by Mike Maruska
5/25/2008
For the second straight year Tony Stewart led the Coca Cola 600 late. Last year he was beat when several drivers gambled on fuel. This year Stewart aced the pit stop, came out first and looked like he was on his way to winning his first Coca Cola 600. Then with two laps left he cut a tire, once again sullying his run. Stewart’s disappointment became Kasey Kahne’s elation. As predicted, Kahne ran well at Lowe’s. His driver rating was a race best 131.8 and he led 66 laps. He was also a little fortunate that other top cars like Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson all had problems. This week as countless blogs and media websites talk about how Kahne is a championship contender, keep in mind that this is based off of Kahne’s performance at one track. He has been average at every other track in 2008. Five laps led and no top 5’s prior to Charlotte does not prove that Kahne is ready for a breakout summer.
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I have resisted declaring a problem with Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth as long as I could, but they now officially have problems with their intermediate programs. Neither could find the top ten until they each outlasted enough cars with some help from fuel mileage. Lost in his ability to finish well is the fact that Kevin Harvick is not running well either, and hasn’t at intermediate tracks in two years. each of the three is good enough at other tracks to still make the Chase, but winning races will be tougher to come by. The good news is that the summer does not feature a glut of intermediate tracks. The bad news is that the Chase does.
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David Reutimann scored his first Cup top ten and ran inside the top for almost two thirds of the race.
“It was a good effort for everybody at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota did a great job — UPS for sticking with us through this whole program and we haven’t really done much to deliver any good finishes. I think this is maybe a start for things to come and I appreciate them sticking with me and everybody at the shop. I managed to run the top side of the race track all night without knocking the right side off, so that’s a good start. I enjoyed it — the guys did a great job and the pit stops were good. All in all our team’s coming together and I can’t wait until the next race.”
Sam Hornish Jr also posted a career high of 12th.
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While seemingly every top car experienced some kind of setback, Jeff Burton spent 398 of 400 laps in the top 15, only falling out for green flag pit stops. It’s becoming Burton’s trademark, running well without incident and getting everything out of the car without pushing it too far.
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Have you noticed that most of the NASCAR themed commercials are shot at Phoenix Raceway? Why is that?
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A nice touch by Fox to make suggested pit adjustments throughout the night. It’s something that appeals to more advanced fans. The NASCAR 101 stuff is great, but for the fans that watch every race, it’s about time that the broadcast gives something to them too.
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It was amazing that BrianVickers’ stray tire avoided more trouble. Even after smashing into David Gilliland’s hood, the tire still had enough speed to roll several hundred yards and bounced over a fence and into a camper. That is a 25 pound tire that broke loose from a car going 170 mph and it dropped onto a canvas tent. Nothing was really mentioned about this, but that could have been scary.
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