Texas: Who Stole Gordon’s Catbird Seat?
Ya gotta Love it when the Professional Pundits (PP’s?) take it on the chin.
All week the vast majority of press were enamored with Jeffy’s drive for five, some all but conceding this years title. Some claimed Jeffy was “confident,” and he wasn’t “sweating” about the “heated points race.”
To be sure some took a more pragmatic look at things by acknowledging Jimmie Johnson’s two race win streak going into Yellow Rose country, but many seemed to be whistling past the graveyard on a moonless night.
Well, the Dickies 500 has come and gone, and the “PP’s” will have to acknowledge Gordon is no longer sitting in the catbird seat. Johnson is by way of his 9th win of the season, third consecutive, and reassuming the Chase points lead by a slim 30 markers.
It was a hard fought win for the defending champ, Johnson only led 8 laps on the day, but after a door-to-door battle with Matt Kenseth led the most important two laps. The last two.
In a bit of deja-vu all over again, Johnson retook the points lead in Texas last year on the way to his first NEXTEL Cup.
For Gordon’s part he led a bit early but wasn’t much of a factor late as he seemed to struggle with handling and finished in 7th.
Clint Bowyer finished third but trails to two leaders by 181 points and his Cinderella Chase is all but over with only two events left.
Johnson’s win mathematically eliminated the bottom six in the Chase points standings with sixth place Tony Stewart hanging by the thinest of threads.
While on the subject of standings, David Reutimann rode his Whopper Machine to last place today. I share his pain, I’m currently last in my category in the Weblog Awards. While having no dreams of winning 9th place pays more than 10th. (in “Ego Dollars”) A quick click of your mouse just might give me a Lucky Dog shove up one place. Not only that any award I win now will look mighty fine alongside my Man of the Year trophy won last year. 
SPECIAL NOTE to the nay-sayers and serial complainers, the Texas grandstands appeared to be at sell-out capacity, or so damn close it doesn’t matter.
Jimmie Johnson, Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR, NECTEL Cup, Sports, Jeff Gordon, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
It’s really disappointing that only one team seems to come up strong at crunch time. I give all the credit in the world to Johnson and his team, but you’d think some other teams could pressure these guys. Johnson was seem to be just toying with Kenseth.
That’s just the way it goes. A couple years ago many thought the sport was dead because Roush had 5 in the Chase.
It all runs in a cycle, next year or the year after Hendricks won’t being as dominate.
Wow. My head still hurts.
For reference, Marc, take your wildest port visit, multiply by 1000, and throw mardi gras on top of it.
Texas sized hangovers for all!
The crowd was pretty good, but not capacity. Something about conflicting with the opening weekend of deer season.
The show itself was a little disappointing, as most of it was follow the leader with the occasional change of position. Maybe the COT will race better, but I’m not holding my breath.
Hell, the highlight of the weekend, in terms of action, were the two times some idiot decided to complain about the Thunder. One being dumb enough to actually pull a couple of plugs, and correspondingly ended up against a camper on the other side of the road in a flash. Oops! Remember that ol’ joke about “Aunt Karen” and not messing with her? Same concept applies. lol
Luke’s last blog post..Texas Sized WTF?s