We are down to a game of musical chairs. Four spots, with eight drivers who very much want one of them. Let me just say that musical chairs sucks. When you are a reserved fat kid, the more athletic aggressive lads are going to go after those seats hard. Also, you will never be a hero dropping a young lady on her ass. Fortunately for the gents at Martinsville on Sunday, not a young lady to be found. No fat kids, either, come to think of it.
Then there were eight, as the surviving championship contenders take to the track this weekend at Martinsville. It is damn near over, but that overweight soprano has yet to warble, so we have a few notes to wait for between now and Homestead.
It might have been Kansas, but the action was a whole lot like a Las Vegas slot machine. Gold bar. Gold bar. Grapes. Dammit! Take Kevin Harvick, for example. He was second best on the opening stage. He was the best in the second stage. He was dominating the third stage, at least until he went speeding on pit road. Dammit!
1. Kyle Busch: Busch finished 2nd at Kansas and cruised into Round 3 of the NASCAR playoffs. "I basically just had to avoid disaster at Kansas," Busch said. "And that means I just had to keep my mouth shut." Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
Talladega was a ratings bust. Talladega. For fans who follow the sport, those four Stewart-Haas cars up front, doing what they had to do all day long, was something to behold. For those who simply tune in to watch incredible action, they had to wait for the final 20 laps for the payoff. However, they had to have tuned in to witness either. They did not even bother. That is troublesome.
Busch finished 26th at Talladega and is now third in the playoff points standings. "Stewart-Haas Racing totally dominated the race," Harvick said. "It was like they were leading the world's fastest funeral procession, because they 'buried' the field."
Flying around in aircraft formation inches apart at 200 mph. That would be good enough to force me into the Depends, especially if I were in the passenger seat. It is a track that causes skid marks to appear everywhere.
Do not count your chickens before they hatch. That was the lesson we got in Dover on Sunday. A lot of things can happen between the time the egg emerges from the backside of the hen to when that little pecker bursts from the shell. A lot of bad things.
Kyle Busch: Busch started on the pole at Dover and led 21 laps on his way to an eighth-place finish. "I'm just glad to survive with a decent finish," Busch said. "The 'Monster Mile' claimed a few victims on Sunday. Talladega's 2.66 mile track could be even more monstrous. Then we get Kansas Speedway's 1.5 mile track. It doesn't scare anyone, except prospective ticket buyers."
