Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The UAW-Dodge 400
Jess
RESULTS
1. Carl Edwards
2. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
15. Martin
24. Brian (1 LD)
31. Michael (2 LD)
37. David (9 LD)
38. Kurt (OUT)
39. DJ (OUT)
This race didn’t exactly start out on a positive note when David hit the wall on Lap 2.
He was surprisingly calm over the radio despite the fact that they went three laps down fixing the car on pit road under green flag conditions. Jamie McMurray's spin on Lap 10 brought out the caution, allowing David to get one of his laps back and for a while it seemed like everyone gained a little bit of hope, thinking that in only one more caution they would be one lap down and when you're just one lap down things don't look as horrible. But unfortunately they didn't get that caution in time and the #00 was handling so badly that David eventually went several circuits behind the leaders. 
Generally I wasn't a big fan of the race. I can't remember what the racing was like last season after they added banking to Vegas, but it wasn't good at all Sunday. The new cars seemed to fill up a lot of the width and the racing surface is narrow enough without cutting it down to about one and three-quarters grooves of racing space. Passing looked extremely difficult even with good cars. I just couldn't get over how small the track looked - for being 1.5 miles long it reminded me more of a short track.
David held on and Ryan did a great job of listening to his feedback and making all kinds of changes. Encouraging! In my opinion one of the greatest strengths of a team isn't how they interact with each other when they are running well, but how they communicate when they are struggling. The #00 guys get an A+ in that aspect!
Unfortunately a friend told me that Michael's radio chatter was less than productive. 
Michael can be very hard to work with. When he was paired with Tony Eury Jr. back in 2005 he was very enjoyable to listen to and his communication was excellent, but since then he's been almost a terror to crew chiefs everywhere! I couldn't take how he treated Derrick Finley and that was when I stopped listening to his radio feed. It didn't get much better with following crew chiefs, despite all the good things Michael would say about them when he was out of the car. I can understand that Michael is frustrated. He desperately needs to lock himself into the top 35 and at the moment it's not looking like it will be easy. He's not running all that great and he needs to be because I'm sure he knows more than fans do what NAPA and his other sponsors are thinking, as well as Toyota. But he can't abuse Paul Andrews and his team like he's doing and expect the situation to improve! 
When Michael left DEI I remember him saying that he needed to find himself another Tony Jr. At first I thought that he meant he just needed to find another talented crew chief - a simple enough task because there is a lot of skill out there in that department. But now...how many crew chiefs later? Over half a dozen? Now I wonder if Michael was saying whether he wanted someone "like" Tony Jr. or if he meant it in a way that ran a lot deeper. Will he ever get along with anyone who isn't Tony Jr.?
It's sad to say that the race didn't get interesting until they started crashing. Tony Stewart blew a tire and slammed into the Turn 3 wall incredibly hard on Lap 110 and came to rest pressed against the SAFER barrier. My mind immediately went to the crash he'd had the day before where he said he'd hurt his foot and because he wasn't getting out of the car very fast I felt that pit of fear that I get when someone wrecks as hard as he did. My anxiety was confirmed when he struggled to exit the #20 and with help from the safety workers limped into the waiting truck. In a post-race interview he remarked that both his legs went numb and his lower back hurt - I really hope he got his back checked out because that sounds like a compression fracture.
After that it seemed like the race would go green and then a car would have a tire go down or someone would wreck and bring the caution out. Junior stayed out on the track when others pitted during a yellow on Lap 179 and did a good job of holding that lead for a while. Meanwhile Kurt was a lap down after serving a pass-through penalty on pit during as a result of getting caught speeding on a green-flag pit stop earlier but received the lucky dog during a debris caution on Lap 214.
Ten laps later two of out boys got together, ironically two of our guys who are good friends: Casey and Brian. I hate when that happens!
Casey pushed up into Brian and the #83 spun into the frontstretch. To my amazement he not only kept it off the wall, but actually kept going onto pit road, all the while alerting his crew that he saved it and was coming! Unfortunately for FOX, who was airing his radio feed live, Brian dropped an F-bomb (out of excitement, not viciousness 
) and it was really funny because he said, "Where are you?!" because his crew wasn't even ready to pit him! Poor Mike Joy, he tried to tell the audio guys to cut the mike but it was already too late.
