Sunday, April 10, 2011

View From The Flagstand: Kenseth Ends Streak




Some may think that Saturday night's NASCAR Cup race at Texas was boring. And, while no where near the excitement level of last fall's Chase race at TMS, it was watchable. It was not even the worst race of this young season. We see you, Fontana.

There was just enough drama with the green flag stops, Tony Stewart's foiled strategy, Kyle's stripped lug stud, blown tires, and one hard wreck to keep me awake. I wouldn't want it every week, but it won't be the worst race in April either.

CHECKERED FLAG

Matt Kenseth's two year long winless streak ended in dominating fashion Saturday at TMS. He led 169 of the 334 laps in Samsung Mobile 500 while ending his personal 76 race losing streak. Kenseth seemed as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders upon the win. It was nice to see that, even though it had been awhile, Kenseth still has that old school, I've been here before, way of soaking up the victory lane celebration.

GREEN FLAGS

Clint Bowyer led some laps and finished second. Bowyer's RCR teammates, Paul Menard (5th), and Jeff Burton (11th) had solid finishes. Carl Edwards (3rd), Greg Biffle (4th), and David Ragan (7th) rounded out the RFR takeover at TMS. Marcos Ambrose had a fast piece all night and brought it home in 6th.

YELLOW FLAG

NASCAR gets a long awaited "well done" for not throwing a game changing 'debris' caution at the end of the race. Kenseth had dominated all night and deserved a level playing field to win that race. Too many times the lead car is screwed by a bogus yellow at the end, and a lot of times it seems to be all about who is leading at the time.

RED FLAG

Team Toyota seems as if their brake pedals are stuck. Other than Kyle Busch's win at Bristol and his second place point standing, the Toyotas have been ugly for the most part. JGR has had engine and pit road troubles in every race this year. The Red Bull boys have not been impressive at all. MWR seems to qualify okay with fast enough cars, then, come race time, they turn into SAFER barrier testers. They did learn from the best, though.

BLACK FLAG

Mike Joy has finally turned into Ken Squier.... not HOF Squier in his prime.... early on-set Squier, far removed from his prime. Joy (or his director) now thinks that he should take five minutes to explain what he just said. Instead of clearing it up, he gets everyone even more confused. Mike, Kenseth won the race, NOT Carl Edwards. Also, Carl Edwards... Darlington is NOT the next race. Marty Reid.... It's Texas, NOT Charlotte.



9 comments:

  1. F1 race was so much more exciting...usually that only happens with indifferent weather but we didn't get that at Sepang, lol

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  2. I'd add this on to Team Toyotas' Red Flag: they can't seem to stay out of the way on pit road! David Reutimann and Joey Logano made contact right in front of Kevin Harvick and Reutimann blocked Harvick in. It turned a very good pit stop by the 29 crew (and possible gain of several positions) into a loss of about 10 positions. No, Harvick wouldn't have won the race, but he'd have had a 15th place instead of a 20th place finish.

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  3. I cannot count how many times I was saying "shut up already!" to the TV broadcast - while D-dub got the most he wasnt alone...time to watch with MRN on instead again.

    Woot to Kenseth! Good to see him relieved and in VL again. Now if we can just get Junyer there...

    Green flag also to all the different winners, teams and manufacturers this year. Nice to see some parity for once!

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  4. Tez.... the Indy race was better, too.

    Jon.... Rooty screwed up Harvick's pit stops twice!

    KLV.... It is great to see 6 different winners in 7 races. Jr will probably be satisfied to just make the Chase.... baby steps.

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  5. No it wasn't the most exciting race but Kenseth dominated the race in championhip style. Even Johnson couldn't catch him. Let hope this i a turn around for Kenseth.

    On Smoke ( Stewart). Wasn't a contender at all. His luck just was missing at this race.

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  6. Kinda hard to comment when I couldn't watch the last 2/3rds... Definitely good to see a Ford not driven by Carl winning a cup race...

    Next up? Dancing with the stars! Will we see another rook win out on the draft race?

    Thanks Gene!

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  7. yeah, the Indycar race was pretty good too, quite right, Gene :)

    oh and the NHL has taken a leaf out of NASCAR conspiracies handbook....obviously they called up Dallas and told them to run the Wild close but lose as they wanted Chicago, not Dallas, in the playoffs ;)

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  8. Photo... I hope it's a turnaround for Kenseth, not Edwards.

    Dwindy... Talladega will be a wild one. You did not miss much Saturday night.

    Tez... The other sports try, but they can't match NASCAR's dirty dealings.... must be the high dose of nepotism in Daytona. (;

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  9. Gene, I was watching Kevin Harvick's dedicated channel on DirecTV--he was exasperated at Reuty. On one stop he said, "Everything we worked for just went down the drain." I know that Reuty and Logano were playing bumper cars on pit road, with Harvick getting caught in their mess. After the second incident, NASCAR should have warned them, "One more, and BOTH OF YOU are sitting for FIVE LAPS." Both drivers were laps down, and Harvick was on the tail end of the lead lap, but thanks to these bozos, Harvick was cost track position.

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