Surprising and Not Surprising: AAA Texas 500
When the green flag flew on the seventh annual running of the AAA Texas 500, it seemed almost as an afterthought to a difficult week, with the passing of patriarch Russ Wallace, the plane crash injuring Rick and Linda Hendrick, and of course the parking of Kyle Busch after his detrimental on-track actions during the Truck race.
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[/media-credit]Yet, when the checkered flag finally flew at Texas Motor Speedway, there were some surprising, as well as not so surprising, moments from the third to the last race of the 2011 season.
Surprising: After back to back wins, it was surprising to see that even Smoke was a bit overcome, albeit by the intensity of the race, emotion and the heat of Victory Lane.
“This is for the Wallace family,” Stewart said after getting out of his car. “And for Mr. Hendrick and his wife. And I had a buddy that passed away when we were at Charlotte and I didn’t want to forget him.”
Yet even with splashing some water on his face, Smoke still had to take a seat in Victory Lane, while those around him fanned him with their Stetson hats to allow him to catch his breath.
Tony Stewart, however, bounced back quickly. He then donned the traditional black hat and took some shots with the guns in celebration of scoring his 43rd career victory, his fourth win of the season, and his second victory at Texas.
Stewart also re-affirmed that his sights are firmly set on winning that coveted Cup championship. With his race win, Smoke is now just three points behind leader Carl Edwards.
“I don’t think we have to say anything,” Stewart said, unlike last week where he talked some smack in Victory Lane. “Our performance speaks for itself.”
“Do not count us out of this thing,” Stewart said. “We did everything we needed to do today.”
Not Surprising: Roush Fenway Racing did not disappoint or surprise at the mile-and-a-half track where they have been so dominant all season. RFR had three of their drivers in the top five, with Carl Edwards in second, Matt Kenseth in fourth, and pole sitter Greg Biffle in fifth.
The team combined to lead 124 laps at Texas Motor Speedway, with Edwards leading 14, Kenseth leading 87 and Biffle leading 23. Even David Ragan, whose future remains uncertain, finished in the 12th position.
“I’m proud of our guys today,” Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion said. “We wanted to beat Tony and pad the lead, but we are still the point’s leader.”
This was Edwards’ sixth top-10 finish in 14 races at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 24th top-10 finish to date in the 2011 season.
Greg Biffle, behind the wheel of the No. 16 Ford Fusion, started from the pole to bring his car home for a top-five finish.
“We had a pretty good car,” Biffle said. “The last pit stop, I slid through the box and that probably cost me a third-place finish or a couple of spots anyway. We fought hard and came back.”
“It’s hard to be disappointed when you run in the top five,” teammate Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, said. “I wish we could have performed a little better, but that’s all we had.”
“This has always been a pretty good track for our organization.”
Surprising: It was a bit surprising to see how current Michael Waltrip Racing driver Martin Truex, Jr. did, finishing eighth in his No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, in spite of the big changes announced for the MWR organization prior to the race.
“I am really proud of my entire NAPA team today,” Truex Jr. said. “The NAPA Know How pit crew was on it.”
“We are moving in the right direction and I appreciate all the work MWR is doing to get us in contention.”
Not Surprising: After learning that he was no longer a member of the MWR team after the 2011 season, it was no surprise that the woes on the track continued for driver David Reutimann. The driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine finished 22nd.
“It was very difficult,” team owner Michael Waltrip said of his decision to let Reutimann go. “I love David. He’s a great man and he’s always been there to do anything I needed him to do.”
“I know it was hard for David to get the news,” Waltrip continued. “I’m thankful that he drove for me for so long.”
Surprising: After such a Cinderella run, Brad Keselowski’s championship hopes have all but gone up in smoke. The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge had a very difficult day at Texas, finishing 24th.
“Just a tough night,” Keselowski said. “We couldn’t get the speed out of our car that we needed and fought all day for track position.”
“We lost the handling on the car right in the middle part of the race and adjustments were made to make it better and it just made it worse,” Keselowski continued. “It was unfortunate.”
Not Surprising: One driver who continues to make noise, however, was AJ Allmendinger, who scored another top-10 in his No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports.
“That was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt on a mile-and-a-half, especially one like this,” Dinger said. “It was fun.”
“From the start we were just passing cars and making good adjustments,” Allmendinger continued. “It was a good fight to 10th but overall, and more importantly, that’s something to build on.”
Surprising: It was a bit surprising to see that Brian Vickers’ intense driving style carried over from Martinsville to Texas. On lap 201, the driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota assisted with bringing out the second caution by tussling with Juan Pablo Montoya and Geoffrey Bodine.
“Stupid Vickers ran over a lapped car,” came over JPM’s radio, summing up yet another tough day at the office for ‘The Sheriff’, who finished 21st.
Not Surprising: Kasey Kahne continued his string of top-10 finishes, scoring the third spot in his No. 4 Red Bull Toyota. This was Kahne’s fourth top-10 in 15 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
“We were really close,” Kahne said of his almost-winning run. “I wanted to win really bad today.”
