From this fan’s view, it looked like Jeff Gordon, Kurt Bush and Tony Stewart would be battling right down to the wire and then, the rains came and great strategy by crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, proved to be the winning move that put Joey Logano and the number 20 Home Depot team in Victory lane. It was great call that worked out well and gave Logano his first Cup victory and made him the youngest driver to win a cup race.
This has been a year of surprises in Nascar and Sunday’s race at the Magic Mile was no different. Some say Joey Logano didn’t deserve to win and that Nascar called the race too soon. In fact, there were a lot of opinions offered concerning the calling of the race for rain, but according to the weather and the rules, they did it just right.
If we really take an honest look at the end of the race, we find more than one person was trying the same strategy. It just didn’t work out for them. Greg Zipadelli made the call to stay out and then coached his young driver to the victory. The thing about racing many forget, or maybe don’t understand is, you do what ever you can to put yourself in contention to be out front when the checkered flag falls.
There are a lot of cliches that float around racing and a few of them could be inserted here. I won’t bore you with all of them but one of the most important ones is, “To finish first, you must first finish.”
If the race had gone a few more green flag laps, Joey Logano would have had to come in for fuel; but there weren’t, so he didn’t and he won the race. Hey, ask anyone who has raced. Sometimes you do have to have a things go your way (some people call that luck.) It may not seem fair when the cards fall as they do, but it doesn’t change the outcome when they do. You take the hand you’re dealt and move on to the next race knowing that the same thing that helps you one time can hurt you next time.
One ‘after chatter’ hot point about the rain-out was what may have happened if the race could have finished. Would it have been Jeff Gordon, Kurt Bush, Tony Stewart or maybe someone else that took the checkered flag? Now, even though it doesn’t matter, it is interesting to consider but, I admit, kind of pointless. I just want to offer my two cents into this discussion. I think it would have been a real shootout between Jeff Gordon, Kurt Bush and Tony Stewart if they would have run the last 27 laps. Depending on how the yellow flags might have fallen at the end, even Kyle Bush, David Reutimann and Jimmy Johnson may have figured in to the mix.
You see, that’s the fun thing about speculation. In our minds anything could have happened and, the way the human mind works, the possibilities are endless. I am amazed at some of the ones I’ve heard. Some even said that Dale Jr was going to pull off the victory, even though he was running thirteenth at the time the red flag came out.
Personally, I don’t think he had any chance of that at all. I think it would have been more likely for Jimmy Johnson to pull off the victory from ninth rather than Dale Jr, only because he led so many laps at the first part of the race. All of those wild possibilities aside, I do think what I said earlier about Jeff, Kurt and Tony would have been more likely if for no other reason than it is so hard to pass at the Magic Mile.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what we think “might have happened.” Joey Logano won because he was at the right place at the right time when the checkered flag came out. He and his team deserved to win simply because of those facts and I congratulate him and the Home Depot Team for what they accomplished.
That about wraps up this fan’s view of the Miracle Mile at Loudon, NH. Next stop is the “Coke Zero 400” at Daytona, FL this Saturday night. I know this might sound like another one of those cliches, but, “I can’t wait for the fireworks.”
See ya next time …
Rusty
(all views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer)
© July 2009 – all rights reserved
Just A Fan’s View and Rusty Norman
