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Category: The Final Word

Thornton’s final word

  • The Final Word – The Charlotte Honey Wagon splattered a lot of fertilizer among the Chasers

    The Final Word – The Charlotte Honey Wagon splattered a lot of fertilizer among the Chasers

    It is funny how we react to certain aromas. When I was a kid, we lived near the public works yards my father worked at. My brother and I would wander amongst the heavy equipment, taking in the smells of their exhaust and even today I rather like the smell of gasoline and diesel fuel. It is nostalgic. Growing up in a rural area, I always loved the fragrance produced by my grandparent’s coal burning stove on a winter morning as I headed out to do my chores. All around were the more earthy nuances produced by the cattle. “That is the smell of money, son,” I was often told. Such bouquets might not be appreciated by all, but to me, they recall memories of home and childhood.

    Not all things can be appreciated. Chicken coops and pig pens, for example, no matter how clean you try to keep them, were never agreeable. However, the worst was the honey wagon. No matter how long you lived in farming country, the stench produced by that device was beyond most human endurance. The liquid that came from it might have been termed as “fertilizer”, but there was no mistaking its origins. At Charlotte, some would agree that they replaced the pace car with a honey wagon. A lot of Chasers came away splattered.

    Rain might have won Saturday night, but Sunday was a day the boys did their best to avoid the crap. Barely a third of the way in, Joey Logano had a right front tire issue, which gave him a free pass straight into the fence. His day would not get better, especially when it happened again. They came in even in points, but Logano knew he would have work to do over the next two weeks.

    Kevin Harvick was running in fourth when something strange happened. His car shut off. It is hard to race all those opponents with the big engines when all you have is a soap box derby car. Back to the garage Harvick went, finishing behind even Logano. It appeared he would have a mountain to climb to continue on in his bid for a second championship.

    With 75 laps to go, two more Chasers joined our already beleaguered duo. Austin Dillon was on the front of the inside row for a restart when Martin Truex Jr. tried to come up behind to give him a shot of acceleration to move the pair to the front. Instead, it shot Dillon to the inside wall for a race-ending impact, while in the chaos behind them, Kyle Busch took evasive action that clipped Chase Elliott to the outside and a sudden termination of his hopes. Four down.

    It could have been worse for that quartet. Denny Hamlin commented at one point that they were just trying to avoid all the drama. Sadly, sometimes the theatrical production goes on the road and meets up with you. With just 26 laps to go, the second-place Hamlin went up in smoke, leaving Jimmie Johnson to charge to the victory and a pass to the Round of Eight.

    Seven of the Top Eight in the standings are at least 19 points to the good as they head to Kansas for next Sunday. However, the mountain for those on the outside got reduced to a small hill, thanks to Hamlin, who finished 30th. While he sits eighth in the standings. Elliott and Dillon are just three points away, Logano six, and Harvick, who was 38th, is within eight. Whoever thought someone would add a dash of perfume to the honey wagon? It still stinks, but nowhere near as bad as it might have been. That leaves them all with a chance to get back in, to advance through points. All they need is a little good luck and a little bad luck for some others.

    Yes, it could have been worse, Yet, despite being freshly fertilized, they all came through the day smelling a lot more like roses than smelling like…well…you know.

  • The Final Word – The drama at Dover was over by my half-time beer break

    The Final Word – The drama at Dover was over by my half-time beer break

    Perspective. It means everything.

    Take Trevor Bayne, for instance. Last Sunday at Dover, he picked up a speeding penalty while on pit road during an early caution. No big deal. Sure, he finished 20th on the day, but with not a single Roush driver making the Chase, expectations were not exactly soaring.

    Then there was Kevin Harvick. It was he who blew a tire and brought out the caution in the first place. He had to head to the garage for repairs. Did it ruin his day? Forty laps down in 37th does not cause much celebration, but nobody’s dog was going to be in danger of being booted by a disgruntled driver. That win in New Hampshire had given Harvick a new perspective, and a pass into the Round of Twelve in the Chase.

    That brings us to Kyle Larson. He needed to make up five positions to continue the hunt. On the Harvick-manufactured yellow, he came to the pits complaining of a lack of power. During the diagnosis, an extra man went over the wall and that got Larson slapped with a penalty. No problem, you can get a lap back. Maybe. Not if you lose your right front and slap the wall to go six laps down. In the loaf of life, that turns your hopes into toast.