“It was a great race for us,” Kahne continued. “This has been our best time the whole season.”
Surprising: Taking the wheel of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry from sidelined Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell surprisingly was not able to capitalize on his prime opportunity. Even with Busch looking on atop the pit box, McDowell could not get his car dialed in and finished 33rd.
“We obviously were hoping for more and were hoping for a big day,” McDowell said. “But that wasn’t meant to be.”
“Gave it all I had and we just struggled pretty much all day long.”
Not Surprising: McDowell was not the only JGR driver to struggle at Texas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, blew an engine on Lap 262, and Denny Hamlin, behind the wheel of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, struggled all day, finishing 20th.
“We just fought an ill-handling car all day,” Hamlin said. “It’s probably one of the worst that we’ve had in a long time.”
“We’ll have to go back to the shop and look at it,” Dave Rogers, crew chief for the No. 18, said of the entire team’s performance. “This tire at this track is pretty tricky. You have to dare to lean on it and it’s not comfortable getting in the corner.”
“We have to look at it for sure.”
Surprising: Although not mathematically eliminated, it still seems surprising to think that, without some sort of miracle, Jimmie Johnson will not be on the championship banquet stage this year. With his struggling performance at Texas, including a spin through the grass on Lap 240, the driver of the No. 48 MyLowes Chevrolet, managed to finish fourteenth and is now back 55 points to the Chase leader.
“I fought a loose race car all night long and I lost it,” Johnson said. “And I think sliding through the grass did some damage.”
“It didn’t really drive good after that.”
Not Surprising: With a sixth place run in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, it was not surprising that it felt like a win to driver Jeff Gordon.
“We moved up right away,” Gordon said. “I thought we had a car that could compete for the win but when the sun went down, it changed for us and we lost a little bit there at the end.”
“Compared to the way we ran here earlier in the year, it is almost like a win for us.”
Confidence A Double Sided Coin
A long time ago, the short track ace and 89 Winston Cup Champion Rusty Wallace made the statement, “It’s not cocky if you can get it done. It’s confident.” Then there was the standard that was attributed to Dale Earnhardt, “When the green flag drops the BS stops.” Both come down to one thing, if you can do what you say you can do you are speaking from a position of confidence not arrogance. Tony Stewart has proven over the last 8 weeks that he is confident and can back up what he says.
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[/media-credit]Confidence turned around Tony Stewart’s season and made him a serious contender being only 3 points out of the chase lead. But confidence can be a bad thing in excess. This weekend we saw that as well with Kyle Busch who was parked for the weekend after the Camping World Truck Race in which he retaliated and drove Ron Hornaday into the outside Safer Barrier, destroying both trucks. When asked if he was concerned about NASCAR parking him or removing him from the competition on Saturday and Sunday he said he wasn’t concerned and didn’t care.
On Saturday morning, when NASCAR handed down it’s decision to maintain his parked status through this weekend, he seemed more concerned and to care a great deal more. Busch issued a letter of apology to his fans, the drivers, the team, and ownership for his actions. He watched the race from atop of the pit box and seemed to be seriously depressed and contrite. Although, he has granted no interviews or made any statements other than the letter of apology that he issued Saturday night, the emotion was all over his face.
The question was asked by many of why Kyle Busch and not Carl Edwards. The answer came from Mike Helton in the form of history. Kyle had already been placed on probation this year for similar aggressive driving. And basically they found the line for have at it boys. That was the limit and he went past it.
The real victim this weekend was Ron Hornaday. If you take yourself out. If you make a mistake or the engine blows and you are taken out of the championship hunt it’s difficult but you can swallow it. When you are taken out for a normal racing incident that has to be gut wrenching.
I think that the one thing that we are missing here is the probability of contributing factors to the incident. The length of the season is a primary factor. Sprint Cup drivers compete for 10 months out of the year. That is longer than a woman carries a baby. And if you ask any one who has had that honor, they will tell you that it is an exhausting experience. The drivers are fatigued simply by the length of the season. When you add the stress of the chase and the PR commitments that go with it you have compounded the issue yet again. It comes down to one common factor, they are tired. We all know that people deal with tired differently. Kyle is known to be short tempered and aggressive. He had gotten himself together and showed himself worthy of his championship contention until 3 weeks before the end of the season and after 4 weeks of being involved in wrecks. He snapped. What he did was very very wrong.
NASCAR’s action was very appropriate. But the solution maybe not in parking him but looking at the cause. Obviously the young man’s temper is a part of it. But the schedule and pressure of the chase also have to be considered as a part of that.
Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards are obviously handling the stress and long schedule much better. Leaving Texas the Championship race is separated by 3 points going into the “new” Phoenix. Stewart has proved that he and his team are worthy contenders and capable of taking Carl Edwards to the very line in Homestead. Stewarts dominating performance at Texas left little doubt that Smoke intends to sit at the front table in Las Vegas. Carl Edwards left no doubt that he has the same intention.
Perhaps the chase contender performance that slipped through the cracks was that of the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt struggled all day but stayed solidly in the top 20 all race. Finally, crew chief Steve Letarte hit the nail on the head on the next to last caution and Earnhardt flew through the field into the top ten. The final stop of the race came under green and Earnhardt’s crew redeemed themselves for earlier chase race failures getting him out and picking up one spot when all the stops shook out. The 88 finished 7th and moved up to 7th in the points. He made his move quietly and without fan fare. But the last 2 weeks have shown the Earnhardt that JRNation had hoped to see from the beginning of the chase.
The 48 of Jimmie Johnson continued to struggle eliminating themselves from any possibility of recovering for the 6th championship in a row. Johnson who spun the 48 off of turn 4 late in the race and then received a commitment cone violation for driving straight to his pit stall rather than going around the track finished a hard fought 14th while maintaining 6th in the points 24 points ahead of team mate Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The race itself was a long drawn out follow the leader affair. No different than the spring race at Texas. But it’s hard to pan the race with a promoter like Eddie Gossage. Gossage put on an incredible show. From the infield rodeo to the incredible black hat 6 shooter display in victory lane. Without a doubt Eddie Gossage has stepped up and into the role of the most theatrical and entertaining promoter in all of racing.
With that in mind, the racing on the track was unexciting. But the activities that surrounded it made it difficult not to enjoy the weekend even from afar.
Confidence is a powerful thing. Whether it’s positive or negative it is the attitude that will carry us through on top or leave us flat and defeated. Talent will carry you a very long way. It will smooth ruffled feathers. It will open difficult doors. But the one thing that talent can’t over come is a negative attitude. But nothing lasts forever, and attitudes change, when they do confidence reigns and talented young men become Championship contenders.
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Congratulations to Kevin Harvick on his victory in the Camping World Truck Series and his victory as in the car owners points in that series.
Congratulations to Trevor Bayne on his first Nationwide Series victory.
Congratulations to Tony Stewart on his second consecutive victory in the Sprint Cup Series.
To all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.
Where Is the Excitement?
There is more excitement on the NASCAR scene than I’ve seen for ages. We have a real championship battle and enough drama to make the daily soap operas cringe in fear, but yet there doesn’t seem to be any buzz about this final run. And I wonder why. It mystifies me.
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[/media-credit]Tony Stewart has moved to within three points of a third championship, coming from a position that can only be described as futile. He’s won four of the eight races in the Chase and still people seem unmoved for some reason. I thought the excitement of someone else, anyone winning a NASCAR championship would be exciting to fans, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Far from it. Maybe it’s the participants.
If you took a poll of NASCAR fans, I suspect most would vote for their favorite to be Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon, and maybe even Kevin Harvick. Unfortunately, none of those guys are going to win this year. Jimmie Johnson, the guy who has won the last five championships, might even get a few votes, just because. Instead, we have Carl Edwards in the lead, if only by a minimal margin fighting the “great bully,” Tony Stewart. Both are great drivers and worthy of a championship. In fact, Stewart is a two-time Sprint Cup champion and Edwards has won the Nationwide championship. So, what’s the problem?
Maybe it has to do with the whole system. Stewart languished far to the back of the standings until the Chase started. Finally, he caught fire while Edwards used consistency, the reason the points systems has worked forever, to stay at the top of the charts. Edwards has only one win, something that is really strange considering the equipment he has, and yet despite a better average finish and overall performance, is struggling to hold on. While the favorites have been good, they find themselves hopelessly out of the running to an also-ran during the regular season and a guy who just finishes in the top five for most of the season. Kind of like the year Matt Kenseth won the championship with one win. It’s just not fan inspiring. Yes the St. Louis Cardinals won the MLB championship with the same scenario, but that is baseball and not racing. For years, racing has been based on track championships and those always took a season and crowed the champion and not over the last 10 races. Pulling NASCAR into that system is only going to be problematic.
I find it exciting. We have a horse race with the bully Stewart telling Edwards to watch his back and making it come true. We have the consistent Edwards coming close, but falling prey to the NASCAR rule about bonus points, which I’ve always thought was stupid and not productive, And the fight is on.
With two races to go, it’s anyone’s championship, and like those Cardinals, it appears that only a bad day by Stewart will decide the championship. The Texas Rangers had those bad days, and it’s only a bad day from either Stewart or Edwards that will decide the championship.
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Kyle Busch was parked by NASCAR for taking the truck of Ron Hornaday, Jr. out during a caution during a caution flag on Friday night. Busch was also banned from participating in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races on Saturday and Sunday. Regardless of how fans felt about this turn of events, it robbed Busch of any chance of finishing other than last in the Chase. Many feel that is justice, and maybe they are right. The bigger issue is Busch’s future with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Sponsors have been patient with Busch over the years, but will this be the last straw? Time will tell, but this writer’s opinion is that this might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
