A gr8 day, mostly
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunior!!!!
Man, it's been a long time since that No. 8 car made it to victory lane, so I'd been storing that up for a while.
All day, as Junior was creeping up toward the front, I kept thinking, "Okay, how's Junior going to screw this one up?" And the next thing I know, he's rolling around Scott Wimmer (!) and holding off everyone else to win the thing.
Expect a few days or so of maybe-Junior-will-make-the-Chase-after-all stories and commentary. I'm not convinced yet he can do it, but yesterday's race at Chicagoland proved to me (and y'all, too, I hope) that Junior's not dead yet.
Other thoughts:
* Speaking of rising from the dead, it was great to see Matt Kenseth running up front and finishing second. In a fair world, Kenseth would have won Sunday. But this is NASCAR, which doesn't care if you have the best car.
* Now that Junior finally won one, it's time to start talking about Jeff Gordon's struggles. If you're counting at home, Sunday's finish of 33rd marked the sixth time in eight races that Gordon has finished outside the top 30. For any other driver, that sort of streak would be terrible. For Jeff Gordon, there's not a word in the English language to describe how bad that really is.
* Maybe we can stop talking about this whole Roush-Hendrick dominance thing for a while. Sunday's finishing order (by owner) was DEI, Roush, Hendrick, Hendrick, Gibbs, Evernham, Wood Bros. (!), Roush, Ganassi and Roush. Sure, they have five of the top 10 spots, but the presence of five other teams in the top 10 tell me that everyone else is starting to inch closer.
* Turning to cycling, don't make too much of the fact that Lance Armstrong gave up the yellow jersey yesterday. The weird thing about the Tour is that Armstrong didn't really want to lead the race this past week because of the toll it takes on him and his team. The Tour is off today, but expect things to shake out Tuesday and Wednesday.
I'll post more on Dale Jr. and Lance Armstrong later, but I need to spend some time figuring out the new look of the News & Record's Web site. Yes, I know the new banner is Dale Earnhardt Jr. red. No, I didn't pick it. Yes, I hate it.
Any more questions? Y'all go to work in the comments.
Comments (3)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
My eyes!
Sorry Jon but that site is just painful to look at.
Posted on July 11, 2005 8:02 PM
If it's any consolation, Carrie, The Spotter site looks the same. Not sure if the new look will bleed over this way.
I think the main site will take some getting used to. I'm still not hip to it.
Posted on July 11, 2005 10:13 PM
On the new site: Maybe the red color is just part of the big plan. Remember when Coca Cola introduced New Coke? Everybody hated it until Coca Cola Classic came around, and then it sold more than the old Coke. I'm looking forward to "news-record.com classic" in the familiar green bottle, I mean web page.
Back to racing ...I guess since Junior won, you can rightfully pick on Jeff Gordon, but if Junior can come back, so can Gordon. Maybe.
Anyway, I like Biffle too. What do you think of his chances in the Cup race?
And on a final note - go Lance! Vive la France!
Posted on July 11, 2005 11:23 PM