Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Rating the Pepsi Max 400: 2 Stars **

After the race at Kansas it looked like as many as 10 drivers had a chance to make a run at the championship. Just one week later, that number has been cut in half. The final fall race at California gets a 2 Star Rating.

I said last week it would be important for every Chaser not named Jimmie Johnson to have a good week so they didn’t fall too far behind. Well, many of them are now too far behind. While Jimmie Johnson posted a third-place finish Sunday, every Chaser except Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin had significant issues throughout the day. Who said Johnson wouldn’t recover after New Hampshire? He has a win and an average finish of second in the three races since.

As for the race itself, it was typical NASCAR at California. The racing was pretty good for the first third of the race, but then drivers started to stretch out long leads and the cautions kept falling like leaves off of trees.

The three debris cautions are what they are. This race wasn’t good enough to have a lot of integrity to protect, and NASCAR had been doing a better job in the several races leading up to this point. Also, the debris-caution issue has come up in three of the last five races at California. Does NASCAR just come into these races knowing the race will have to be manipulated because the track is so darn boring? In any case, this one did not provide much drama. The ARCA race Saturday at Rockingham showed where the race should have been this weekend.

Once again, Stewart became the beneficiary of the debris caution pit stop, as he has been for his last three wins. Had he not run out of gas at New Hampshire, Stewart would be a major player in the Chase. He lost 94 points when he crawled across the finish line in 24th in that race. Had there been another half gallon or so in that tank, Stewart would be right on Johnson’s tail, just 12 points behind. But, such is the case in many aspects of racing. The gamble he took in the first Chase race was the correct call, even though things didn’t turn out the way they had hoped.

Finally, the three Roush-Fenway Racing Chasers all had issues Sunday and will need to be perfect the rest of the way just to get back into contention. Plus, Johnson, Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, the three drivers who are most likely to go into Homestead with a chance to win the title, will all have to get caught up in the Big One at Talladega.

Next week the series moves to the only night race of the Chase, and one of the best. Charlotte usually puts on a good show, and Johnson has had some issues at the track recently, which just means he will go out and dominate this week. But hey, there’s hope somewhere. Anyway, Chase or no Chase, the race at Charlotte should be a bit more fun than the last couple races have been. Have a great week.

12 comments:

  1. I was at the Rock on Saturday, and the racing was unbelievable! Three wide coming off turn 4 was the norm. They were side by side all day long! And, these were just ARCA guys, imagine what the "best drivers in the world" could do.

    The crowd at Fontana looked a lot bigger than usual, though.

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  2. I thought the race was 1/2 star better than expected. But, that's not saying much.

    I'm looking forward to 3 races; Charlotte, Texas, and Phoenix. I think those races are in the hands of the drivers to decide who should hoist the trophy. Talledega, is all about the big one, and Homestead is about points racing; So-n'So need's to finish no lower than 12th, bla, bla, bla.

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  3. I thought it was a pretty decent race to be honest (3 stars for me)...not as good as Loudon (still can't believe I'm writing that) but easily better than Dover and Kansas, lol

    The best drivers in the world aren't racing for another 2 weeks, Gene....WRC will be in Spain then ;)

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  4. Gene - NASCAR good gain back a lot of goodwill if it returned to the Rock. The attendance there looked a bit concerning, though.

    I heard 70,000 in attendance at Fontana and the stands did look more full than in past races there.
    Thanks!

    CR_Racing - Just so long as Johnson doesn't absolutely dominate at Phoenix as he did last year. I do think the better tracks in the last half of the Chase.
    Thanks!

    tezgm99 - Ha, thank goodness that first race was good. It's time to spice things up again, and a race at Charlotte could do the trick.
    Thanks!

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  5. I also thought Cali was much better than I expected.

    It was an ARCA race, not Cup. There may have been 5,000 there. Maybe. At least twice as many as last year.

    Tip to Tez... "the best drivers in the world". The quotation marks are meant to be ironic, or sarcastic.

    It was an ARCA race, not Cup. There may have been 5,000 there. Maybe. At least twice as many as last year.

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  6. I liked the race... A long track w/o restrictors is cool although a couple of the engines took it hard. A different mindset is not a bad thing! Viva la difference! Give it a 3... Would have been a 4 if JJ's engine had gone down!

    Gene... Do you work in the department of redundancy department? LOL

    Thanks CR!

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  7. Did Gene say it Rockingham was an ARCA, and not a Cup race? Or did he say it was an ARCA race? LOL

    Thanks for what Dwindy? I'd give it 3 stars also.

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  8. ahh, I thought you did that because that's what all the commentators say....my bad, Gene :)

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  9. LOL Tez... when did I start drinking the announcers' Kool-Aid?

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  10. Gene - Good to hear attendance at The Rock was up from last year.
    Thanks!

    Dwindy1 - I was kind of surprised there were so many engine problems this late in the season. Johnson will never lose an engine. Ever. lol.
    Thanks!

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  11. Of the three drivers you mentioned--Johnson, Hamlin, and Harvick--the one that escapes the Big One at Talladega WILL win the Cup title. I predict those three will be within 50 points of each other going into Homestead. Tony Stewart will be mathematically alive (around 120 points behind), and all other Chasers will be eliminated.

    As for the race itself, it makes me GLAD that Fontana is losing a Chase race. BOOOOOOORING!! (I was invited to go, and am SOOOOO glad I didn't go!) But it makes me wonder if NASCAR is out to get Clint Bowyer. That phantom debris caution was AWFULLY suspicious.

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  12. jon_464 - That's probably a sound prediction. The tension at Talladega this year is going to be as high as any race in recent memory because one slip could crush championship hopes, and everyone knows that going in.

    Of all people to be leading when that caution came out, it had to be Bowyer. lol. He's certainly had a rough go of it.
    Thanks!

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