Author: Ron Thornton

Early in the year, a guy can get by with good. Good puts you in position for great things, with 20, or 30, or 40 races to go in the season. What Jimmie Johnson had last Sunday was a great car, a great performance, and the man who would be a six-time champion won his 55th career victory to move to within four points of the top of the hill with just six races to go.

[media-credit id=2 align=”alignright” width=”229″][/media-credit]Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick had good cars, hung around in the top 20, but stepped it up to great to both finish in the top ten to keep Johnson from moving on past them. Edwards was fifth, one better than Harvick, to take the Chase lead by a single point. So that now leaves us with three drivers who have been great, a handful of others who have been good, while four more can pretty much dream of what is to come…in 2012.

Denny Hamlin was good enough to be 16th as Kansas. Not bad if it were February at Daytona, but when things have been bad thus far in the Chase it just means more dirt has been tossed over his championship hopes for this season. His is now 79 down and he is not coming back.

Ryan Newman needed to be great, and at 18th he wasn’t even good on a day where he actually had been worse for the most part. He is now done. Jeff Gordon started blowing up with thirty to go before it gave up the ghost with less than ten remaining to finish 34th. Number five will have to wait another season. Dale Earnhardt Jr cracked the Top 15, but he needed a Top Five. Now he is more than 40 in arrears, and that pretty much leaves him in the dust.

Five sit within 11 to 20 points back, still with a chance for greatness if those who have been great go bad, and do it soon. Brad Keselowski finished third in Kansas, just behind Kasey Kahne, and sits fourth in the hunt. Not great, but damn close. Matt Kenseth is a dozen away, and being fourth at Kansas keeps him relevant. The Busch boys and Tony Stewart all had Top Fifteens, not great, but some very good, even great, performances earlier leaves them between 16 and 20 off the pace. Good enough for the moment, but Charlotte and Talladega better be great.

ESPN…well not great but good for the most part. Rusty and Brad, God love them, are kind of like letting a deadbeat relative be part of your entourage. If the broadcast team were the Corleone family, Rusty and Brad would be a pair of Fredos. When someone makes the mistake of turning on their mics during a race, Nicole Briscoe brings up some pertinent fact and these boys concept of providing additional color is to simply provide a long-winded version of “you betcha.” If your grandma can replace an announcer, I’m guessing there isn’t much point of having him…or them…there.

There, this Saturday night, is Charlotte, North Carolina. If Kevin Harvick can repeat his performance there from last May, that would be great. If Kurt Busch can do what he did there the previous spring, that would be great. If Jimmie Johnson can do there was he has done five times in his career, that would be great for him, but the rest better be either great or really, really good. If not, then Denny, Ryan, Jeff, and Junior are going to have some company out on exile island. Enjoy the week.

Tony Stewart. Bam! Ryan Newman. Pow! Brad Keselowski. Biff! Denny Hamlin. Ouch! Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sock, Ooof! No doubt these boys are thanking the Lord Dover is over, but at least two or three have to be wondering if their title hopes might also be done like dinner.

[media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”242″][/media-credit]Stewart and Newman had cars that were so ill handling that they turned out just as fine as David Stremme’s vibrating piece of machinery. Newman can complain to the boss about having to drive crap, but who does Tony go to? Maybe the mirror. In short, the pair were back there fighting it out a couple laps down with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Junior, Junior, Junior. Just when you think he has started to get it back together, a part breaks early and then somebody allows him to leave the pits with a loose wheel. Thanks for nothing, chums. It was a good thing AAA was sponsoring this thing.

Keselowski found himself driving without assistance when the power steering belt got knocked askew. The time it took to fix the problem ended his hopes for last Sunday. So, while Tony is now 9 back, Brad is 14 away, Earnhardt has faded to 34 and Newman to 41 off the pace, things could be worse.

That brings us to Hamlin. The good news is that he has been consistent. The bad news is that 18th at Dover was the best of the lot thus far in the Chase. Hamlin does have a better chance of taking it all than, say, my grandmother, but Viola Schulz was 93 when she passed away three years ago.

No, Dover would go to the King of Bitching, Kurt Busch, who for once had nothing but laudable things to say about his crew chief, crewmen, and that attractive blonde who gave him a hug in Victory Lane. Okay, I have good things to say about her, but that does not take away from the spirit of what I’m trying to say here. Jimmie Johnson ran second, Carl Edwards third, and tenth was good enough for Kevin Harvick.

Happy and Cousin Carl are tied on top of the heap, with Kurt and Tony nine back, and Jimmie just 14 in arrears. In fact, just 19 points separates the ninth place Jeff Gordon from the duo in first, so for most it still is a tight race.