    Still, there was yet another Chip Ganassi auto still in the hunt. Jamie McMurray had eight cylinders to power him there. Make that seven cylinders. How about six? We had not even made the half-way point in the race when the gerbil finally died and McMurray’s engine up and died with it.

    That left only Tony Stewart to challenge Austin Dillon for the final transfer spot. Only Tony remained to offer up some drama, but he had a hill to climb and a car more adept at running in the valley. Stewart, with a Top Fifteen car that needed to win, finished 13th and out of the running.

    Martin Truex Jr., on the other hand, continues to prove that Furniture Row can no longer be considered anyone’s weak sister. Winning three of the past five, and his fourth of the campaign, the single car outfit from Colorado is making one heck of an argument that just maybe they might be considered a favorite to win it all.

    Six was all that finished on the lead lap in this one. Joining Truex were Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, and Joey Logano. Chasers one and all. Jimmie Johnson would have, but a man over the wall way too early dropped him from first to 16th, and down a lap he never would get back.

    Those seven drivers are now deadlocked in points as the next round of the Chase begins. Along with Harvick, Dillon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Carl Edwards, the dozen contenders all head to Charlotte with 3000 points in the bank, with no advantage held by anybody. Maybe Johnson had an edge, with seven career wins at everybody’s local track. Okay, local for everyone but Truex. Truex only has one there. The way he is running, nobody is betting against him making it two this Saturday night.

  • The Final Word – As we await the next great announcer, 16 will soon become 12 after Dover

    The Final Word – As we await the next great announcer, 16 will soon become 12 after Dover

    Mistakes. They happen. You just have to learn to overcome them, hopefully not to be repeated. On Sunday I made a mistake, and I know that it will never happen again.

    I listened to some of Vin Scully’s final broadcast for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then I turned the channel to listen to those describing the action for the race at New Hampshire. Big mistake. I went from an 88-year old icon describing the action, informing me with tidbits of information about the 18 players penciled in to the lineups, hitting me with trivia of all descriptions to keep me engaged even during the down times, and kept me glued to his every word and at the same time keeping up with the progress of the game. Scully was a true artist. You would think with 43 drivers, 43 crew chiefs, and 258 crew men, NASCAR announcers would have a vast canvas on which to paint their pictures.

    Be it baseball, football, or describing the action on the track, Scully is the template all should attempt to emulate. The action is often slow in developing, what is newsworthy might take a while to unfold, but you are never bored. You want to stay tuned so you did not miss anything, be it something on the field of play or just as likely some entertaining commentary that amused or educated.

    In NASCAR, Ken Squier did exactly that. A more contemporary team, in my opinion, was Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach. They made me laugh, learn, and stay tuned to the broadcast. I did not want to miss a thing. Some wonder why I keep returning to this theme. Have you noticed anything changing for the better yet? You have your answer. I am tired of seeing fans leave, grandstands coming down, and attendance figures hidden away. Aren’t you?

    I think there are announcers out there who do a fine job but not near enough. If a radio or television station or network does not have one, they need to find such a wordsmith. Broadcast schools should produce such skilled practitioners of the art who through time and experience will become the verbal Rembrandts of their time, those who will keep us listening, watching, and caring. To fail to do so is a mistake.

    Kevin Harvick made no mistakes in Chicago, but he suffered misfortune to finish 20th. At Loudon, he suffered neither, got past the 20 of Matt Kenseth to punch his ticket to the Round of Twelve in the Chase. It was his 100th race for Stewart-Haas and his 11th victory for them.

    Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., and Jimmie Johnson all had good finishes. They were good enough to join Harvick among the Top Eight on the day. Kyle Larson was just out of the Top Ten, but that was good enough to move him back into contention for the next round. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott had to settle for Top Fifteen finishes, but even they managed to increase their wiggle room in points.

    Things did not go so good for Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, or Chris Buescher, as that quartet heads to Dover needing to make up some ground before the cut-off. There were no expectations for Buescher, who at 30 points in the weeds needs to win Sunday to advance. Stewart, on the other hand, is hoping to head off to retirement with a stronger challenge, but after finishing 23rd last weekend he is 11 points out. With Dillon and McMurray only five out, he would need to leapfrog ahead of them both and still catch Larson to do it without taking the checkered flag.

