1. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished second at Martinsville as Kyle Busch took the win. "We didn't win," Truex said, "but it was a good points day for us. And points get me very excited. You know what I get when I see my points pile up? A huge bonus."
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Despite a strong performance, Chase Elliott's day wound up in the wall after getting dumped by Denny Hamlin in the closing laps of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Thirty-six races. A few are great venues that produce very entertaining television events. A lot more are not. Some tracks have two events, and you wonder why. Some have two and you wonder...why not three?
Imagine a race that featured the excitement of Daytona or Bristol. Imagine a race with a broadcast crew that featured the talent of a Chris Economaki, Vin Scully, Danny Gallivan, or a Keith Jackson. Imagine that Yoko Ono co-wrote that song with her husband. That should snap us all back to reality, though that last one is apparently true.
This Sunday, NASCAR action takes us to Kansas. We just can not get enough of Kansas, which is why we find ourselves watching the action from there for a second time this season. If not Kansas, I guess there is always Kentucky, Chicago, Dover, Fontana, or Pocono , but allow me to calm down my beating heart.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the pole at Talladega. Most years, that is just par for the course. In this, his final season, it was a return down memory lane. Talladega is where anything can happen, where any lead lap car has a shot to win it, and a where one’s dreams can go up in flames, smoke, and mangled metal without notice.
As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the second race in the Round of 12, only one thing is certain. Anything can, and probably will happen.
Nose to tail, side by side, just inches apart, ripping around a 2.66-mile tri-oval that is 48 feet wide with 33-degree banking in the corners at speeds of over 190 miles per hour. It is obvious to anyone watching what could happen. It is amazing when it does not.
It was a home date for most of the teams as the next round of the Chase opened in Charlotte, North Carolina. Martin Truex, Jr.’s outfit hails out of Colorado, so for them every date finds them on the road. It is a road that could take them all the way to the championship.
Sitting in fourth in the playoff standings is Chase Elliott, who reeled off yet another runner-up finish at Charlotte on Sunday to score his sixth-career runner-up finish and 19th top-five finish in 71 Cup Series starts.