Kansas should bring interesting news, including some regarding Clint Bowyer, who is expected to be named as Michael Waltrip’s latest employee. Of the eleven races held at this speedway, only four were won by those not currently in the Chase, two of those by Greg Biffle. Keselowski won there in June, Stewart and Gordon each have a pair, while Newman and Johnson also know where Victory Lane is. Victory would come in handy for someone’s Chase hopes, and for three it could mean the difference between Chasing and just plain racing. Enjoy the week!

In watching NASCAR we tend to learn stuff. For example, after being winless the entire season Tony Stewart taught us that one can open the Chase with two straight victories after he claimed the prize again at Loudon, New Hampshire.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”247″][/media-credit]It helps when one is surrounded by those who can contribute to making such good things happen. Tony recently jettisoned some deadwood to help things along, though he did not go into detail when pressed by the press.

Stewart leads Kevin Harvick by seven points, 11 up on Sunday’s runner-up Brad Keselowski, and fourteen ahead of Carl Edwards. Everyone else is more than 20 points away, including Jimmie Johnson, who is 29 off the pace.

By the way, Deadwood is a city in South Dakota best known for being the resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. No Cup drivers hail from Deadwood.

A good day can go terribly bad, as both Hickok and Dale Earnhardt Jr can attest. Tire problems killed what had been a good day for Junior. He is 26 points behind Stewart, tied with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch. They are three back of Jeff Gordon, and one ahead of Johnson.

Still there are a lot of miles yet to travel before this is done. It is also darn near a thousand miles between Columbus, Indiana, the hometown of Tony Stewart, and Deadwood. Deadwood is usually cooler, but not this week.

Denny Hamlin is not hot. In fact, even if Hamlin dominates and wins this weekend at Dover while the other Chasers stayed home, he would remain at least 18 points out of top spot.

A top modified driver is Jessica Zemken, a 25-year old blonde out of New York state who has stated that her favorite track is Eldora Raceway in Ohio. It is the track owned by Tony Stewart. To the best of my knowledge, she has never raced in Deadwood.

This spring, Matt Kenseth won at Dover. Kyle Busch won the year before, while Johnson has won three of the past five events run there. In fact, he has claimed six on the Monster Mile since 2002. Tony Stewart last won up in Delaware when he swept the two races in 2000.

There are people who look hot, and there are those who say things when they are hot. It was hot when we visited Deadwood in 2009, and even hotter when we were at the Custer Battlefield in Montana. As my boys did not have a real appreciation for either locale, no doubt due to having not watched Little Big Man, I’m glad Vince Welch did not stick a microphone in their faces to ask them what they thought. They might have said something inappropriate.

Deadwood is 50 miles from Mount Rushmore, but the sculpture on the minds of Cup drivers this week is the one handed out at the Monster Mile in Dover. If there was a track on which Johnson might rebound to challenge for his sixth straight title, it would be there. Failing that, the crown could be bound for one who has worn it twice before. I wonder what he would have to say about that. Enjoy the week!

Do you know what a good crew chief is? He is the guy who tells his driver/boss that they are good to go in the fuel department, and is right. That does not necessarily mean that those who are wrong are bad, but maybe Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth can enlighten us on the subject after what went down in Chicago on Monday.

[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”273″][/media-credit]It might have been for just the first time this season, but for Tony Stewart Monday marked his 40th career Cup victory. The win moved him to within seven points of Chicago runner-up Kevin Harvick atop the rejigged standings, standings that actually matter as we are down to the final nine races of the season. Still, it is a bit early to get overly excited just yet with eleven drivers still within 25 points of the top dog.

That guy 25 points back would be Jeff Gordon. They worked on his car, got it just right at the end, but then a funny thing happened to the engine. It started to sputter due to lack of fuel, yet he still managed to speed coming into the pits. I wish my car would run out of gas and still allow me to speed to the gas station. Gordon might have been better off just to let it die out there, as he lost a lap due to the infraction to wind up, ironically enough, 24th.

Matt Kenseth finished 8th, but while getting a push from your friends is alright most of the time when you find yourself sitting in a fancy go-cart, it can’t be done on the last lap. So, take that 8th place finish and shove it to the head of those a lap down, and you wind up in 21st. At least he sits a big point ahead of Gordon in the Chase.

That might not sound like a big deal to you, but Denny Hamlin would swap places with Kenseth in a second. Hamlin sits 16 points behind Mr. Gordon, 41 points off the pace after one event. I had heard that he went into the Chase liking his underdog role. He must love it today, as tire woes left him 31st on Monday, leaving him more like a ran over dog. Rain might have delayed the action a day in Chicago, but Hamlin had his own personal storm on Monday to put a beat down on his championship hopes.

Dale Earnhardt Jr wound up third, with Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, and Jimmie Johnson all with Top Tens. They sit between ten and 16 points back as they motor on to New Hampshire. Newman won there this summer to become one of four Chase drivers who have won three times at the track, with eight of those drivers having won at least once there. In fact, only Edwards, Earnhardt, Kenseth, and Keselowski have not. Now might be  a good time to change that. Enjoy the week!

So, you think that with the way things turned out at Richmond we had a race that was a total waste of time? Oh no, my friend. I mean, with Kevin Harvick managing to keep Carl Edwards behind him as they came to the line, Happy got his fourth win of the season. He is now tied with Kyle Busch atop the Chase standings with 2012 big points. See, it meant something.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]It allowed Jimmie Johnson to retaliate for the accidental bump he got from Kurt Busch to get into the little fella’s head. Kurt went ape on a reporter after he simply asked if this feud could hurt both their chances, then denied to another about saying something he had said earlier, then tearing up the transcript that proved the former champ was wrong in his assumption. Yet, Busch claims that it is he, King Kurt, who has somehow gotten into Johnson’s head. Something tells me the boy could be wrong about that, too.

If not for Saturday night’s broadcast, look at all the bent metal we would have missed. We would have not seen why Brian Vickers got so upset with Marcos Ambrose, and why NASCAR sat Vickers down for a time out in the middle of the race. We would have been left wondering how Junior can be involved in three incidents, get down a couple of laps, be riding around 29th at one point, and still finish 16th.

It was a good thing Earnhardt was out there, beating and banging. I mean, if not for that, his boys would have had to take a sledgehammer to that auto of his in order to create the same work of modern art. Junior was minding his own business when he ran into a sideways Clint Bowyer. Of course, this was immediately after he had ran into a braking Matt Kenseth. A little later, he noticed that Ambrose was not being bothered by Vickers, so he bothered him. He later got a bump from Travis Kvapil, and not long after he returned the favor by putting that fella right into the fence. Nothing but good times.

So, Junior fell to tenth in the pre-Chase standings, but he and the rest who had a position a week ago have one as they head to Chicago. Only a dozen drivers really hold our interest as we head towards autumn, though there are others who will be looking to either find a job, or keep the one they got. Harvick and Shrub may lead the parade heading to the Windy City, but a finish outside the Top Twenty on Sunday would change that in a hurry.

Chicago, a track where they have raced ten times, where Harvick won the first two, Stewart also has a pair, with Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Junior, and Kyle Busch each with one win to their credit. It is where Carl Edwards was the 2010 runner-up, but nobody who has won there also went on to claim the Cup championship that season. Mark Martin won in 2009, but finished second behind some guy named Johnson in points. So, am I saying Chicago will prove to be just a big waste of time? Something tells me that won’t be the case. Enjoy the week.

For a long weekend also long on rain, things have cleared up enough to provide a clearer picture as to the Chase for the Championship. After the action concluded on Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta, nine are locked in, three are holding on, yet there are up to seven others who could yet move out of the wilderness and into a wildcard position with a win and a little help.

[media-credit name=”Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Jeff Gordon helped himself to another 3 Chase bonus points and he and Jimmie Johnson put on a show at the end Tuesday. Gordon held his team-mate off for the 85th win of his career and now sits third alone on the all-time list. Also locked in and in line for a run at the season crown are Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, and both Busch brothers. With his three wins this season, you can add Brad Keselowski to that list with a guaranteed wildcard. That is, if he needs it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr and Tony Stewart are win less, yet hold down the final two spots in the Chase, while Denny Hamlin has a win and, sitting 12th, has the other wildcard invite in his hand. Keselowski is the guy who can stir things up by doing well at Richmond, making up the 23 points he needs to catch Stewart, or the 25 he is behind Junior, and claiming 9th or 10th in the standings. It would give the young man the bonus points for his pre-Chase wins, and make one of the winless veterans vulnerable.

In fact, without a win one really has no chance of making the Chase if outside the security of the Top 10. Denny Hamlin has a win but if Paul Menard wins his second of the season at Richmond he would take that wildcard spot away. If Marcos Ambrose or David Ragan wins a second race, and make up the ten positions on Menard to move into the Top 20, they also could take the spot away from Hamlin. However, if either Earnhardt or Stewart is out and Keselowski in by points, then Hamlin would retain his wildcard invite with the other going to whoever else has a win and sits in the Top 20. At the moment, that would be Menard, but Ambrose and Ragan still have a shot.

If that is not enough, Hamlin can also be caught on points. If A.J. Allmendinger (11 points behind Hamlin), Bowyer (12), Greg Biffle (28), or Martin Truex Jr (33) can win at Richmond on Sunday and move ahead of Hamlin in points, they would be in and he would be out. That is, as long as Keselowski doesn’t replace either Earnhardt or Stewart in the Top 10, in which case Hamlin would still make it.

Of course, if Keselowski fails to make up the 23 to 25 points needed to catch Earnhardt or Stewart, and if Richmond is not won by Menard, Ambrose, Ragan, Allmendinger, Bowyer, Biffle, or Truex, then the top dozen have already been decided. I told you we had a clearer picture of things. Enjoy your week.