    Stewart won at Dover just over three years ago, so it might be a mistake to count him out just yet. However, since that victory, Johnson had taken three there, with Harvick, Kenseth, and the semi-retired Jeff Gordon with the others. In fact, 10 of Johnson’s 77 career decisions have come at Dover. Betting against him this Sunday might prove to be the bigger mistake.

  • The Final Word – Among Chicago lucky dog hopefuls, Harvick was the day’s Old Yeller

    The Final Word – Among Chicago lucky dog hopefuls, Harvick was the day’s Old Yeller

    You got to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. That is how the old saying goes. I wonder what the saying is when you are good, but everything just gets flushed down the toilet? Kevin Harvick had a bad case of the swirls, as in down the drain, for his Chicago experience.

    So you do not get the wrong impression, I should say that Harvick came damn close to getting the Lucky Dog. It was one he was waiting to occur since the 50th of 267 scheduled laps. When caution waved over Brian Scott’s spin on lap 124, Martin Truex Jr. had passed Harvick to be in the coveted position. They found debris on the backstretch on lap 193, but it was Tony Stewart who got the nod. When it waved again to force overtime on lap 264, it was Stewart again, the man with the good fortune. That left Harvick all dressed up for the ball, but the damn coach remained a pumpkin.

    You would think it was another pit crew screw up that bit him. Instead, it was just bad luck. As he and Jimmie Johnson sat in the pits under green, they found some debris and waved the yellow. Johnson managed to roll to the line before Truex, the leader, crossed over. Harvick came two feet short. While Johnson led for the next 50 laps, Harvick was dropped a lap down. Two feet was all he needed. Two feet is not what he got. Twentieth and a lap down was the end result. As was the fate of the title character in Old Yeller, Harvick’s hopes for a warm and fuzzy finish were shot.

    Johnson led the most laps. Too bad about that speeding penalty in the pits with 33 to go. That left him 12th. At least, for the moment. More on that later.

    That left Truex. A skinned tire had him requiring roadside assistance 70 laps in, but then he got by Harvick to get the aforementioned pass to the lead lap. With 20 to go, all he saw was the tail pipe of Chase Elliott who looked about to pounce on his first career win. Too bad about Michael McDowell’s little mishap that forced overtime. Truex came to the re-start in fourth, and powered his way to the front and the victory, his third of the season. Joey Logano and Elliott were next.

    Interesting post script to this one. When they put the cars through inspection after the event, both Johnson and Truex failed. We hear it was not a big miss, but a miss none the less. No doubt, the victor will keep his win and get his free pass to the next round of the Chase. Johnson, on the other hand, still has a thing for points at this stage of the game, and any penalty there could hurt.

    As we await NASCAR justice, some are more comfortable than others heading to Loudon but no one took a big hit at Chicago. Okay, other than Chris Buescher, who was an expected 28th and now sits a dozen points behind the 12th placed Stewart. Buescher might be sitting on a pumpkin tethered to some mice, but at least he is at the ball and rumor has it he should also retain those glass slippers as a souvenir.

    Matt Kenseth has a pair of souvenirs as a reminder of his past two races in New Hampshire, both victories. Harvick has not won there since 2006, but something tells me that you will not need to ask who let the dogs out on Sunday. I think ole Happy will be unleashing the hounds to try and make up for some lost time and points. For their sake, I hope his pit boys are good and lucky on that day.

  • The Final Word at Richmond Belonged to Tony Stewart

    The Final Word at Richmond Belonged to Tony Stewart

    Drama, that is what we were waiting for at Richmond on Saturday night. Drama and answers. We wanted to know if Chris Buescher would be close enough to David Ragan and 30th in the standings in order to be eligible for the chase? Could Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, and Jamie McMurray keep from being caught by Ryan Newman for those final Chase spots on points? Could anyone outside the Top 16 win and really tumble up the standings? We had to wait for the final two or three laps to get the answer to that last one. With 38 laps to go, Tony Stewart provided us with the definitive response to the first two.

    Newman needed to make up ground, coming in 22 points behind McMurray. As it turned out, he would have had to win to be in considering how those he was chasing finished the night. However, he made a mistake along the way, and that was to run into his former boss and maybe former friend, two or three times. As Stewart swooped gently into a corner, Newman dived to the inside and knocked Smoke to the outside. Next turn, Newman came up and rubbed Stewart again. Oh-oh.

