FIVE LAPS: Junior wins!
One word: Finally.
It was good to see the Hendrick cars more or less kept up with the pack *and* getting good mileage. It's hard to do both, but it seemed to work Sunday at Michigan.
Let's go to the numbers:
Lap 1: Believe it or not, Junior's 76-race winless streak wasn't the longest. That honor belongs to Ken Schrader, whose last win came 533 "gentlemen, start your engines" ago at Dover on June 2, 1991. Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler and Michael Waltrip all have losing streaks well into the 100s. Mark Martin is 0-for-his-last-77. Now that Junior's off the schneid, the Biggest Loser Who Should Win Sometime Soon honors go to Kevin Harvick, who hasn't won since he took the checkers at the 2007 Daytona 500.
Full list o' losers is here.
More after the jump ...
Lap 2: Junior moves to ninth in wins among active drivers. The list:
1. Jeff Gordon - 81
2. Bill Elliott - 44
3. Mark Martin - 35
4. Jimmie Johnson - 34
5. Tony Stewart - 32
6. Terry Labonte - 22
7. Bobby Labonte - 21
8. Jeff Burton - 20
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 18
10. Kurt Busch - 17
If you take out the part-timers, the top 10 looks something like this:
1. Jeff Gordon - 81
2. Jimmie Johnson - 34
3. Tony Stewart - 32
4. Bobby Labonte - 21
5. Jeff Burton - 20
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 18
7. Kurt Busch - 17
8. Matt Kenseth - 16
9. Ryan Newman - 13
10. Greg Biffle - 12
(Kevin Harvick (11) and Carl Edwards (10) are the only others in double figures.
Man, that 81 is just stunning. I'm not sure even Kyle Busch (8 wins at age 21) will hit that.
Lap 3: Of Junior's 18 victories, only three of them (Daytona, Bristol and Chicagoland) have come in June, July and August. (Dustin Long points that out in this story today.) No, that doesn't bode well. Then again, he's on pace for a career-best in top 10s. He has 11 so far this year (73 percent) vs. 12 (33 percent) last year. His best: 21 (58 percent) in the glory years of 2003 and 2004.
Lap 4: Uh oh ... engine cut off ... fuel pressure at zero ... and I'm coasting. Shoot. Too bad Tony Eury Jr. wasn't calling the shots here at The Spotter. Looks like I'm out of gas.
Comments (2)
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It's about time. Congratulations to Dale on his win. Talk about getting the monkey of your back. People were really starting to doubt.
Posted on June 18, 2008 1:10 PM
There is a place in NASCAR for the small team providing they can get the money to operarte.
Nascar is in line to become like the GM break down. It has got to be all about MONEY with no such thing as skill inside the sport. Please let the level of competition return, the fans will return and the fun wil continue!!!
Posted on January 12, 2009 3:10 PM