I wasn't laughing very much when the next caution came out on Lap 233 because it was DJ. He was still on the lead lap running well when he got loose under Dave Blaney in Turn 2 and instead of wrecking the #22 he spun himself out and backed it into the wall. 
DJ has actually run very decently this season but something always seems to happen to him. Darn it DJ, just wreck the guy! I was pretty upset because he was looking very good in the live point standings until then.
Things got worse when on Lap 257 when Kurt blew a tire and hit the wall hard.
That was extremely, extremely disappointing.
With only a handful of laps to go the worst wreck of the day occurred. On a restart Junior spun his tires, causing the drivers behind him to bunch up and try to get around him. For a moment the #88 was in a Jeff Gordon-Matt Kenseth sandwich and then those two made contact and spun. Kenseth was the lucky one because he didn't hit anything after that, but Gordon flew across the racetrack and slammed into the inside wall right where it curves to make an entrance for the safety vehicles. Oh yeah, and there isn't a SAFER barrier there, either. He crashed wickedly hard and I caught my breath, but he was moving and talking quickly after the car stopped moving (thankfully the scattering cars behind him - Mike Skinner specifically - missed him, but just barely). I don't get it! These bloody racetrack owners make tons of money and they don't understand that drivers can wreck anywhere? And the setup they have with that entrance is ridiculous...remember Jeff Fuller's wreck at Kentucky in 2006. Kentucky fixed that wall. Vegas had better do the same and NASCAR would be wise to recommend likewise on other tracks with similar layouts.
I was really hoping Dale Jr. could give Carl Edwards a run for his life but unfortunately the #88 didn't have quite enough. Well, maybe he did, except that the #99 quickly came under NASCAR's scrutiny when they discovered the oil tank lid was off in post-race inspection. How wonderful. I love when a team that cheats wins a race.
We'll see what comes with that - the Nationwide teams got busted for similar infractions back in Daytona.
Maybe I was hoping more for Junior to smile a little during his postrace interview. He's starting to depress me because it feels like I haven't seen him grin or laugh since he won the Bud Shootout. Now he looks as miserable as he did at DEI!
I don't know if he's feeling the pressure of HMS or what, but I really wish he'd be the goofy, geeky Junior I love so much.
It was nice to see Casey get a good finish and for Brian to recover a bit from his spin. Casey needs all the points he can get and for Brian it was a great points day! Martin also had a great finish!
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but David's radio feed was very pleasant and that's saying a lot since they ended up nine laps down. Ryan wasn't as chatty as he usually is and I could just about hear the gears turning in his brain trying to figure the car out - and it worked because by the end of the race it was decent. There was a bit of a funny conversation between David and Shawn:
David: "Shawn, if you see Mark Green [Michael's spotter] tell him I wasn't trying to piss Michael off there...I was quicker and I just figured I'd get by him and get away from him where I wouldn't bug him. I wasn't trying to race with him."
Shawn (sounding unconcerned): "Well he ain't said nothing."
David (impatient, pressing): "That's why you need to talk to Mark - just give him the message."
Shawn (annoyed): "I understand, we already talked about it, he's standing right here beside me."
David (quiet, satisfied, pacifying): "That's all I asked."
Ryan then broke up this conversation.
POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
8. Martin -99
10. Dale Jr. -109
12. Kurt -122
13. Brian -122
31. David -215
33. DJ -240
34. Michael -240
35. Casey -251
UPDATE (Wednesday March 5): Carl Edwards was penalized 100 points for his rule infraction. It gained our guys some points, but not positions.
Robby Gordon's 100 point penalty was overturned by the National Stock Car Racing Commission. Crap. For one thing, although I don't think RGM deserved as harsh of a penalty as they were given, I don't think they should have gotten all 100 points back, either. For another, it bumps David, Dale, Michael and Casey one spot closer to being in trouble after Bristol...