    On the straight away, Stewart turned down in front of Newman, who might have been able to take defensive measures if not for Carl Edwards running into him as he slowed down. That caused the contact between Newman and Stewart to be much harder, and pretty much killed all three autos. But wait, that is not all. Others got caught up in the mess, with one of them being David Ragan. As Newman went up the track after the wreck, he wound up directly in front of Ragan, who was left in flames.

    When asked later, Newman made some mention about somebody being bi-polar with enough info to Google to explain the mishaps a certain driver had been involved in, no doubt a guy who should retire, and a fellow who purposely drifted down in front of him. Stewart agreed with the latter observation, mentioned that in 10 weeks Newman would get his wish about his retirement and that he got to hit him two times more than anyone else would have gotten away with. By the way, one other guy caught up in the wreck was Brian Scott. Does anyone remember how Darlington went for him?

    With that, Buescher, Elliott, and Dillon were in the Chase. As for a first-time season winner ruining the party for McMurray, Denny Hamlin gave us that answer in the end when he dominated two re-starts to walk off with this one, even as a hard charging Kyle Larson tried to be a factor. Kasey Kahne finished sixth on a day he needed to be number one.

    Stewart is not leaving a kinder, gentler, passive version of his old self. He is his old self. Scott got dumped last week, Newman this time out. To be fair, he was slowly drifting in front of his old buddy and probably would have taken the brunt of the contact had Edwards not been there to accelerate things. Even if NASCAR got upset with their retiring former three-time champ, we know they refuse to dock points as they transfer to the Chase tally, and other than in the pocket book all they could do is suspend Stewart for a race or two and kill his championship hopes. That is not going to happen, and in this situation, it should not happen.

    As for Newman’s comments, I understand that he was angry. However, he came mighty close with his comments to invoking the tragedy and the pending civil case regarding the death of Kevin Ward Jr. in a sprint car accident involving Stewart two years ago. I do not know what their relationship was after Newman was essentially dropped in favor of Kevin Harvick with Stewart-Haas racing, but it can not be very good today.

    The Chase for the Championship begins in Chicago this Sunday, where the past five winners there are all current contenders for the title. Brad Keselowski has won twice, Hamlin won there a year ago, with Matt Kenseth and Stewart among the most recent winners.

    What are the odds of Tony doing well at Chicago? Maybe that is a question that should be directed to Ryan Newman. Now, wouldn’t that be dramatic?

  • The Final Word – I would absolutely suck as a pit crew member, so why won’t Harvick hire me?

    The Final Word – I would absolutely suck as a pit crew member, so why won’t Harvick hire me?

    A classic. That is what the Southern 500 is. Born in 1950, it predates NASCAR’s jewel events in Indianapolis, Bristol, Talladega, Charlotte, and Daytona. It is the Southern 500, the Labor Day classic at Darlington. It is not a November race, not a race to be branded by Dodge, not run on Mother’s Day or in April. After a dozen years of stupidity, it returned in 2015 to be what it has always been meant to be, the great southern Labor Day NASCAR tradition.

    Kevin Harvick lost Sunday’s race in classic style. If a pit crew can screw things up, it can find work on this car. Two pit stops, two disasters. One dropped him from first to fourth. The next, from first to 12th. It has reached the point where even the most understandable reason is rejected as yet another damned excuse. “Someone slashed our spare tires” or “It is hard to change a tire with no arms” or “The dog ate the air wrench” no longer cuts it. Harvick finished second. He should have been first.

    That was left for Martin Truex Jr. to accomplish. Sometimes, it is just more fun to win a classic event over the holidays. After previous career victories at Dover, Sonoma, and Pocono, this season it has been Labor Day at Darlington and the Memorial Day World 600 in Charlotte. Those are the kind of wins that get a driver remembered.

    Winning a title also does that. With Richmond the last stop before the Chase, a dozen drivers are locked in having won a race or more. Chris Buescher claims a spot if he manages to be within ten positions of David Ragan next weekend, thus staying within the season’s Top 30. Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon are a lock should they come home within 23 and 15 spots, respectfully, of Ryan Newman this Sunday. Jamie McMurray lays claim to the final spot should he be no more than six places behind Newman at Richmond, and a first-time winner does not emerge to steal that final Chase place from him. The question is, do Newman, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Greg Biffle, or Paul Menard have the horses to do what needs to be done? The odds are long, but remember that they were for Buescher once, too.

