Full Throttle

Kurt Busch had a plan for Sunday’s 600 at LMS. For a while it worked, starting from the second hole he dominated the first 180 laps then a meeting of the #2 with the wall and deflated Goodyear laid waste to his plan. His race ended just short of 3/4 mark and a new plan was drawn up, for next week.

The Grandest Plan of all was hatched by Brian Vickers, his was a blueprint for a shot heard around the world, Toyota’s first NASCAR win at the NEXTEL Cup level. First the power assist on the Toy went out and on lap 337 the Toy met concrete but in the end he rode the Bull home in fifth place and the Toyota Brigade’s first top five finish.

The Red Bull team threw a little impromptu party during a Q & A Saturday, I’m not sure I want to know about the aftermath of a fifth place finish.

But wait… there was also a Grand-Daddy plan in action Sunday. The origin is unknown, possibly drawn up by the ghost of Tim Flock’s monkey Jocko Flocko.

How else to explain a finishing order where the top five all had their best finish of the year including Casey Mears’ first NEXTEL Cup win and Kyle Petty’s first top five since Mathusala was a pup?

Admittedly the first 65 laps were a blur of crashed metal and flying parts (and a flying #24) as 25% of the starting field sat in the garage, some thrashing machinery, others loading transporters. It was enough to give your humble blogger a Humpy Flashback, or two.

As all 600’s do, things settled down considerably through the middle laps with the occasional debris caution and single car spins that acted as a prelude to a frantic finish.

The finish turned out to be a fuel economy run after the last yellow on lap 337 for the Vickers touch-and-go with the wall. Mears had enough for the win running dry on the cool down lap. Johnson, Martin, Stewart, Dale Jr. and Hamlin all pitted in succession within the last ten laps for gas handing the win to Mears.

“We were a third-place or fourth-place car at best,” said Mears. “Our game plan was to conserve fuel. I have to thank Darian (Grubb), it was an excellent call.”

Assuming Jocko Flocko’s ghost did engineer this wacky race it has to be noted he didn’t entirely change the status quo. This was Hendrick Motorsports’ fifth straight win - and the ninth victory in the last ten races.