Sharpie 500, A Tale of Two Drivers
Unlike Fridays shorter Busch version featuring several contenders dicing for the lead late and a sliding, spinning second place finisher, Saturday’s 500 lap affair was much less in doubt as to who would win.
The first 300 plus laps were in total control of Fridays winner and pole sitter for the 500 Kasey Kahne. But it wasn’t enough as Carl Edwards displayed the patience of a grizzled veteran and took the lead with just over 160 laps left to score his second Cup win of ‘07 and clinched his spot in this years Chase.
The only other storyline of great import is Dale Jr’s. fifth place finish, an excellent effort, but he gained only five points and is 158 points behind Kurt Busch in 12th place with two events to run.
The only other story to come out of the weekend is the continued controversy over Friday’s blown pit road call. Rick Hendrick confronted with Race director David Hoots saying teams should relay concerns to NASCAR officials, who will radio it to the scoring tower had a comical response:
“I’m going to run out on the track and stand on the line until they stop the race and run over me, or handcuff me and take me away,” Hendrick said.
That might be worth seeing.
More later…
Thanks to John for correcting the title. So, I live in the past, ya wanna make somptin of it?!
NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
Dodge had a good showing today - 4 of the top 10 cars. If you can even call them Chevy, Dodge or Ford with the COT program.
It’s always good when Carl Edwards wins. The cameras are likely to find his Mom and show her…woohoo!
Kasey had a good showing today and it’s about time. He and Evernham have disappointed this season.
Doesn’t look like Jr. will make the Chase. He’s 158 points behind the recently hot Kurt Busch. That’s going to be ironic if he doesn’t as he’s part of the reason NASCAR increased the Chase field to twelve.
Was today’s race the best showing for Mikey Waltrip this season? Once again, a driver proves that it’s really, really tough to be a team owner and driver at the same time. How many times does that have to be done before these drivers learn the lesson.
If Mark Marin had run a full schedule this year, would he have made the Chase? It’s good chance he would have. But hey, if he’s happy running a limited schedule, more power to him. He’s earned that right. And it’s good that he’s still around. Mark is one of the really good guys in the series. Don’t think I’ve ever run into anyone who doesn’t like Mark.
If there is any driver I favor to any degree it’s Mark Martin. He’s earned all the respect and adoration he receives.
Sometimes I laugh at some fans who are critical of say, Reed Sorenson or some of the other very young drivers. Whenever I see a comment on a blog or elsewhere I aways relate the early history of Martin.
Although a bit older than todays “kids” he had a very rough times and many crashed and broken cars to the point he gave it up and went back to ASA.
Yet he became the winningest Busch Series driver ever and arguably the best driver ever not to win a championship in Cup.
I think the only way Jr makes the Chase is if Busch falters, but the Busch/Tryson combo is looking pretty good right now. Harvick’s points standing seems to dropping like stone.
Wasn’t meant to be critical Marc. Was just confusing the heck out of me.
Well, looks like Mikey finished tenth at Michigan back in June - so yesterday wasn’t his best finish this year, it was his second best.
Whatever Mikey’s fortunes as a driver or owner, one thing is, the guy is funny.
The only thing I’d say about Mark Martin is maybe he’s too nice, in that he maybe didn’t win a few races he might have won because he didn’t make the pass unless it was totally “clean”. Things like that. But, he made those choices, and despite that, no one can say he hasn’t had a great career. Albeit without a Cup Championship. We can safely assume his sponsors never had to worry about any controversy or negative publicity with Mark.