Kathy's Pit Stop

Good finish to a so-so race

The race was fairly ho-hum for the most part until the end.  I didn't think Edwards had enough, but somehow he charged up on Johnson and passed him.  Unfortunately bouncing off the wall slowed his progress and Johnson got the win.  While I'm not a fan of either of them, I was hoping that Edwards would have pulled it off.

Kyle Busch had troubles again, they thought it was the engine again, but he was able to finish the race.  Bowyer had some bad luck also, but only lost one spot in the standings.  His first trouble was on the start when he passed before the start/finish line, later in the race he was caught speeding going in and out of pits.  Luckily for him, neither one of the penalties really hurt him.

Good finishes again for Harvick and Burton, who both started in the back of the pack and had a 6th and 7th place finish.

Johnson and Edwards swapped the points lead with Johnson's win, Johnson is 10 points ahead of Edwards with Biffle 30 points behind Johnson, everyone else is over 100 points behind. 

Next week shall be interesting at Dega to see how much of a shakeup it'll provide for the points.

Your thoughts?

Biffle makes it two for two in the Chase

Greg Biffle passed his teammate with eight laps to go and held on to win his second race of the season and his second race of the Chase.

It looked like quite a battle between the three Roush cars of Biffle, Kenseth and Edwards in the final 20 laps of the race, I think if McMurray hadn't gotten caught up in a wreck earlier in the race, he probably would have been up there too, he was doing well until getting wrecked.

Most of the Chase drivers did well as far as finishes, nine of them finishing in the top 11.  Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Denny Hamlin weren't as lucky. 

Something went wrong with Busch's engine and he ended up finishing 43rd and by his comments when his team was trying to see if they could somehow fix the car, well, his comments were basically that they are done in the Chase, he was very frustrated but tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal.

His teammate Denny Hamlin also had mechanical problems and finished 38th.  The only Gibbs car that did any good was Tony Stewart, who finished in 11th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a good car in the beginning, then it kind of fell off and while they were still struggling to get the handling of the car corrected, he blew a right rear tire and that basically did him in.  While he didn't fall as far as Busch and Hamlin, he finished 24th and if you know any Jr. fans, I'm sure they acted as if he finished 43rd, at least the Jr. fan I know did.

As the points stand now, Edwards is in the lead by 10 points over Johnson and Biffle, who are tied.  The biggest movers in the Chase were Harvick up five spots to 5th in the standings and Bowyer and Gordon also gained three spots.  The biggest drops were Jr., Hamlin and Busch, with both Jr. and Hamlin dropping give spots and Busch dropping four.

Your thoughts?

Biffle wins first Chase race of the season

Greg Biffle passed Johnson on lap 289 and held on to win the first race of the Chase of this season, moving himself up six spots in the standings and also getting his first win this season, congrats Biffle.  It was nice to see someone other than Busch, Edwards or Johnson win for a change.

Three of the Chase drivers had some bad luck, Kyle Busch, who finished 34th and Bowyer, who finished 12th and Kenseth, who finished fortieth after getting caught up in a wreck.  While Bowyer did move up in the end, he still lost four spots in the standings, Kenseth is in twelfth where he started, but is now 177 points out and Busch dropped seven spots to eighth in point.

Edwards and Johnson are tied for first with Biffle thirty points behind in third, Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton are both tied and fifty points behind the leader.

I have to give a shout out to Kevin Harvick, they fought with the car all day and something broke on the last restart, but he held on to finish tenth, great job.

Oh and someone needs to tell Hamlin to stop whining, complaining about his pit stops and the caution where he swears he didn't see any debris.  Guess what Denny?  They showed it on TV!  I really feel sorry for his crew.

Your thoughts?

The Chase is set...Bowyer gets the last spot

Ragan and Bowyer were really battling for that last Chase spot and it all came down to the end.  Both did a good job, but Bowyer got the last spot, where he was when the race started.

I guess the most interesting thing about the Chase this year, is there are five drivers who have not won yet this season.  Not that they didn't try, but with Kyle Busch and Edwards winning all those races they won, it made it more difficult for others to win.

The drivers in The Chase are...Kyle Busch, Edwards, Earnhardt Jr., Johnson, Stewart, Kenseth, Biffle, Hamlin, Gordon, Harvick, Burton and Bowyer.

Also, since it will be talked about, the Busch and Jr. incident.  Some think it's payback for the last Richmond race and others think it was a racing incident.  From my opinion, and this is only my opinion, it looked like Jr. may have locked up the brakes or tires, there was a bit of tire smoke before the two made contact.  I'm sure some will see it differently, but that's my thoughts on it.

Your thoughts?

Three more lock themselves into the Chase

Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Burton locked themselves into the Chase with their runs at California.  Typical of California, it was a follow the leader race and the front car, which happened to be Johnson, ran away with it.  Strange how he didn't have any problems with his car being overly loose like everyone else, it seems like everyone but Johnson was complaining about the car being loose.

Greg Biffle had a great finish of second, but didn't have enough for Johnson, all Biffle has to do is start at Richmond to lock himself in, the rest of the drivers  have to go by where they finish.  Harvick had a good run, finishing 4th after starting 33rd, he hasn't locked himself in the Chase yet, but just has have a good finish.  Also good finishes by the Red Bull cars.

Two of the cautions were kind of comical, one being for a caution light falling on to the track and another where part of a caution light fixture falling on to the track.  It would seem that with all the money the track is taking in that those lights would be secure enough to withstand the force of the wind caused by the cars going by.

Clint Bowyer is still in the last Chase spot as of now, but he's only 17 points ahead of Ragan and 44 points ahead of Kahne, all need great runs at Richmond if they want to make it in.

Your thoughts?