View From the Couch: Watkins Glen-Tardy Edition
[Note: Blogging is a great thing. It allows for freedom and flexibility. These things only apply with the help of a computer, which in my case went AWOL Sunday night. My apologies.]
All right people, move along. Kyle Busch won another Cup race. Nothing to see here.
After Dale Earnhardt Jr passed Busch on the second lap of the race it looked like Busch would be relegated to a middling finish. Instead Busch got off sequence with most of the leaders, pitted earlier and suddenly grabbed the lead and his sequence won out. Given the fact that Busch was joined by his Gibbs Racing teammates, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, on the early pit stop makes you wonder if it was all planned to sandbag the first 15-20 laps.
While some are noting that Busch is closing in on the #1 seed in the Chase, he has already clinched it. Carl Edwards could match his 8 wins, but because of the penalty at Las Vegas he can’t match Busch’s 80 bonus points. The other thing to take away from Watkins Glen is that aside from Busch’s 10 bonus points, the race has zero bearing on what will transpire during the Chase. There are no road races during the Chase, so teams can’t really apply anything they learned on Sunday. Plus the concept of momentum is as effective as the rabbit’s foot on Bobby Labonte’s keychain (seriously, I can’t name a driver that gets caught up in more bad wrecks than Labonte).
While the race won’t have a bearing on the Chase, it did highlight how off Jeff Gordon and Steve Letarte have been at times this year. They’ve struggled at other tracks this year, most notably at certain intermediate speedways, but Gordon is one of the elite road course racers. To struggle at Watkins Glen, especially when teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson ran well, was shocking. While Letarte won’t have to set up another road car, the fact that they missed a fundamental chance for a good day is noteworthy in the Chase.
Martin Truex Jr had a very good day, running in the top ten all day before finishing 5th. He is currently in 16th place in the points. That 150 point penalty for the team’s violation at Daytona looms very large. Without it he would only be 59 points behind 12th place Matt Kenseth. A 209 point deficit means Truex cannot afford anything short of top ten runs for the next four weeks and that may still be short.
AJ Allmendinger finished 11th to finally crack the top 35 in owners points. After Red Bull struggled for all of 2007 they now have both of their cars with guaranteed starting spots at Michigan. Allmendinger sat out seven races while the team established a good baseline with Mike Skinner. Since he has returned he’ run very well almost every week.
We’re in the top-35 and that’s been our big deal and I know once we get in we’re not going to fall back out. The car was good - - Jimmy (Elledge, crew chief) like usual used awesome strategy. When we get to Michigan I’ll be a lot happier when we don’t have to qualify on time.
Another key to Red Bull’s improved season has been picking up key personnel like Elledge and GM Jay Frye. You would think Ganassi and DEI could use Elledge or Frye.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Or Stewart-Haas could use Frye or Elledge. I’m thinking they might get Dave Rogers, though. Just a hunch.
I think I get it now. If HMS leases Haas substandard racing equipment, then Haas can turn around and sell HMS faulty testing equipment and bump stops. There has to be some honor among those guys.