1. Carl Edwards
2. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
15. Martin
24. Brian (1 LD)
31. Michael (2 LD)
37. David (9 LD)
38. Kurt (OUT)
39. DJ (OUT)
This race didn’t exactly start out on a positive note when David hit the wall on Lap 2.
He was surprisingly calm over the radio despite the fact that they went three laps down fixing the car on pit road under green flag conditions. Jamie McMurray's spin on Lap 10 brought out the caution, allowing David to get one of his laps back and for a while it seemed like everyone gained a little bit of hope, thinking that in only one more caution they would be one lap down and when you're just one lap down things don't look as horrible. But unfortunately they didn't get that caution in time and the #00 was handling so badly that David eventually went several circuits behind the leaders. Generally I wasn't a big fan of the race. I can't remember what the racing was like last season after they added banking to Vegas, but it wasn't good at all Sunday. The new cars seemed to fill up a lot of the width and the racing surface is narrow enough without cutting it down to about one and three-quarters grooves of racing space. Passing looked extremely difficult even with good cars. I just couldn't get over how small the track looked - for being 1.5 miles long it reminded me more of a short track.
David held on and Ryan did a great job of listening to his feedback and making all kinds of changes. Encouraging! In my opinion one of the greatest strengths of a team isn't how they interact with each other when they are running well, but how they communicate when they are struggling. The #00 guys get an A+ in that aspect!
Unfortunately a friend told me that Michael's radio chatter was less than productive. Michael can be very hard to work with. When he was paired with Tony Eury Jr. back in 2005 he was very enjoyable to listen to and his communication was excellent, but since then he's been almost a terror to crew chiefs everywhere! I couldn't take how he treated Derrick Finley and that was when I stopped listening to his radio feed. It didn't get much better with following crew chiefs, despite all the good things Michael would say about them when he was out of the car. I can understand that Michael is frustrated. He desperately needs to lock himself into the top 35 and at the moment it's not looking like it will be easy. He's not running all that great and he needs to be because I'm sure he knows more than fans do what NAPA and his other sponsors are thinking, as well as Toyota. But he can't abuse Paul Andrews and his team like he's doing and expect the situation to improve! When Michael left DEI I remember him saying that he needed to find himself another Tony Jr. At first I thought that he meant he just needed to find another talented crew chief - a simple enough task because there is a lot of skill out there in that department. But now...how many crew chiefs later? Over half a dozen? Now I wonder if Michael was saying whether he wanted someone "like" Tony Jr. or if he meant it in a way that ran a lot deeper. Will he ever get along with anyone who isn't Tony Jr.?It's sad to say that the race didn't get interesting until they started crashing. Tony Stewart blew a tire and slammed into the Turn 3 wall incredibly hard on Lap 110 and came to rest pressed against the SAFER barrier. My mind immediately went to the crash he'd had the day before where he said he'd hurt his foot and because he wasn't getting out of the car very fast I felt that pit of fear that I get when someone wrecks as hard as he did. My anxiety was confirmed when he struggled to exit the #20 and with help from the safety workers limped into the waiting truck. In a post-race interview he remarked that both his legs went numb and his lower back hurt - I really hope he got his back checked out because that sounds like a compression fracture.
After that it seemed like the race would go green and then a car would have a tire go down or someone would wreck and bring the caution out. Junior stayed out on the track when others pitted during a yellow on Lap 179 and did a good job of holding that lead for a while. Meanwhile Kurt was a lap down after serving a pass-through penalty on pit during as a result of getting caught speeding on a green-flag pit stop earlier but received the lucky dog during a debris caution on Lap 214.
Ten laps later two of out boys got together, ironically two of our guys who are good friends: Casey and Brian. I hate when that happens!
Casey pushed up into Brian and the #83 spun into the frontstretch. To my amazement he not only kept it off the wall, but actually kept going onto pit road, all the while alerting his crew that he saved it and was coming! Unfortunately for FOX, who was airing his radio feed live, Brian dropped an F-bomb (out of excitement, not viciousness ) and it was really funny because he said, "Where are you?!" because his crew wasn't even ready to pit him! Poor Mike Joy, he tried to tell the audio guys to cut the mike but it was already too late. I wasn't laughing very much when the next caution came out on Lap 233 because it was DJ.
