Full Throttle

Kasey Kahne turned Hollywood on its ear Sunday evening by completing a sweep of the weekends festivities at Fontana. In winnning the “Hollywood Pander 500″ Sunday he also invoked the memory of the baseball great Yogi Berra; Combined with Kaseys Saturday win it was Deja Vu all over again with both events having many similarities.

Kasey had to survive drivers attempting to stretch their fuel load, (Menard and Sorrenson) and fight his way from the back of the field (speeding bust and his stop for fuel that dropped Kasey out of the top 20), triple-digit temps both nights and of course Kasey getting the chance for a “do over” win.

The biggest stories are the #9 inching within 30 points of 10^th place, Jeff Burton’s shield of invincibility being shattered again and Dale Jr. finally getting “it right” at Fontana (wonder if Junior still wants to “dig up” the place?).

The first crack appeared for Burton at MIS two weeks ago when a blown engine resulted in a 42^nd place finish and he went from 4^th to 9^th in the standings. A brief interlude after Watkins Glen saw him in 7^th. The slight breather was short lived and now he sits on the bubble 30 ahead of Kahne after finishing 16^th Sunday.

For Kasey there’s still work to do. His series leading 5 wins have all come on intermediate tracks of 1.5-2.0 miles in length: Atlanta, Texas, Charlotte, Michigan and California. As the Chase hits its final qualifier at Richmond next week he’s faced with a short track where anything can, and does happen. At worst he needs a top five with a couple sitting at the lower end of the ladder to finish behind the #9.

He also needs Evernham to roll-out the #9 Kasey won his first Cup race in at, of all places, Richmond, in May of last year.

Oh yea… J.J. slipped out of first for the first time since dinosaurs drank from Lake Norman. (it seems that way anyway) Matt Kenseth took the top spot as if that were some kind of big deal. They both can sit home next week and beat a bang on each other at Bristol on a PS2 or XBox and still only be separated by 5 points two weeks from now.

One final note: I suspect the Left Coast fans were also recalling a Yogi quote while thinking of the sleepy-eyed East Coast NASCAR fans: “It gets late early out there.”

But I could be wrong.

Fontana, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Kasey Kahne, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle