The ‘Monster Mile’ at Dover, Delaware once again proved to be a race with lots of surprises and also proved why you never consider a race at ‘the Monster’ to be over before the checkered flag falls. One of the biggest surprises was the last 25 laps and Jimmy Johnson driving hard to overtake Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart to take home the trophy. It was probably one of the best race finishes of the year, so far, for Nascar Sprint Cup.
Hi, everyone…welcome to Just A Fan’s View. I really missed the call for picking the winner this week and that’s not all. I really didn’t think the Hendrick teams would fair that well this week; I pretty much figured Dale Jr would finish back in the 20 somethings (where he’s been mired lately), and I didn’t really see the Roush cars being as strong as they proved to be this week. Now that’s not to mention the fact that Kyle Bush and David Reutimann both had problems and didn’t finish anywhere near the top five as I expected.
Personally, I thought this was by far one of the best finishes of the Nascar season. I never expected Jimmy Johnson would be able to show so much strength after having to start kinda mired in the middle of the pack for the last restart. He did show that his winning of three championships has been no fluke. (He very well could take four in a row, especially if he races like he did Sunday afternoon.)
Even though he dominated the race for most of the day, it looked as though he would have a hard time running down Biffle and Stewart, let alone, pass them both. I was impressed with his drive for the victory and I am not usually that easily impressed. He absolutely drove the wheels off the car to catch and pass them. (Yeah, I know he was the dominate car all day but I never really expected him to get by Tony Stewart with almost two laps to go…Wow! It was a great finish to a good race.)
Several of the Roush cars did finish reasonably high in the top ten with Biffle 3rd, Kenseth 4th and Edwards 7th. That really wasn’t too much of a surprise to me even though I didn’t pick any of them to win, I did give them some honorable mention though.
Overall, the Monster wasn’t as hungry as he first appeared. Although he did chew on some cars, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.
Jeff Gordon got caught in the pits when a yellow came out which put him one lap down and then they got a little off in the middle of the race and that put him 2 laps down. With a little luck going his way, he very well could have finished in the top five because at the end he was more than able to run with the top five leaders and stayed with Jimmy Johnson for awhile. As it was, he finished 26th and forfeited the points lead to Tony Stewart.
Speaking of Tony Stewart, he and Ryan Newman both finished in the top ten again. With every week, I am more impressed by the performance of the new Stewart/Haas racing. I don’t think anyone expected the teams to run this well this early, (I know I didn’t), and they both look to be real contenders for the Chase. It is definitely a tribute to Tony Stewart’s ability to run a team as an owner/driver and I don’t think we can discount the fact they are running Hendrick equipment as being part of their success formula.
Okay, speaking from a personal point of view now… I have to give a big thumbs up to FOX Sports. They have once again delivered on presenting the races to the fans in an interesting and creative way. They even did a pretty good job of keeping the rain delays interesting… (well… most of the time). I personally like the way they cover the races and the other broadcast teams for the rest of the year have some pretty big shoes to fill. Sure, sometimes they talk too much and sometimes they are way to repetitive, but they did a great job this year and that just continues their record of successfully broadcasting Nascar racing over the last several years. From just a fan’s view, I think they did a great job and I look forward to Daytona and their return to broadcasting the Nascar races in February.
Well, this weekend, Nascar takes on the “tri-oval/road-course” at Pocono. (Well, at least I know that’s what some people say about it.) It should prove to be interesting and, hopefully, it won’t rain…
See ya next time…
Rusty
(All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer.)
© June 2009 – all rights reserved
Just A Fan’s View and Rusty Norman