Full Throttle

I guess it should have been expected shouldn’t it? When your playing in Humpy’s House - otherwise known as a “levigators paradise” - and he serves up a Whacky Race to start the weekend you’d be a fool to believe it would end with a single installment.

And it didn’t.

A display of what was to come manifested itself as the green flag flew. It’s not entirely clear what Robby Gordon and his soon-to-be Ford (Blue Bow-tie? Blu-val?) was doing as it approached the green, but whatever it was, the field stacked up, rookie Denny Hamlin slowed and was promptly punted in the butt by Mike Bliss.

The resulting repairs took 60 laps and Hamlin dropped to seventh in the Chase.

To make matters worse the brainiacs in the control tower, who make a living doing this they tell me, gave the starter the go ahead for the green after the clean-up. That decision was quickly amended when it was realized a safety truck was still on the backstretch.

NASCAR’s second foul-up of the weekend.

The wierdness continued a third of the way thru the 334 lap event. Michael Waltrip ran out of gas and attempted make a quick dive into the pits. Losing control in the process he smacked the wall ending his night. You have to ask yourself why is a struggling team stretching gas at the one third mark of the race? The obvious answer is it’s Humpy’s House and shit just happens. The real answer is it was the dumbest call of the race.

Speaking of dumb, did anyone notice a north magnetic pole on the #88 and a south magnetic pole on the #41? It’s the only explaination I can posit that kept them two “married” during their time on the track. Dumb, just plain dumb!

The real insanity occured with less than a 100 laps to go. Points leader Jeff Burton stalled leaving the pits and as he was pushed by the crew getting restarted, and in the background of the camera shot, J.J. Yeley cut down the track aiming for pitroad sending Mark Martin cartwheeling to a slamming halt against the outer retaining wall.

It figures doesn’t it? Martin survives Talladega a track he hates with a passion then gets taken out on a track he has repeatedly called his favorite. The accident leaves him fourth in the standings, 102 out.

Burton cashed in another luck card and survived the pitroad miscue to finish third and extend his points lead to 45 over my Chase selection Matt Kenseth. Burton’s finish points out the difficulty of those that have fallen too far behind during the first 5 Chase events.

Jimmie Johnson places second and only gains 10 points. Kasey Kahne sweeps the Lowes events on the year. led the most laps Saturday to max out his points total and only gained 15 on Burton.

The same can be said for Dale Jr., he finished fourth but it was an exercise in treading water. He sits 106 points out, the same spread as after Talladega.

Next week is Martinsville and it may provide similar results in the standings. Stewart won the spring event but the top five was filled out by those now in the Chase. The finishing order was Gordon, Johnson, Dale Jr. and Kyle Busch.

Those four, and the other five, can only hope Burton also repeats his spring performance, he placed 33^rd in April’s Direct TV 500.

Another thing to recall from that spring race are the mechanical problems that occured to so many. B. Labonte, Kyle Petty, Casey Mears, and David Stremme all had transmission/rearend problems of one sort or another. The engines of Ken Schrader, Kasey Kahne, Jeremy Mayfield, and Robby Gordon all took a dump prior to the checkers.

Lowes Motor Speedway, Humpy Wheeler, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Kasey Kahne, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle