JJ is dang lucky he was racing Hamlin for the win and not Tony. Tony would have spun him on the backstretch when JJ came down. Hamlin should have held his ground and let JJ spin himself into the wall when he came down. Hamlin was half a car on him. I can tell you this, Martinsville would have gone nuts had he done it. The place was rocking when he started muscling JJ around just hoping he would either spin him or get on by him for the win. Hamlin had the car to beat and the #48 team knew it, they stole one today. Hamlin was about .05 seconds quicker over the last 20 laps and running him down.

I don't think Junior made the bonehead move of the day. He was going for it with like 25 laps to go and just simply lost it. Kahne's crew wasn't real happy that he nearly took them out. They were badmouthing Junior pretty good on the radio. Basically called him a no talent driver who "drives way over his head a lot of times." The race was really screwy with the weather we had down there. It was raining this morning and overcast for the first 100 laps then the sun came out and the track got really slick. Everyone was sliding around by the end and no JJ did not have the car all race to beat. He was decent at the start when it was still overcast, Gordon was driving away from everyone when he wasn't in traffic. Hamlin was stout all day, driving like he was saving his stuff for the end. Once the sun came out, Junior got strong and JJ really came on while Gordon started struggling with the car being loose. They kept tightening him up but it just wasn't fixing it to get off the corner like he needed.

I would give that award to Mike Skinner and David Ragan. They pissed a lot of drivers off today. Skinner was racing everyone hard and beating on the leaders as they went by. He would not heed Nascar telling him to move over and finally Tony Raines dumped him. Ragan just kept running into everybody, just ask Schrader who knocked down the Turn 1 wall. On a restart with about 35 to go, he then ran up beside the 38, Gilliland and rammed into him as they were taking the green flag off of Turn 4 with Gilliland right beside Johnson who was leading. Nearly took out Labonte who was 2nd.

Wasn't a bad race, fairly calm until about the 300 lap mark when tempers started flaring. It was the quickest race I've been to there, was over before 5 pm. I was at my car and on the highway heading home by 5:30. Easy as pie to get out even though we were parked in a totally different location than before and had to walk about a half mile.

Wuud was hilarious on the radio. Went into Turn 3 one time and nobody understood him. Car went straight and we later found out that he had a brake problem when it happened. Here is how it came across, "Het da da brukes an went straig."

 

Wuud speaks his own language doesn't he-I bet Jeff cracks up all the time listening to him. :P

 

Let me see if I can translate what Ward said.

Hit the brakes and went straight. :?

 

That's what he said. His spotter just gave a confused 10-4 and then went about decoding it.

How about the points now?? 8 guys less than 100 points out. So far Kenseth has not had a hiccup..........

 

he should do well in Atlanta I'm guessing

 

with the Chase being still up in the air, it just makes this weekends race in Atlanta more exciting. looking forward to seeing who has the "bad luck" this week.

 

Well, since the media didn't count Burton's cut tire at 'Dega as bad luck when he finished like 25th, then I would have to say Junior and Kenseth are the only 2 without a bad luck run. They also didn't count where Johnson and Junior finished at 'Dega as bad luck. I guess you have to finish 35th or worse to qualify as having a bad luck day. :roll:

Harvick is starting to look downright scary again. He knows Atlanta real well, dominated at Phoenix in the Spring............

The problem this year is that we have a bunch of drivers who are real good at all of the Chase tracks, so gaining points is going to be tough for these last 4 races. Looking at the remaining races, all 10 have a shot to sweep the final 4 races or win 1 of the 4 while the rest could easily take up the Top 10. Wonder if Junior runs real conservative this time aorund at Atlanta. Last time he was this close to the Title, he stuffed it in the fence trying to go for the win at Atlanta and get all the points he could.

 

. Wonder if Junior runs real conservative this time aorund at Atlanta

Can he afford to do that?

 

He has won the last 2 fall races at Phoenix. As long as he is right there with the Chasers who are in front of him, no reason to go driving the wheels off the car like he did in 04 and risk stuffing it again. He did the same at Martinsville, had a good car but showed no patience and overdrove what his car was capable of at the time.

 

That's exactly what Kenseth is Doing-Just staying where he needs to be at the End.
That's part of the Chase scenario I don't care for but NASCAR put it in.