    It was a true classic at Darlington, but it was something of a classic finish in the truck race at MoSport Park in Ontario on Sunday. Well, the finish between John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer would have gone down as a classic if it had taken place at almost any other track. Two racers rubbing and racing and scraping against the wall to the finish. Instead, on the outside, they had enough prairie to give me a home where the buffalo roam, along with a couple of elk, before they came across any barrier. Rather than taking Custer to the outside wall, Nemechek wound up taking him into the car pool lane. What could have been a classic finish had all the appearances of a demo derby. Does that make Nemechek a wild man or a guy who did what he had to do on a surface that extended much farther out than what we would have normally seen? He won, so does it matter? I bet to Custer, it does. He seemed downright excited as he tackled Nemechek after the race, sending the pair tumbling to the grass. Vengeance is a bitch, and she just might have some bite before their version of the Chase concludes in the truck series. Just ask Joey Logano.

    Classic. They have been racing at Richmond since 1953, and the list of the winners there is a smorgasbord of NASCAR history, with all the fixings. It is where three generations of Petty boys have a victory, including 13 by the King himself. Both Earnhardts have won there, with Senior having a 5-3 advantage over Junior. Kyle has a 4-2 lead over Kurt in the battle of the Busch boys. Richmond is where Bobby Allison won seven times, with six wins apiece awarded to David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, and Rusty Wallace.

    Sadly, the one-time Capital City 400 sold its soul to Wrangler more than 35 years ago. Since then, the trail has winded through a brewery, a battery outfit, a car manufacturer, to even include a brand of pistachios for a season. A classic event it is not. A classic venue it most certainly is.

    Here is hoping for a classic finish. This spring Carl Edwards bumped Kyle Busch out of the way to record the first last-lap pass for the win in Richmond history. Why not another?

  • The Final Word – If Buescher was using the good stuff at Michigan, Ford owes him an apology

    The Final Word – If Buescher was using the good stuff at Michigan, Ford owes him an apology

    It is not complicated. Win and you are in the Chase. Do not, and you better be one of the better three of the rest, and even then only one might slip through. At Michigan on Sunday, Kyle Larson punched his ticket with the first Cup win of the 24-year old driver’s career. To say he was pumped would have been an understatement as he jumped into the arms of his crew with checkered flag in hand.

    Two races to go, 16 advance, and 13 of the spots have been spoken for. Or is it 12? Maybe 13. That brings us to the curious case for the Chase of Chris Buescher. With just the Penske pairing of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano locked in, Ford would sure like Buescher to join them. We hear Roush had taken the boy to their bosom, put him in a top notch chassis and gave him the best engines they got. Then the damn thing started sputtering on the fourth lap. The fourth. Maybe the agency should have held out for a Penske adoption.

    As mentioned, the other dozen drivers with wins under their belt this season are locked in. After Buescher sputtered his way around to finish seven laps down in 35th position, he used up some of his cushion over David Ragan. Over the season, Ragan is ranked 31st. He is seven points behind the 30th rated Buescher, and if he catches up at Darlington then Buescher’s pass to the Chase due to his Pocono win would get torn up.

    Ryan Newman just became a big fan of Ragan. He sits 17th on the season. While he is 27 points behind Michigan runner-up Chase Elliott, 21 off of Austin Dillon’s pace, he does sit just 15 behind bubble boy Jamie McMurray. However, if Buescher loses his ticket, Newman pops up a position to claim it as his own. Of course, he could go to Darlington and win that damn thing and take all the guess work out of it.

    Come to think of it, 12 are locked in, four more currently hold a spot, while up to 18 others have at least a mathematical shot at winning and advancing heading into this weekend. They really do. Sure, Newman has better odds than Kasey Kahne, but both are ahead of the likes of Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer. Yet, all are still in it, if you go by math and ignore reality. I mean, even Brian Scott, with a win and a charge into the Top 30 himself, can still do it.

    All it takes is a win. Maybe some rain at the right time. Just ask Chris Buescher. Now, if he could just get his hands on some of the Ford good stuff for Darlington.

  • The Final Word – Bristol, where good news mixed with bad, and it rained on everyone’s parade

    The Final Word – Bristol, where good news mixed with bad, and it rained on everyone’s parade

    Good tidings we bring to you and your kin.

