Monday, April 2, 2012

View From The Flagstand: Newman!



Ryan Newman won the 500 lapper in Martinsville on Sunday. Uh, after two green, white, checkered restarts, it was actually a 515 lap race. Newman never took the point until lap 504, then led the rest on his way to victory lane.

CHECKERED FLAG

On the first green, white, checker restart at lap 503, Newman sped by the three cars in front of him as they tangled in turn one. After a brief battle with AJ Allmendinger, Newman was unchallenged on the way to the checkers.

GREEN FLAGS

Allmendinger hung on for second, while his Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski wound up ninth. Dale Earnhardt Jr, in third, was HMS's top finisher. Aric Almirola finished eighth for RPM.

YELLOW FLAG

After dominating, he led 328 laps, Jeff Gordon left the bottom groove unprotected on that lap 503 restart. That led to Clint Bowyer, on new tires, diving low and making it three-wide with Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Gordon used Johnson to straighten his own car, then made sure Bowyer didn't continue without spinning. Low on gas, Gordon had to pit, and rolled home in 14th spot.

RED FLAG

With each early season bad finish Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne fall farther and farther behind their rivals for the twelve Chase spots in September. Both of these drivers were considered strong candidates to make the Chase this year, but have had mostly bad finishes so far.

BLACK FLAG

I understand the reasoning for reserving starting positions for those cars which stay in the top-35 in points. NASCAR needs to assure the sponsors of the big teams that their car will start every week. I get that.

But Sunday, David Reutimann was attempting to limp around the track near the end of the race in order to remain in the points' top-35. His car eventually stopped with two laps to go, and changed the entire complexion of the race.

Reutimann was truly contrite afterwards, but that was of little solace to HMS drivers, Gordon and Johnson. One of whom would surely have won the race. Rooty was sorry, but I'm sorry for him for the lengths he has to go to try and have enough points so his part-time co-driver, Danica Patrick, won't have to worry about qualifying for her next foray into Cup racing.

9 comments:

  1. It was an interesting finish, to say the least. I'm glad you didn't say it was Danica Patrick's fault! LOL

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  2. Has the old-time NASCAR just up and vanished? David Reutimann created the only excitement of the day at Martinsville because he needed the points and then caught hell for it. The fans waited the whole race for something that used to happen 3-4 times in 500 laps. The fans deserve better... It's just like the outcry from these modern day drivers when Bruton announced he was going to make some adjustments to Bristol. "How can he change it?" They cried.

    I for one am tired of this playing it safe to get points attitude. You know I've advocated a greater reward for winning but the slight change made last year would have had no bearing at all if Stewart hadn't won HALF of the Chase races... That's not right and here we are again... Playing it safe even on the short tracks... And if you rock the boat you're going to hear about it... Give the winner 10 bonus points, second place gets 5 and third gets 3 then stand back and see what happens... Right now Stewart should be way out in front of the standings, but no... We've got a guy who hasn't won a damned race out in front of a guy that's won one third of the races so far and he leads Stewart by 12 points! This is totally wrong.

    WTG Newman...

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  3. CR... Wellll, since Reutimann was trying to keep enough points so that she had a guaranteed starting spot in future races.....

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  4. Dwindy... whew! Take a breath, man. lol

    You are preaching to the choir.... but especially after last year's tie for the points title.... nascar is not gonna change a damn thing!

    They think they have the perfect system now. A guy with ONE win (Edwards) actually tied a guy (Stewart) with five wins... and nascar could not be more pleased.

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  5. Too bad some money guys don't put up a throw back association that races true stock car bodies with hot rodded manufacturer engines AND not be associated with NASCAR... Maybe run at Rockingham and any other tracks not owned by the France family corp... I know that's a pipe dream but these people in whatever name they want to use (safety, etc.) have basically ruined the sport...

    I think I'll spend more time with the Super V8's...

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  6. Dwindy... nascar has too much strength to go against. Even tracks like Rockingham have to stay on nascar's good side.... Rock has a truck race, granted by nascar, and if they want to keep it they won't make waves. Other tracks are in similar positions of wanting a nascar event, so they will stay in line also.

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  7. You took my bait Gene. I knew for a fact it was Danica's fault from your perspective. As long as you don't jump to conclusions like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, et all...

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  8. I may have to use more "LOL's" and ":)" when replying to CR... LOL :)

    I reckon sarcasm and humor don't translate well whenever Danica is the subject...LOL

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  9. All's good bro. Danica's a waste of time and space. Just making sure you stay on your toes! LOL, or LMAO, your choice!

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