The sublime and the ridiculous
Two terrific races produced a little of both this weekend. So let's get started:
The sublime: Say it with me now: The Coca-Cola 600. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? It just screams "Memorial Day," right?
The ridiculous: Next year, they oughta call it the Coca-Cola 750, because that's sure what it felt like. Or maybe the 12 Hours of Charlotte. I'm open to suggestions.
The sublime: Whatever this levigating thing was, it really seemed to work. There was actually some racing at Charlotte for a change, and it was pretty good racing at that.
The ridiculous: 22 freakin' cautions? What was this, the 600 or a Saturday night demolition derby? I'm beginning to think NASCAR ran the night race at Bristol three months early and didn't tell anyone.
The even more ridiculous: Sorry, Humpy, but there was no excuse for the crack sealer to come up like it did. I think that track of yours could stand some more work. Like maybe a complete repaving?
The sublime: The last-laps shooutout between Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte was a thing of beauty.
The ridiculous: No one -- not Bobby Allison, not Dale Earnhardt, not even Darrell Waltrip -- has won three of these babies in a row. Johnson has.
The sublime: Dustin Long's profile of Rick Hendrick.
The ridiculous: Johnson's win was Hendrick's fifth trip to Victory Lane this season. If your counting at home, that ties him with Jack Roush and is four more than Richard Childress and Ray Evernham.
The sublime: After peddling backward during the first part of the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. calmly got his car together and made his way into the top 10. Looked like the crew chief change was paying off.
The ridiculous: Then the darned fool ran his No. 8 machine into the back of teammate Michael Waltrip and wrecked them both, and Terry Labonte and Matt Kenseth for good measure. I'm pretty sure that move wasn't Steve Hmiel's suggestion. (Ed Hardin has more on the brewing family feud here.)
The sublime: Toward the end of the race, Carl Edwards' spotter and crew chief talked to each other by cell phone so the other teams wouldn't hear.
The ridiculous: According to Dustin Long, who overheard some later radio chatter, Edwards' team didn't let him in on the private conversation. Edwards, says Dustin, was asking his crew chief if he should be worried that a certain driver of the No. 88 UPS Ford would be looking for him after the race.
The sublime: Danica Patrick more than lived up to the hype with a fourth-place finish, the highest ever for a woman at Indy. She also led three times for 19 laps and became the first female driver ever to be at the front of the Indy 500.
The ridiculous: She was far from flawless. She stalled her car about a quarter of the way through the race, then wrecked it on a caution lap. Her fourth-place finish says less about her driving ability (which ain't bad, frankly) and more about the abysmal quality of the IRL variety of racing.
The even more ridiculous: Robby Gordon never got the memo about never talking about a woman's weight. In this case, the Reckless One was speaking about a certain 100-pound female driver: "I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away." He shouldn't worry. Last I checked, IRL teams weren't exactly fighting over Robby Gordon's services. In his last five starts, he has finished 6th, 21st, 8th, 22nd and 29th. Remember, NASCAR fans, Indy starts only 33 cars.
The still more ridiculous: Did you see how quickly Patrick's pit crew put a new nose on her car? NASCAR should take note.
So what else stood out? And don't tell me that wasn't a fine day and night (and nearly a second day) of racing. I wish every Sunday could be this good.
Comments (3)
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There is a real problem here, in all 3 divisions that ran in the last week it is obvious there are not 43 drivers that can handle the speed this track is generating.
The awshucks attitude of Carl Edwards is wearing thin on me.
Jr.'s crash, let's see he took out his teammate, his best friend, and put his father's huntin' buddy in the hospital. By the way I was glad to see both T. Labone and Elliot lead laps.
John, I don't know if you watch PTI on ESPN or not, but they wore Robbie Gordon out over his comments.
Posted on May 31, 2005 9:28 PM
This was, by far, the worst caution-filled race I've seen since New Hampshire in '02 when the track kept coming up and there were so many cautions. This really proves Greg Biffle's theory about a driver shortage. But, it was a great race to watch.
Maybe we should just call Jimmie Johnson Mr. Lucky at the 600. In 2003 Kenseth had a car that was equal to his, but the race was rain-shortened so don't know if Kenseth could have gotten past him. I'll give him '04. This year, every car that was as good as him was wrecked. He didn't deserve this one.
I tend to believe what Rondeau said last week about the team. Of course Tony Sr. is gonna play favorites, especially if his son is a Crew Chief for another driver. What I think this really says is that Teresa Earnhardt doesn't know how to run a team. DEI seems to constantly have problems like this. For DEI's sake, I hope John Menard buys into the team.
DJ was a lap down and Edwards was racing for the lead with less than 15 laps to go...
I wouldn't say Danica was THAT bad, stalling the car was a rookie mistake but I think the other guys were messing w/ everybody else and she didn't wanna run over the guy in front of her. I think at that point, she was gonna restart 8th anyway because there weren't many on the lead lap. I don't think NASCAR teams could put an entire front nose on like that, it's too different. The best thing I can think of is to have pre-made pieces fabricated and if something is messed up, pop rivet that thing on.
Posted on June 1, 2005 12:01 AM
Mark: I missed the commentary on Robby Gordon's comments, but I was flipping channels sometime over the weekend and saw his money quote as a crawl on CNN. My first reaction was something along the lines of "Wha...??"
Robby does have a point: Patrick's weight does give her an advantage (a slight one? a major one? I don't know enough about IRL to know), but Robby raised the issue exactly the wrong way.
Matt: I agree that there's a problem at the top of DEI. If they gave a prize for "most reclusive owner," Teresa Earnhardt would win it. There's no doubt she's smart - she turned her late husband while he was alive into a marketing juggernaut, and the rest of NASCAR has taken note. But I think she needs to make some hard decisions about the team.
Thanks for the comments, you two. I thought y'all had disappeared on me last week. Anyone else has something to say about this past weekend's racing? There's a lot to talk about ...
Posted on June 1, 2005 11:51 AM