The Frontstretch Newsletter - July 14th, 2008
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July 14th, 2008
Volume II, Edition CXXXI
Today's Top News
Kyle Busch Overtakes Jimmie Johnson Late To Win At Chicagoland Speedway
by Phil Allaway
Another week, another race, another victory for Kyle Busch. It's been a dream season for the younger of the Busch brothers, and Chicagoland was no exception. On Saturday night, the 23-year-old started from the pole (because qualifying was cancelled), led the most laps (165), and won his seventh race of the year in nineteen starts with a scintillating pass on the second-to-last lap of the race.
The frantic finish unfolded as Busch was under intense pressure from Jimmie Johnson late in the 267-lap event. On lap 251, Johnson passed Busch for the lead and seemed to be on cruise control for his second win of the year. However, a blown engine on the No. 38 of David Gilliland brought out the ninth and final yellow flag with seven laps left. On the ensuing restart with just two laps remaining, Busch got to the outside of Johnson, running him side-by-side all the way to Turn 4 before clearing the No. 48 and inching away to the victory.
"I should have given [Kyle Busch] the inside line," Johnson lamented after the race. "When I heard the spotter, I knew I was in trouble."
" I just had to go to the outside because he was going to block the bottom in turn one and two," added Busch. "I don't know how I did that."
Just behind the battle for the lead, Kevin Harvick finished third on Saturday, followed by Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart. Brian Vickers came in sixth, followed by Roush teammates Matt Kenseth and David Ragan. Martin Truex, Jr. and Ryan Newman rounded out the Top 10 finishers in the 400-miler.
The Race To The Chase -- Tracking The Top 12
Saturday night's victory allowed Kyle Busch to expand his lead over Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (who finished 16th) to 262 points in the championship standings. Behind them, Jeff Burton is still in third spot, a mere 29 points behind Earnhardt with seven races left in the regular season.
Roush Fenway Racing's top driver Carl Edwards remained fourth in points, but had a bad night. While leading the race, Edwards' splitter broke, a problem made worse when he locked up the brakes while trying to bring the No. 99 car down pit road. That unscheduled stop caused him to struggle from that point on, and the resultant 32nd place finish means that Edwards is now 372 points out of the lead.
With his runner-up performance in the race, Jimmie Johnson was able to maintain fifth, putting some distance between himself and teammate Jeff Gordon: the margin between the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers is now 110 points. Behind them, Greg Biffle is up four spots this week to seventh, after having a pit gamble early in the race work out so he could lead some laps. Once he got that track position, Biffle stayed in the Top 12 the rest of the race, and finished a strong fourth for his first Top 10 finish since Dover. Eighth in points is his teammate, Matt Kenseth, who fought back from an unscheduled pit stop and used a timely Lucky Dog to work his way back to seventh in the race. Had that not happened, Kenseth had a car easily capable of finishing in the Top 5.
Back in ninth is Kevin Harvick, who raced his way up into the Top 12 with his third place finish on Saturday night. However, he is only 52 points ahead of 13th as the race for the Chase continues to run tight. Harvick's pal Tony Stewart rounds out the Top 10, only three points behind Harvick after his fifth place finish but continuing to hold onto a playoff spot by the skin of his teeth. Kasey Kahne -- the lone Dodge in the field -- dropped behind both drivers this week to 11th, following a ho-hum 15th place performance in his Budweiser car. And rounding out the Top 12 is the Big Loser in the standings, Denny Hamlin, who dropped five spots after a 40th place finish in the race. The poor run occurred because of a bad ignition box; on lap 49, that caused the No. 11 car to stall on the track and bring out a caution. After getting pushed in by a wrecker, the team repaired the issue; but four laps were lost as a result, and those laps were never made up.
The odd man out this week in the Chase Race is Clint Bowyer, who fell out of the Top 12 after finishing 22nd. He is now 27 points behind Hamlin for the spot in the playoffs.
Danger Zone -- Who's In And Who's Out Of The Top 35
This week's race saw the margin between 35th and 36th place close up to only 13 points after Scott Riggs drove the No. 66 Haas CNC car to a 20th place finish. But who Riggs will be chasing is now the No. 00 car driven by Michael McDowell, down a position to 35th from last week. McDowell had a horrible night, being forced to pit less than five laps into the race after being unintentionally forced into the wall by the No. 70 of Jason Leffler -- ironically, Leffler was driving as a teammate of the very car who's trying to catch McDowell in the points (No. 66). The No. 00 Champion Mortgage Toyota stayed on pit road after the contact for multiple laps under green, allowing the crew to fix the damage and reset the toe of the car. But once McDowell got back out on the track, his car was already seven laps down; and with the low attrition rate, the rookie could never advance his position and finished dead last in the race.
