Dover Int'l Speedway - Best Buy 400
Jess
RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
6. Martin
13. Brian (2 LD)
17. Casey (3 LD)
20. Kurt (4 LD)
27. David (6 LD)
28. Michael (7 LD)
35. Dale Jr. (13 LD - ACCIDENT)
This will probably be one of the worst race reports ever since my FOX affiliate, WXXA, did not show the race at all this weekend. It was replaced by a telethon for the Children's Hospital in Albany - which is a great cause, don't get me wrong - but the lack of good planning the station had was unreal. So this is what I was able to gather from listening to David's radio, seeing dots run around on PitCommand, This Week in NASCAR and official race reports on driver websites.
The Big One occured not even twenty laps into the event when Elliott Sadler apparently wasn't aware David Gilliland had gotten under him. He drove over the nose of the #38 and a big crash commenced. Dover is a fast place with little vision coming off the corners and it wasn't long before Tony Stewart and a bunch of others added to the chaos. Unfortunately Dale Jr. was one of them. He pretty much stopped without a whole lot of damage when Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte careened into the gaggle of cars. Junior's little dot on PitCommand was in the same place for a long while - it was only during TWiN that we learned his splitter had actually gotten stuck underneath the inside retaining wall! It had to be replaced, which explained why he went so many laps down and how he was still able to keep up with the field fairly well (it looked like he was being a thorn in some drivers' sides, too, but that's another story!).
Before that happened David's day was nearly ruined when Joe Nemechek got into the back of him and nearly sent him into the wall.
When I saw the replay on TWiN my jaw dropped - it took a lot of talent to save the car. For the first part of the race the #44 was handling very poorly and David could barely hang on. Things were looking a little better despite being a couple laps down (long green runs with green pit stops will do that) and I was looking forward to another top 20 to put in the books. However, on the last green pit stop of the race all hell broke loose. Ryan had mentioned before that there was something wrong with the fuel intake (it was popping out?) but it hadn't caused any dire problems yet. When the last cycle of pit stops was occuring Ryan told David to stay out a few more laps, probably hoping to catch a caution. Instead, a lap later David radioed in yelling that he was out of gas. 
To make things worse, it took forever to get the car refueled (it's hard enough to get a car started after it's run out but I image the intake issue must have made it more difficult than normal). Ryan sounded extremely upset and to David's credit he didn't freak out. It was only on the white flag lap did he ask, "How did we manage to run this thing out of fuel?" It was really disappointing because the team didn't deserve to finish as far back as they did.
Michael had an awful day. Just awful.
He's very lucky Scott Riggs got into the Sadler/Gilliland wreck or Michael would be having to qualify in this weekend.
Kurt was running in the top 15 despite fighting an ill-handling Miller Lite Dodge but his day took a hit when a dry-break connection in the fuel system was found to be broken.
I had been hoping that this would be the weekend these guys would turn it around but it was just another day of crappy luck.
It was going to be a wonderful race for Brian when two mistakes took him out of contention. He ended up speeding on pit road - twice! I can understand once, but you'd think after the first time you'd be a little more careful. Dover pit road speed is only 35MPH and that's not very quick at all.
Casey did a great job at slowing down and stopping to avoid the big wreck on Lap 17! Other than that he had a fairly good day.
Martin was our knight in shining armor! He ran very well all day long and was the last car on the lead lap. It seemed like he was going to be lapped by Kyle Busch at the end of the race but Kyle said on Victory Lane that he couldn't catch him. That's a little bittersweet because he probably could have won the race, but he just didn't get out front.
#44 Quotes of the Race
Under caution after the big wreck
Michael: "Who shot you up the hill, Dave?"
David: "Ah, the 78. I was up on the outside of him, I got by him and he drove it in there a little deeper than I'd anticipated (laughing a little)."
Michael: "Ohhhhh!"
It's fun when Michael gets on David's radio!
POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -271
15. Martin -609
19. Brian -723
21. Kurt -725
25. Casey -857
26. David -867 (+108 ahead of 36th)
34. Michael -1038 (+31 ahead of 36th)
1. Kyle Busch
6. Martin
13. Brian (2 LD)
17. Casey (3 LD)
20. Kurt (4 LD)
27. David (6 LD)
28. Michael (7 LD)
35. Dale Jr. (13 LD - ACCIDENT)
This will probably be one of the worst race reports ever since my FOX affiliate, WXXA, did not show the race at all this weekend. It was replaced by a telethon for the Children's Hospital in Albany - which is a great cause, don't get me wrong - but the lack of good planning the station had was unreal. So this is what I was able to gather from listening to David's radio, seeing dots run around on PitCommand, This Week in NASCAR and official race reports on driver websites.
The Big One occured not even twenty laps into the event when Elliott Sadler apparently wasn't aware David Gilliland had gotten under him. He drove over the nose of the #38 and a big crash commenced. Dover is a fast place with little vision coming off the corners and it wasn't long before Tony Stewart and a bunch of others added to the chaos. Unfortunately Dale Jr. was one of them. He pretty much stopped without a whole lot of damage when Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte careened into the gaggle of cars. Junior's little dot on PitCommand was in the same place for a long while - it was only during TWiN that we learned his splitter had actually gotten stuck underneath the inside retaining wall! It had to be replaced, which explained why he went so many laps down and how he was still able to keep up with the field fairly well (it looked like he was being a thorn in some drivers' sides, too, but that's another story!).
Before that happened David's day was nearly ruined when Joe Nemechek got into the back of him and nearly sent him into the wall.
When I saw the replay on TWiN my jaw dropped - it took a lot of talent to save the car. For the first part of the race the #44 was handling very poorly and David could barely hang on. Things were looking a little better despite being a couple laps down (long green runs with green pit stops will do that) and I was looking forward to another top 20 to put in the books. However, on the last green pit stop of the race all hell broke loose. Ryan had mentioned before that there was something wrong with the fuel intake (it was popping out?) but it hadn't caused any dire problems yet. When the last cycle of pit stops was occuring Ryan told David to stay out a few more laps, probably hoping to catch a caution. Instead, a lap later David radioed in yelling that he was out of gas. To make things worse, it took forever to get the car refueled (it's hard enough to get a car started after it's run out but I image the intake issue must have made it more difficult than normal). Ryan sounded extremely upset and to David's credit he didn't freak out. It was only on the white flag lap did he ask, "How did we manage to run this thing out of fuel?" It was really disappointing because the team didn't deserve to finish as far back as they did.Michael had an awful day. Just awful.
He's very lucky Scott Riggs got into the Sadler/Gilliland wreck or Michael would be having to qualify in this weekend.Kurt was running in the top 15 despite fighting an ill-handling Miller Lite Dodge but his day took a hit when a dry-break connection in the fuel system was found to be broken.
I had been hoping that this would be the weekend these guys would turn it around but it was just another day of crappy luck.It was going to be a wonderful race for Brian when two mistakes took him out of contention. He ended up speeding on pit road - twice! I can understand once, but you'd think after the first time you'd be a little more careful. Dover pit road speed is only 35MPH and that's not very quick at all.
Casey did a great job at slowing down and stopping to avoid the big wreck on Lap 17! Other than that he had a fairly good day.
Martin was our knight in shining armor! He ran very well all day long and was the last car on the lead lap. It seemed like he was going to be lapped by Kyle Busch at the end of the race but Kyle said on Victory Lane that he couldn't catch him. That's a little bittersweet because he probably could have won the race, but he just didn't get out front.
#44 Quotes of the Race
Under caution after the big wreck
Michael: "Who shot you up the hill, Dave?"
David: "Ah, the 78. I was up on the outside of him, I got by him and he drove it in there a little deeper than I'd anticipated (laughing a little)."
Michael: "Ohhhhh!"
It's fun when Michael gets on David's radio!
POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -271
15. Martin -609
19. Brian -723
21. Kurt -725
25. Casey -857
26. David -867 (+108 ahead of 36th)
34. Michael -1038 (+31 ahead of 36th)
