Sofa Sideline – Brickyard 400 – The Plot Thickens!!
A crowd of over 275,000 showed up this hot
August day to witness Bill Elliott take the win. An emotional Ray Evernham could
hardly speak as he made his way to victory lane for the second week in a row.
Even the infamous "debris" call late in the race couldn’t stop the
number 9 from making its way to victory lane. In Elliott’s words "this is
the greatest man, this is the greatest!"
Up until the call with eight laps to go,
and the fact that it took four laps to restart, the race had been fairly decent.
The cars got spread out, but at the same time there was a lot of passing going
on; guys coming from way back in the pack; Rusty Wallace finishing second coming
from a 35th starting position. Matt Kenseth, started 18th
and came in third.
Rounding out the top ten were; Ryan Newman
4th, Kevin Harvick 5th, Jeff Gordon 6th, Steve
Park 7th, Robby Gordon 8th, Jimmie Johnson 9th,
and Dale Jarrett in 10th.
Jarrett looked like he was well on his way
to take the lead and run away with it, but a late race pit stop where he left
sooner than expected and the gas man wasn’t able to pull the catch can, cost
him dearly. After the penalty, he started back in 28th place with
less than 33 laps left, however, he did manage to climb into the top ten.
What happened to Tony Stewart? He was the
race leader for many laps; he and Elliott way out on front of the rest of the
field for much of the first part of the race. After the late race restart, he
slipped from 4th place all the way down to 12th with
teammate Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett getting by him on the last lap.
Current point leader Sterling Marlin had a
close call. About halfway through the race, Marlin lost a cylinder and basically
coasted the rest of the way, finishing 27th. Mark Martin appeared to
be on the way to pulling within seven points, but he too fell victim to engine
woes and wound up 28th. At day’s end, Jimmie Johnson took over second place;
87 points out of first. Mark Martin slipped one position to third. Rusty Wallace
and Bill Elliott were the big winners both moving up a couple of notches in the
standings. It’s looking more and more like Dodge might be in the hunt for the
championship after all. The plot thickens!
The year’s ongoing feud between Jimmy
Spencer and Kurt Busch continued when on lap 36 Spencer just basically
"booted" Busch, causing the number 97 to take a hard hit into the
wall. Busch’s anger was well publicized as we saw him motion to Spencer to
kiss his butt (or something like that) on national television.
And as Busch emerged from the infield care
center, he was asked what happened. Busch continued to note his displeasure,
citing the "decrepit old has-beens out on the track, or I guess he was a
never was" referring to Jimmy Spencer. Word was that he was called to the
infamous "red trailer" to discuss his actions. It might be in order
(if it has not already been done) for NASCAR to take a look at Spencer’s
actions as well here, as it sure looked like he plain took him out, just because
he could.
Geoffrey Bodine took a hard hit, bringing
out the fourth caution of the day on lap 52. He just got loose going in to turn
two; went up, hit the outside wall and then came back down and slammed hard into
the inside wall even harder. Luckily, Bodine walked away unharmed.
Other notes:
Good race to the finish between Biffle and
Keller over at the "other track" in Indianapolis for the Busch Series.
A restart, with just nine laps to go, saw Keller try every which way to get by
Biffle, but with a couple of feet to spare, Biffle managed to eke out the win.
These two drivers are also one and two in the Busch Series points race.
Word has it that NHIS got the big rollers
out to make repairs to turns three and four. They are just trying to smooth it
out; no new sealer will be put down as there is not enough time to cure it
before the next race. The problem that may arise may be the same one that
happened during the first race. The top layer of crushed stone came up; mixed
with the black top and made little "rubber" pellets that flew up at
the cars; not sure that won’t happen again. It’s pretty much a catch 22
situation at this point.
Also announced this week, was the idea to
try using a 13 gallon gas tank at Talladega’s fall race in an attempt to break
up the pack and avoid the big one. Originally it was reported that it had
already been mandated by NASCAR, but later reported it was just being discussed
by officials. Okay, I may be not getting this, but why wouldn’t everyone just
wind up pitting together anyway? The teams will certainly be aware that if they
get out of "sync" they’ll never get back to the front, so my
thinking is that if one goes, all will go; at least until the end of the race
when it turns into every man for himself. How does that prevent "the big
one"?
Next up is the other road course race held
at Watkins Glen in the Finger Lake region in New York State. The Busch Series
has the weekend off; and I’ll be headed to work the ARCA RE/MAX and Craftsman
Truck race in Nashville. If you get a chance, take a look at Andy Belmont’s
column on arcaracing.com, and when you’re finished reading, make a donation to
the ministry to help in the effort to keep it going.
Donations can me made to directly Chaplain
at the following address:
Chaplain Bill Krick
2497 Governors Pointe
Concord, NC 28025
I read someplace not too long ago, that
when one gives to a charitable organization, wealth invariably comes along in
some form to the giver. Wealth can come to us in many ways. In the stress and
strain of every day living, where we sometimes get overwhelmed, wouldn’t it be
nice to just feel good and know you helped (as in this case), many drivers and
friends in the racing world. So, open your wallets or give to Andy’s auction.
Thanks – that’s it for now!