    Sounds like a song. Sounds like a song we can wait four months to hear. However, Bristol did bring good tidings to some. It was great for Kevin Harvick, as he won his second of the season in a dominant performance to once again vault ahead of them all in points. While wins determine who is ahead of whom, as it should, accumulated points is an indicator as to who has been in contention all season long. Harvick has been one of those guys.

    Good tidings for Chris Buescher. It is amazing how good a guy can get with a little incentive, like a win at Pocono and a shot at the Chase. The 23-year-old might just be 30th in points, but by moving 13 points ahead of David Ragan in the standings his win is activated and he now finds himself ranked 12th among those with post-season aspirations. A bad day at Michigan could change all that, but as for now, all is good after his fifth place result at Bristol.

    Good tidings for Austin Dillon, trying to keep within the Chase despite having no victories. Fourth at Bristol really helped the cause. Same with Jamie McMurray’s Top Ten, while 15th did not hurt Chase Elliott’s cause much, either. Ryan Newman was 28th, which was not good, but he remains 35 points up on Trevor Bayne, which certainly is.

    Not so good for Bayne, of course. Twelfth on Sunday was fine, it helped him close up on Newman by 15 points. Unfortunately, he has only Michigan, Darlington, and Richmond remaining to move up via points at a time when a win might be the way to go. I guess he can always hope Buescher has some bad tidings, drops below 30th, which would pop Bayne back into a Chase place. Such bad thoughts, and so close to Christmas.

    Imagine getting your way paid to the Bristol Saturday night event as a gift, only to have the rain wash all those good tidings away. Rain Saturday night. Rain Sunday morning. With so much rain, it is ironic that the stands looked like a seat desert, with an oasis of real live fans visible here and there. It would appear that a lot of fans had their weekend plans totally screwed.

    Both Kurt and Kyle Busch crashed out, as did Matt Kenseth. Newman, Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Blaney might have been moving at the end, but all were sitting 24th and worse running five or more laps off the pace by that time. Bad tidings indeed.

    Next up is Michigan, where Jeff Gordon returns to retirement for at least one event. Still, we have to wait until later in the week to see if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ready to return from his medical leave. Do you know Junior still has more points than Greg Biffle, Danica Patrick, and Clint Bowyer? Yet, any one of them would be Chase bound with a win on Sunday.

    Christmas could still arrive early for somebody.

  • The Final Word – Watkins Glen provides a near perfect Cup race, while tragedy strikes in Kansas

    The Final Word – Watkins Glen provides a near perfect Cup race, while tragedy strikes in Kansas

    If there is anything we learned from Sunday it’s that NASCAR needs more road courses. Hell, just another visit to Watkins Glen would do. On a track that appeared built for the bulky-fendered beasts, with breathtaking aerial camera shots, and with lots going on from start to finish, this is about as good as NASCAR gets. Okay, Denny Hamlin won, but other than that it was almost perfect. Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski came next. Maybe the race was not all that great after all.

    It sure was not for Martin Truex Jr. It appeared he had a final charge left in him on that final lap. That was before Keselowski spun him, leaving his opponent just a bit peeved, though it appears they came to a civilized resolution post-race. Truex finished seventh, but with a win already in the can the result as not as crucial as it was for some.

    We watched to see if Chris Buescher might make up the six points between himself and a Top 30 placing that would activate his win at Pocono into a Chase ticket. He did not. He and David Ragan both took turns contemplating disaster and while Ragan finally got hauled off before the end, the gap had narrowed by only three points. Buescher is not Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart, and his equipment is not quite the same, so moving from 31st to 30th in the standings is not so automatic. Maybe at Bristol. Maybe.

    Another winner not currently in the Chase could mess things up a bit. A.J. Allmendinger was fourth on Sunday in a race he dearly wanted to take. In fact, a win is just about the only way he is going to make up the ground between 20th and where he needs to be.

    Kyle Larson took a hell of a ride when Allmendinger bumped him out of the way as they headed toward the finish line. That left him 29th, while Jamie McMurray was eighth. So, if Buescher makes up the necessary ground on Ragan over the next four events, Larson’s Chase spot disappears, and he would find himself 30 points out of the hunt if, but more like when, McMurray becomes the new bubble boy.

