This week will be easy to recap... Even though my guy shit the bed, this was my favorite race of the season thus far. What an exciting race! Deep down I was hoping AJ and Ambrose would wreck each other with enough laps for Gordon to finish a couple of points better than the rest of you fools. But that was not meant to be, and I loved seeing the excitement that AJ's team showed including owner Brad Daugherty... and AJ's reaction was heartwarming. I love it when a NASCAR driver is too excited to thank every sponsor on their car... Here we go!
TOP PICKS:
1st Place AJ Allmendinger - Picked by Chonk and Kiss. Chonk gets win #5 and inches a little closer to the top spot. Kiss gets win #4, but is only 16 points up on 8th place Asleep. Those 4 wins will be great if he can hang on to one of the qualifying spots... but I think Asleep will have something to say about that. Nice pick fellas!
2nd Place Marcos Ambrose - Everyone... except for Chonk and Kiss and Penguin. This pick was supposed to lock Piston, Shepard and Rusty in the Chase... and get A-Game another win and Rasta on the board... The rest of the Ambrose teams basically held serve for another race. An Ambrose win could have been huge for many teams. Ambrose was awesome, but AJ was deserving of this one.
BSOTW:
34th Place Jeff Gordon - Picked by Penguin. Nobody told me that Gordon was not going to plug in his hybrid the night before the race. Of course he lost power when he was leading the most laps... why the f*#% wouldn't he??? It's been that kind of second half before the Chase for me, but I'm not going to cry about it. I'm going honey badger for the next 4 races and doing everything I can to get those last 2 wins. I think Rusty, Rasta and A-Game will as well...
Other Ramblings:
4 Races to go before the Chase!
Michigan on Sunday.
The Tony Stewart/Kevin Ward tragedy dominated the headlines (along with the Robin Williams suicide) this week. In the heat of the moment it is unpredictable what can happen... I haven't been able to follow everything this week, but I guess the big question is will Tony get charged in the incident? Did he mean to do it? Does it even matter? I definitely can understand the reaction that Ward's father had, but these guys that get out of their car to confront another driver still in their car has got to stop. It's 1 million times worse that a football player who tries to punch another football player in the face when they're still wearing their helmet. A tough situation for everyone involved for sure...
We still have 9 teams locked into the Chase and now 4 teams with less than 3 wins occupy a top 7 qualifying spot. Things to keep an eye on over the next 6 races:
- Battle for 1st between Graziano and Chonk continues
- Battle for 3rd through 7th positions - 8th place too... 33 points separate the teams and valuable points are up for grabs.
- Strategies for the 3+ win teams as we near the Chase - 3 3+win teams occupy positions 8-10... will they get into the top 7?
- Strategies for the 2 win teams in the top 7 - Shepard is still hanging on to the 7th spot by 10 points.
- Strategies for the 1 win teams in the top 7
- Will the not-locked in teams make a move, or will we see some eliminations before the 4 races are completed???... none this week.
So here are the scenarios I have in my small brain right now for those of us not locked into the Chase:
- Graziano is looking strong to make it in on qualifying alone... still 66 points ahead of 8th, he can probably recover from a DOOTW and a BSOTW CHASE HEALTH
- Team Piston continues to perform at a high level. 33 points away from 8th. They need 4 solid points weeks or only 1 more win. CHASE HEALTH
- Ideal has another solid and is still 23 points away from 8th. He still needs to continue this run over the next 4 races or grab 2 more wins, but he is close to being able to breathe easily. CHASE HEALTH
- Shepard has another good week and stays in the top 7. He still needs to continue the trend or grab 1 more win (GREEN). Only 10 points clear of 8th (YELLOW). CHASE HEALTH
- Rusty is still 58 points away (RED) from a qualifying spot, but only 1 win away (YELLOW) from making the Chase. CHASE HEALTH
- Penguin needs 2 more wins in the last 4 races (RED). CHASE HEALTH
- Rasta and will need to win 3 races of 4 to make the Chase. CHASE HEALTH
- A-Game will need 2 more wins in the last 4 races. CHASE HEALTH
Cheers!
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