The team that had the best night out of the Danger Zone teams was the No. 84 Red Bull car driven by A.J. Allmendinger. Through the use of a good setup and some pit strategy from new crew chief Jimmy Elledge, Allmendinger was able to bring his Toyota home in 13th position after running a substantial part of the race in the Top 10. That finish allowed the team to gain substantially on the cars ahead of them, although they still remain 122 points out of 35th place. Right behind Allmendinger in the race was the No. 44 of David Reutimann, whose team moved up to 28th in owner points with a solid 14th place finish -- leapfrogging team owner Michael Waltrip's No. 55 in the process.
J.J. Yeley's Hall of Fame Racing No. 96 had issues in technical inspection right before the race started. Apparently, they were thought to have to have tried to make the car lighter through the use of lead-filled water bottles. As a result, the car did not reach the grid until about a minute before the starting command was given. Then, NASCAR gave the team a drive-through penalty on the first lap of the race, putting them in the hole from the start. But even through that mess, the No. 96 eventually got back on the lead lap and finished 24th. It is unclear whether NASCAR will punish the team any further for this issue, because it seems like a misunderstanding ... but any additional punishments against the organization will be levied later this week (most likely Tuesday).
Secret Star Of The Race : The Best Run You Never Saw
Amongst all the Silly Season madness this week was a rumor – quickly denied – that David Reutimann could replace Kyle Petty behind the wheel of the No. 45 Dodge for 2009. But while both sides said the news was false, Michael Waltrip Racing better step up and sign their young talent to a long-term extension before someone else takes him away. Once again, Reutimann put forth a solid performance with mediocre equipment, jumping from his 29th place starting spot to a 14th place finish at Chicagoland. The No. 44 team used a little bit of pit strategy to move up through the field early, but once Reutimann got the track position he needed, he didn't give it back – remaining a Top 15 car throughout the race's second half. The sophomore now has seven Top 20s in fourteen starts behind the wheel of the No. 44 – that's five more than previous driver Dale Jarrett had throughout all of last season in the car. Continued improvement is a given with Reutimann behind the wheel; unfortunately for the team, it's just not coming fast enough for soon-to-be-departed sponsor UPS. - Tom Bowles
STAT OF THE WEEK: 0. That's the number of Top 10 finishes accumulated by all drivers "officially" competing for Rookie Of The Year honors in the Cup Series this season (yeah, Aric Almirola has a Top 10 from Bristol, but he's running so few races DEI hasn't actually nominated him for the Rookie Of The Year Award). Want to know how bad it's gotten for these freshmen? No rookie class in the modern era (1972-present) has gone this deep into a season without a single Top 10 finish. In fact, you need to go all the way back to 1961 – when the schedule stretched 62 races deep – for the last time all the ROTY candidates were shut out of the Top 10 nineteen races in. So far in 2008, the best finish by any of the five drivers running for the award is a 13th place by Sam Hornish, Jr. at the Coca-Cola 600 in May. And in case you're wondering, at Chicagoland the best run any of the first years could muster was a 30th by Patrick Carpentier. - Tom Bowles
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Big Six: LifeLock.com 400
by Amy Henderson
Who…gets my shoutout of the race?
Nobody understands the adage that the fastest car doesn't always win better than Jimmie Johnson, who had the car to beat in the final laps on Saturday night. Had David Gilliland not blown up in the late going, Johnson had the race won. But getting run over on the restart -- coupled with what was perhaps the wrong lane choice and the refusal to use his own bumper on the last lap -- relegated Johnson to second place. But if the No. 48 team is starting to peak now -- along with the Nos. 17 and 20 also showing signs of a surge -- the Chase might not be the one-car race people have said it will be.
What… kind of driver is Kyle Busch, really?
He's a hell of a good one, and that's been evident for years. But what I mean is, when all is said and done, will he be remembered as a "dirty" driver, or a clean one, a la Jeff Burton? Despite the comparisons to Dale Earnhardt that might suggest otherwise, Busch is not really a dirty driver. He doesn't crash guys simply because he can ... for example, he could have wrecked Jimmie Johnson on the final restart in Chicago, and didn't. But he's not really a clean driver, either. Busch didn't exactly restart as cleanly as he could have Saturday night, running hard into the back of the No. 48 when he didn't like the way the leader handled the green flag. And this young gun has the tendency to push other drivers harder than he needs to, as if he figures if he drives them hard enough, they'll back off and give him the space; after all, he's Kyle Busch and they aren't. It makes for an interesting question - what makes a driver clean or dirty, anyway?
Where…would the sport be had a helicopter not gone down at Talladega 15 years ago?
