You guys are not going to guess what I'm about to say but we had another eventful race in Pocono. 4 Teams get a win this week... and 1 of those teams is now locked into the Chase. All in all, 10 teams finished in the top 10. 1 team finished 11th and 4 teams had a bad day. So what does that mean?
Well we have a new leader... Rusty. He is also the team that got his 3rd win and is locked in for the Chase to compete for the Title. Well done Rusty!!!
We are starting to see 4 distinctive packs forming... we'll get into that later.
Other than that... who knows what it means?
The Top Pick was Kurt Busch and Rusty, Penguin, Skidmarks, and Empty took him. Rusty is back on top after taking a 4 race break from leading the pack. Penguin jumps up a spot to 5th and Skid stays in 11th but is now only 5 points away from the Elite 8. Both Penguin and Skid grab win #2. Empty gets win #1 and stays in 13th, but is only 14 points out of the Elite 8. Kurt Busch was also the most popular pick this week and he did not disappoint. Congratulations fellas!
To round out the Top 10 we had Ideal and Beef taking Brad K. who finished 3rd. Ideal jumps up 2 spots to 3rd with his 2 wins and Beef actually loses a spot to Skid. He falls to 12th, but is only 11 points away from the Elite 8.
#Wifey and Wheels took 5th place Logano. #Wifey jumps up 2 spots to 7th and back into the Elite 8. Wheels stays in 10th but is now just 2 points out of the Elite 8.
Piston took Kahne (6th). Kahne was a solid pick this week, but Rusty's win causes Piston to give up the lead. Piston is now running 2nd and is just 3 points out of 1st.
Shepard took 9th Place Harvick. This is an okay finish for Harvick, but I'm sure Shepard expected more. He stays in 4th though and continues a solid 2016 campaign.
Nice job to all the TOP 10 pickers!
Chonk had our EH... pick with his 11th place Kyle Larson pick. A solid week for Larson, but Chonk (9th) drops out of the Elite 8 this week... by only 1 point.
The DOOTW and BSOTW are combined this week as both picks were equally brutal.
Kiss burned a Kyle Busch (31st) pick and stays in 14th... this bad luck pick loses him 21 points on the Elite 8. Kiss has 1 win and is now 52 points away from 8th. Not time to panic yet, but he'll need to put together a few solid weeks if he wants to get back in this thing.
Graziano, Dust and Pursuit took a chance on Tony Stewart who has done well in Pocono and had been showing signs of improvement lately... not to mention practicing and qualifying well amidst the shitty weather leading up to the beautiful Monday race day. Graz plummets 3 spots to 6th. With 0 wins, he'll need to bounce back this week in Michigan. Dust stays in 7th, but the top 6 are starting to separate themselves from the mid-pack teams. Pursuit stays at the bottom, and like Kiss he'll need to string together a few solid weeks to get back in the mix.
The good thing about a Monday race when you BSOTW is that there is one less day to pout about your bad luck.
Other Ramblings:
Michigan this week on Sunday.
We are starting to see a few smaller packs forming if you take a closer look at the leader board...
- the top 2 are driving away and battling it out. 3 points separate these guys.
- 3rd through 6th are running solidly in the Elite 8. 14 points separate these guys.
- 7th through 13th could easily shuffle next race. We have an awesome battle for those final elite 8 spots. 14 points separate these guys.
- The last 2 are fading away and need to turn things around... quickly.
All that being said... we have 5 2 win teams who could lock in this week... 3 of which are in the pack fighting to stay in the Elite 8.
A string of crappy weeks could also change which pack in which you run as well... I f*cking love to hate this League.
I do not think we will see any major strategy changes yet, but those 0 win teams know they are not safe... no matter where they are running. 1 win teams will feel better if/when they grab win #2.
But what the hell do I know?
I hope we all make the Chase and fight it out during those last 10 races, but I know this will not happen.
Good luck over the next 12 races guys and girl.
Cheers!
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