    Yep, I will be in Darlington for the trucks. It's a night race, so I hope it's not too cold up there.

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  5. JM... I'm not so sure that Edwards deserved it more than Tony did. I thought the 14 was the better car all day long.

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  6. Jon... we can only hope... LOL!

    Tony wondered after the race how he lost. He must be the only one who didn't know.

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  7. Well since I missed it entirely I'll just say I was pleased to see Jr with a top 10 and some new names up front including Marcos and Truex.

    Danica - ha! I'd finish in the top 5 too if everyone else crashed out in front of me...

    Robby Robby Robby...that wouldda been fun to see in the garages.

    Have fun at the truck race! No clapping for Kyle in the press room my friend!

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  8. Kristen... It was nice to see new faces in the top-10, and in the points top-10.

    Re: Danica, a win is a win is a win! Whadaya mean she didn't win? The top-5 was legit, but she won't get another one... unless it's done the same way... gas mileage.

    No clapping in the media center... Kasey is driving the #18 in Darlington, and I'll take him to win. He's pretty good at that track.

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  9. I was waiting for that late race debris caution. I really thought NASCAR would want to set up an exciting finish, but I guess they are tired of all the crap they have to take from doing it.

    It's nice to see Danica making progress, even if it's simply a fourth place finish.

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  10. Brent... they have to save the bogus caution flags for the Chase.

    Yay, Danica!

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