He was still on the lead lap running well when he got loose under Dave Blaney in Turn 2 and instead of wrecking the #22 he spun himself out and backed it into the wall. DJ has actually run very decently this season but something always seems to happen to him. Darn it DJ, just wreck the guy! I was pretty upset because he was looking very good in the live point standings until then.Things got worse when on Lap 257 when Kurt blew a tire and hit the wall hard.
That was extremely, extremely disappointing. With only a handful of laps to go the worst wreck of the day occurred. On a restart Junior spun his tires, causing the drivers behind him to bunch up and try to get around him. For a moment the #88 was in a Jeff Gordon-Matt Kenseth sandwich and then those two made contact and spun. Kenseth was the lucky one because he didn't hit anything after that, but Gordon flew across the racetrack and slammed into the inside wall right where it curves to make an entrance for the safety vehicles. Oh yeah, and there isn't a SAFER barrier there, either. He crashed wickedly hard and I caught my breath, but he was moving and talking quickly after the car stopped moving (thankfully the scattering cars behind him - Mike Skinner specifically - missed him, but just barely). I don't get it! These bloody racetrack owners make tons of money and they don't understand that drivers can wreck anywhere? And the setup they have with that entrance is ridiculous...remember Jeff Fuller's wreck at Kentucky in 2006. Kentucky fixed that wall. Vegas had better do the same and NASCAR would be wise to recommend likewise on other tracks with similar layouts.
I was really hoping Dale Jr. could give Carl Edwards a run for his life but unfortunately the #88 didn't have quite enough. Well, maybe he did, except that the #99 quickly came under NASCAR's scrutiny when they discovered the oil tank lid was off in post-race inspection. How wonderful. I love when a team that cheats wins a race.
We'll see what comes with that - the Nationwide teams got busted for similar infractions back in Daytona.Maybe I was hoping more for Junior to smile a little during his postrace interview. He's starting to depress me because it feels like I haven't seen him grin or laugh since he won the Bud Shootout. Now he looks as miserable as he did at DEI!
I don't know if he's feeling the pressure of HMS or what, but I really wish he'd be the goofy, geeky Junior I love so much.It was nice to see Casey get a good finish and for Brian to recover a bit from his spin. Casey needs all the points he can get and for Brian it was a great points day! Martin also had a great finish!
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but David's radio feed was very pleasant and that's saying a lot since they ended up nine laps down. Ryan wasn't as chatty as he usually is and I could just about hear the gears turning in his brain trying to figure the car out - and it worked because by the end of the race it was decent. There was a bit of a funny conversation between David and Shawn:
David: "Shawn, if you see Mark Green [Michael's spotter] tell him I wasn't trying to piss Michael off there...I was quicker and I just figured I'd get by him and get away from him where I wouldn't bug him. I wasn't trying to race with him."
Shawn (sounding unconcerned): "Well he ain't said nothing."
David (impatient, pressing): "That's why you need to talk to Mark - just give him the message."
Shawn (annoyed): "I understand, we already talked about it, he's standing right here beside me."
David (quiet, satisfied, pacifying): "That's all I asked."
Ryan then broke up this conversation.
POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
8. Martin -99
10. Dale Jr. -109
12. Kurt -122
13. Brian -122
31. David -215
33. DJ -240
34. Michael -240
35. Casey -251
UPDATE (Wednesday March 5): Carl Edwards was penalized 100 points for his rule infraction. It gained our guys some points, but not positions.
Robby Gordon's 100 point penalty was overturned by the National Stock Car Racing Commission. Crap. For one thing, although I don't think RGM deserved as harsh of a penalty as they were given, I don't think they should have gotten all 100 points back, either. For another, it bumps David, Dale, Michael and Casey one spot closer to being in trouble after Bristol...
