Rain. It came on Saturday and it continued to rain on the parade of a few on Sunday. Not on Kevin Harvick, as once again he finished amongst the top two. He won the previous week to stay alive in the Chase and was second at Charlotte. Fourteen times he has been there, to go with 24 Top Tens in thirty races this season.
Joey Logano matched Harvick in the latter statistic, as he dominated the action Sunday to record his fourth victory of the season, ninth over the past two campaigns. Both would be good bets to be in the final four at Homestead. Their odds are certainly better than a few others.
Carl Edwards provided the rain for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sunday when contact sent Junior toward the wall. He met it again later on, as he opened the Challenger round 19 points out in the weeds. Too early to panic, especially with Talladega still coming our way.
Ryan Newman poured on Matt Kenseth, as both got wet when they had a meeting up high that turned Matt into the fence. Kenseth and the wall were to meet more than once before the car was finally killed. He wound up 42nd on the day and 32 points out of the hunt. Meanwhile, Newman was never a factor as 15th has him six points behind Brad Keselowski, who sits eighth in the standings.
Kyle Busch looked good. Then he looked right as he attempted to avoid pit road while at the same time Kyle Larson looked left in a split second move to enter. It was a meeting of the Kyles. At the end of the day, Mr. Busch discovered himself in 20th place on the track and with a 10 point deficit to make up, starting at Kansas this Sunday.
The long range forecast for the race calls for partly cloudy skies and warm temps. Of course, that is now. God knows what the actual weather might wind up being. More than half of the present field of Chasers have a win there, including Kenseth with a pair. Edwards has not, neither has either Busch or either Junior while Newman’s claim to fame came in 2003.
It might be dry on Sunday, but the forecast is calling for a fair number of parades remaining rather damp, at least for another week.