    Keselowski takes over top spot in the standings, both in wins and in points, as a late crash left Kevin Harvick in 34th for the day. However, unless there are some surprises forthcoming of major proportions, the Chase contenders are set. Only if Buescher fails to move up or someone currently outside the Chase wins at Bristol, Michigan, Darlington, or Richmond, we pretty much know who will be there. Kasey Kahne won at Bristol in March of 2013. He could use another one on August 20th when action resumes.

    As we take this break from the action, we remember Bryan Clauson. The 27-year old, a former NASCAR Nationwide driver, three-time Indianapolis 500 competitor, and 3-time USAC National Midget Series Champion, died this weekend after a midget race accident in Kansas.

  • The Final Word – Pocono proved a great place to be, whether you be 4 or 24 years old

    The Final Word – Pocono proved a great place to be, whether you be 4 or 24 years old

    NASCAR’s most popular driver had his problems this past weekend. He was taken out of his ride by his car owner over some behavioral issues, then later got into hot water by getting into cool water. Barefoot and with his sneakers laying nearby half submerged, four-year-old Keelan Harvick was having a great time. After seeing the little lad sprawled right out in a puddle of water, so were a few of the other drivers. Action for most might have been put off to Monday at Pocono, but for one fellow, a rainy Sunday is a good day.

    Monday. Well, Monday was a great day for Chris Buescher. With the fog rolling in at the Pennsylvania 400, he stayed out while others pitted to have the fuel to run the final 22 laps that never were as the race was red flagged. With impending stormy weather ensuring things would not be re-started, the 24-year old claimed his first win in his 27th Cup start. Team owner Bob Jenkins took his second career victory, to go with David Ragan’s 2013 win at Talladega. The win does not put Buescher automatically into the Chase, but he has just six points to make up over the next five races to move into the Top 30 in points to do just that. The man he needs to catch? B.K. Racing’s David Ragan.

    Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith, and Keelan’s dad, Kevin Harvick were next, with Tony Stewart rounding out the Top Five. Martin Truex Jr. looked real good for about 20 laps. After his fresh right front went down to send him into the fence, it went all bad. Joey Logano looked real good, too, at least until Chase Elliott drifted up and they both drifted the wall a good one. None of this trio finished among the Top 30.

    Kyle Larson went in seeking to at least finish ahead of the law firm of Kahne, Bayne, and Blaney to keep his Chase position well secured. He did, finishing sixth on the day, while Ryan Blaney was 11th, Kasey Kahne 15th, and Trevor Bayne was 19th. That means Kahne sits 20 points out, with Bayne and Blaney 28 away. However, if Buescher moves into the Top 30 and thus, among the 16 Chasers, Jamie McMurray becomes the new target and he sits nine points ahead of Larson.

    Jeff Gordon was 27th in his 799th career race. As for the man he replaced, Dale Earnhardt Jr., he falls 47 points out as he recovers from his concussion issue, and out of the conversation for the present. Gordon, by the way, was one of seven drivers at Pocono who were 40 years of age or older. McMurray, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Stewart, and Greg Biffle were the others. Only Elliott and Blaney were younger than the race winner.

    But the kids are coming. In Iowa, 20-year old Erik Jones won the XFINITY race, his third victory of the season. The lone Cup representative, Keselowski, finished eighth. I bet he feels like a loser. As for the Camping World truck event in Pocono, 19-year old William Byron claimed his fifth race of the season. The kid has taken four of the last six contests. Would it not be nice to talk about those boys on their way up, and a bit less about Keselowski and Kyle Busch when it comes to these series? Of course, it would. One day, maybe the seven-race cut off for rookie eligibility might be used as a cut-off for the number of races one can run outside of their registered division in a season. Maybe.

    Talking about kids, check out this weekend’s CARS Late Model Stock Tour at Orange County in North Carolina on YouTube. Sixteen-year-old Chase Purdy was racing hard and turned 24-year old Ryan Wilson. Wilson was not happy, got out of his car and stood on the track to stop Purdy under caution. He then took down the window net and punched the young man a few times. Something tells me they run under different rules than NASCAR. Oh, by the way, Purdy finished the 100 lap race in seventh, while Wilson’s best car in his stable is now junk.

    Meanwhile, where was Keelan on Monday? Maybe dad took his car off of the blocks and let our new favorite return to racing. As for the young Harvick’s favorite driver? Well, that would be Kyle Busch, of course.