Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Rating the Dickies 500: 4 Stars ****

The last 500 mile race of the season brought with it plenty of intrigue as the points leader crashed on lap 3, opening the door for someone to jump back into the Chase. Whether or not somebody actually does have a chance to catch Jimmie Johnson is yet to be seen, but the race at Texas gets a 4 Star Rating.

Obviously, the big news coming out of Sunday’s race was that Johnson wrecked. However, the fat lady was still singing in victory lane at Texas. Johnson still has a larger lead in the standings than he did at this point last year, and if he were to lose the championship, it may be one of the biggest meltdowns NASCAR has ever seen. It is still going to be tough to beat the #48.

The race itself was pretty clean Sunday. It was nice to once again see a different face in victory lane, and fuel mileage races are always exciting at the finish. I want to thank NASCAR for not throwing a debris caution during that last run because I am sure there had to be something on the track with all of those wrecked cars out there trying to maintain minimum speed. That caution at halfway for the hot dog was pretty lame, but otherwise the race played out the way it should have. What made the fuel mileage race surprising was the fact that everybody pitted later in the race this year than Carl Edwards did in the same race in 2008. In that race he was able to run 69 laps after his final stop, while this year nobody made it more than 63 laps That makes Sunday’s race all the more surprising.

Also, there were some great paint schemes on the track this weekend. A.J. Allmendinger’s Petty blue Ford was beautiful, as was David Ragan’s blue colors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Sunday’s winner, Kurt Busch, also had a very cool paint scheme with Operation Homefront on the hood. Plus, Busch won Michael McGee $1 million because McGee picked Busch to win the race. I’d say those two had a pretty good day.

Next week the series heads out west for the final time in 2009. Mark Martin is primed to have a very good race after dominating at Phoenix in the spring. If Johnson for some reason has another bad day, things could be pretty interesting heading into Homestead. Have a good week!

4 comments:

  1. I've missed commenting on your blogs. (I guess I've been lost somewhere in cyberspace,lol) As usual you are spot on! I really enjoyed the race. I'll be looking here for you from now on and I hope you and I are here next year. Thanks, as always, for a fair point of view. My best to you.

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  2. volfan69 - Hey! It is great to hear from you. I too have missed your opinions on the races. Too bad there are only two races left in the season, but the offseason promises to be plenty interesting.
    Thanks!

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  3. I'd give it 5 stars for obvious reasons...LOL!

    Definitely some cool paint schemes and how great was it Operation Homefront went to Victory Lane when they are helping the families involved at Fort Hood. Glad Miller Lite is giving them so much $$.

    Kurt will be strong at PHX - taking same car he ran strong 2nd to JJ last year.

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  4. klvalus - It was cool to see the #2 group get a win here late in the season before PT leaves. I agree that they should be strong in Phoenix. Too bad this stretch didn't come a little sooner or they may have been a serious factor in the championship.
    Thanks!

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