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Carl Edwards takes checkered flag at Richmond
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Carl Edward's pit crew made the most of a late race caution. Of those drivers that took four tires, Edwards came off pit lane first and passed Paul Menard, who elected to take only two tires. The 99 then was able to hang on to win the race.
This race was hyped to be one of the best races of the season because of The Chase qualifying scenarios, but it turned out to be rather uneventful...that is until after the race had ended. That is when the real excitement began. The controversy actually began with seven laps remaining in the race. Ryan Newman practically had the race won. The win would have locked Newman in as the final wildcard and pushed Truex out of The Chase. Lo' and behold, Truex's teammate Clint Bowyer, mysteriously spun out which brought out the caution. Newman went to his pit stop with the race lead but was beaten off of pit row and restarted fifth and ended up finishing third. By not winning, Newman was out and Truex was in. In the post race coverage the possibility that Bowyer spun on purpose was discussed. Bowyer was interviewed after the race and denied the accusation. However a portion of the team communications that were released, indicated that perhaps the spin was not an accident. Bowyer's crew chief asked Bowyer if his arms were getting tired. He then told Bowyer that if his arm had an itch to let go of the wheel and scratch it. Of course that raised red flags and NASCAR said that they would investigate. In the meantime while all of this was going on, the 55 car of Brian Vickers, another Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, mysteriously pulled onto pit row. Needless to say, Truex was thrilled.
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Trues celebrates with the other Chase qualifiers
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Ryan Newman was distraught at the sudden turn of events.
In the post race interview he basically threw his team under the bus by blaming his pit crew for the slow stop. I hope that after he had calmed down that he did apologize to his pit crew for lashing out at them. However, he was correct in blaming them. They did fail to get him back out first.
Now the other big controversy. Did Carl Edwards jump the restart?
Race analyst, Dale Jarrett who is the best in the business, was the first to point it out in real time as it happened. After the race, Jarrett was very critical of NASCAR for not penalizing Edwards. Jarrett's exact quote was, "it's wrong." The replays clearly show that Edwards did indeed jump the restart. Jarrett also brought up the fact that Jimmie Johnson did the same thing at Dover and had to serve a drive through penalty. NASCAR's excuse for not penalizing the 99 was that Menard "couldn't get going for some reason." Let me be the first to call "BULLSHIT."
Okay fast forward to Monday. Early on Monday NASCAR said that there was no indication that Bowyer spun on purpose. Okay now fast froward to Monday night. It is announced by NASCAR that they believe that Bowyer's spin was intentional and that his actions and the actions of the entire Michael Waltrip Race team were determental to the sport of stock car racing. Bowyer, Truex and Vickers were each docked 50 driver championship points and the team was docked owner's points. The team was also fined $300,000 dollars. The 50 point penalty knocked Truex out of the chase and put Newman in. Michael Waltrip fell on his sword for the team and took all the blame.
My in depth reporting on the issue brings me to this point. I emailed and snail mailed you the new driver groups for the final segment. Because of the penalties, my groupings have a small mistake. Truex is now in the second group and Newman is in the first. So make a note of that on the sheets I mailed to you. You will also notice that the 24 is in the first group and the 5 is in the second group, even though the 5 is in The Chase and the 24 is not. This is because we went to driver point standings instead of owner point standings. Gordon finished the regular season driver standings in eleventh place but failed to make The Chase as a wildcard because he had no wins this season. Kahne finished 14th in driver points but made The Chase as a wildcard because of his two wins.
Now to my opinion of the events over the race weekend. NASCAR brought all of this controversy on themselves. The business model that NASCAR has developed and The Chase set up caused this. NASCAR is all about sponsorship and multi car teams. It is difficult for a single car team to compete in this era, Furniture Row not withstanding. So NASCAR has made it necessary for teams to run more than one car. Multi car teams have to work together to try to get as many of their drivers as they can into the playoffs. Teammates helping eachother out is as old as the advent of the multi car team. How many times have you seen a team member let another team member pass them for the lead so that the teammate can gain a bonus point? How many times have you seen a driver throw a block for one of his teammates? Remember Dale Earnhardt blocking at the Daytona 500 so his teammate, Michael Waltrip could win? I think the Race for the Chase should be decided on the track, not in the board room. If you look up the word "hypocrit" in the Webster Dictionary, there should be a picture of the NASCAR logo. I felt bad for Newman when the caution came out, but I also feel bad for Truex. As far as I know, Truex didn't ask Bowyer to spin out nor did he ask Vickers to simply pull into the pits. For all intents and purposes, NASCAR admitted that Newman won the race. Then why did they give Edwards the win and the extra bonus points for The Chase? If they are gonna say that Newman would have won and made The Chase, then Edwards should be stripped of the victory. Then they need to change The Chase Standings. My point is when NASCAR starts to manipulate who makes The Chase, it has a ripple effect and they loose all credibility.
Here are the race results, the overall standings and the final standings for the third segment. Congratulations to me for winning the segment and to Freddy for finishing second.
Race: Neil 173, Joe 171, PT 170, Michael 166, Toby 164, Jim 163, Chuck 162, Brent 162, Freddy 161, Norb 161, Dennis 157, Terry 149
Segment: PT 1410, Freddy 1356, Chuck 1339, Joe 1305, Jim 1293, Toby 1286, Norb 1257, Dennis 1251, Michael 1248, Brent 1248, Neil 1196, Terry 1192
Overall: Chuck 4400, PT 4397, Michael 4340, Freddy 4313, Joe 4214, Dennis 4209, Brent 4100, Jim 4092, Neil 4063, Toby 4036, Terry 3885, Norb 3845
The beginning of our 4th segment coincides with the start of The Chase. The first race is at Chicagoland Speedway this Sunday at 1 P.M. I will need your picks by 4 P.M. on Friday afternoon. I will be attending the race this weekend. I hope to be able to post some pics from the track. For all you local Somewhatrednecks, don't work too hard at the Wheat Festival. I will be thinking about you working while I am tailgating and having a good time.
I had some technical difficulties with the song of the week. I could not find a karaeoke version of this particular song. So just bear with it. It was the best that I could do.