That's also an interesting question, because you can't, of course, know for sure. But had Davey Allison had the years to race in the Cup Series that were taken from him, Dale Earnhardt might not have seven championships, and Jeff Gordon might not have four. Allison was that good when he was killed in that crash, another driver whose impact on the sport was never finished. Would NASCAR today be any different? I sure wish we'd had the chance to know…
When…was the last time an organization got its 100th win?
Chip Ganassi Racing took that distinction on Saturday when Scott Dixon won the rain-shortened IRL race at Nashville. Ganassi currently owns two Sprint Cup teams and one full-time Nationwide Series team in addition to his IndyCar and sportscar teams. Ganassi has owned teams in racing since 1990, when he created a single-car team in the IRL.
Why…can't NASCAR be consistent on anything?
I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but you've got to wonder. Last week, Jeff Gordon spun out of the groove, didn't hit anything, and left no debris on the racing surface -- but there was no caution. This week, Bobby Labonte spun out of the groove, didn't hit anything and left no debris, and NASCAR threw the caution. In some other series, the yellow flies far less for spins and minor crashes than it does in Sprint Cup. And sometimes, NASCARthere should never even be a question in anyone's mind. throws the yellow for a blown engine when the driver gets out of the groove before he drops oil...but sometimes not. I would argue that for the latter, there should always be a caution, because of the safety issue of even the possibility of oil on the track. But the cynic in me wonders if the yellow flag would still have flown for David Gilliland's engine (Gilliland got immediately out of the groove) had another car had a big lead and growing with six laps to go. And frankly,
How…is Joey Logano ready for Sprint Cup?
I don't know, and I don't think that bringing him up full-time in 2009 is the best thingJGR might be to stick to the original plan of building a fourth team for Logano in 2010 or 2011, giving him the chance to gain experience and race for a championship in the Nationwide Series. There's more to a stellar Cup career than raw talent; and the kid has so much of that talent, it would be a shame to rush him. in the long run. Joe Gibbs Racing should fill the seat of the No. 20 with a veteran who can serve as a mentor to Logano and as an example to both Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, both of whom could use a few lessons in tact when it comes to throwing their crews under the bus. Logano came into the Nationwide Series expecting the cakewalk that he's enjoyed for most of his career. He didn't find it, and he complained. His sixth-place debut was "not good enough." To me, that shows Logano's immaturity, and the lessons he needs to learn before moving into a series where, if anything, success will be even harder to come by. Sure, nobody races for sixth place, but Logano didn't sound the least bit appreciative of his team's considerable effort that night, and he's really done nothing else to endear himself since. The best move for
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud : Lifelock.com 400
by Matt McLaughlin
Two Busch Brothers, Two Careers Headed In Opposite Directions
by Tom Bowles
Ten Points To Ponder ... After Chicagoland
by Tommy Thompson
Bubble Breakdown : Waltrip, McDowell In A Bind After Tough Go At Chicago
by Mike Ravesi
Sprint Cup Rookie Report: Rough Ride For NASCAR Freshmen At Chicagoland
by Doug Turnbull
Nationwide Series Breakdown : Dollar General 300
by Bryan Davis Keith
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA
Q. He was the first Grand National driver to win four races in a row. Who is he?
Check tomorrow's newsletter for the answer!
Friday's Answer:
Q.This was the first track to host a NASCAR race run with restrictor plates. Where and when??
A.
The first Grand National race to be run with restrictor plates was the 1970 Yankee 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 16, 1970. Charlie Glotzbach won the race in a Dodge Daytona.
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Coming Tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter
-- Top News from Phil Allaway and Tom Bowles
-- Sitting in the Stands: A Fan's View by S.D. Grady
TOMORROW ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
The Voice Of Vito
by Vito Pugliese
Kyle Busch's championship run is starting be reminiscent of some of the greatest seasons of the past ... but as Vito discovers, those were champions who didn't have a "Chase" to yank their points out from under them.
The Yellow Stripe
by Danny Peters
Who's Hot / Who's Not In Sprint Cup : LifeLock.com 400
by Mike Lovecchio
Yeah, you know Kyle Busch is stiniking up the show, but Mike will let you know not only who's burning up right now, but also who's burning out!
Running Their Mouth : LifeLock.com 400
by Beth Lunkenheimer
Beth
tracked
all
the wild and wacky things the Cup drivers said at Chicago, and she's put it together in one easy-to-read column for
your
convenience.
The Race For Ratings Points : Critiquing NASCAR TV
by Doug Turnbull
TNT's short stay is over, and now we're welcoming back ESPN. But how well did Bill, Wally and Kyle do during this six week stretch? Find out Tuesday on
the Frontstretch!
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