Last Stop in the West

I did not post a blog last weekend because I was vacationing.  A few of us escaped the midwest March blahs for the sunshine of Las Vegas.  Yes, I know, my timing was off.  I enthusiastically pushed for the previous week so I could go early and catch the races.  But I was traveling with non-NASCAR folks who did not understand my passion, and the second week was going to save us a good number of dollars.

We did arrive in time on Sunday to check into our hotel room so I could catch the last 35 laps of the Phoenix race.   Carl and Kevin's thrilling finish was one exciting way to kick off my vacation!  My roommate pronounced NASCAR as something she would rather watch than golf.  I am not sure how to take that.

While in Vegas, I did find track down a sports book so I could place two bets.  One on my beloved Green  Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl next February, and the other on Carl to win the Cup Championship in November.  If both come true many months from now, I am going to be thrilled beyond words as well as a bit richer than I am right now.  Wish me luck.

Carl's visit to Fontana did not start out spectacularly.  In the first practice, his car was 25th fastest.  His teammates did not fair much better, with positions ranging between 15th and 24th.  Not what we have come to expect from the Gibbs camp.  I wondered what was off, but only until qualifying rolled around.  Then Carl snagged the 5th spot on the starting grid.  And in the two remaining practices, he was 1st and 2nd, showing very promising speed for the race.

 

And he did show speed in the race, too.  He spent a good portion of the first part of the race in the top 3, even leading a couple times.  It sure does feel good to see that 19 car at the head of the parade.  Even when a pit road speeding penalty buried him deep in the field, his car still had the power to get him back up to the front and into contention.  Unfortunately he did not have any tires left so he slid into the back of the top ten.  A late race restart got him back up with the leaders, and for a moment I thought he was going to grab the victory that eluded him last week.  But it was not to be; he finished the race in 7th place, another top ten finish.

 

It does seem that the broadcasters are giving him a bit more attention.  Fox even had Jamie Little assigned to his team on pit road.  He is having a marvelous start to his season.  Currently he sits fifth on the Chase grid, the highest positioned driver without a win.  And because he has more points than some of this season's winners, he moved up two positions to sit 3rd in the drivers' standings, behind only Harvick and Johnson.  When you consistently run as good as he has been, it is only a matter of time before he will be driving that #19 into the winner's circle.  I am confident.

And one if-the-Chase-were-to-start-right-now observation:  Roush would have Stenhouse #17 car in the Chase.  He has been having a fairly nice start to his season.  I would also mention that Chase Elliott is having a nice rookie season, but I am sure you have heard Jeff Gordon say that quite enough already.

In the midst of a lovely Fontana weekend, there was a hiccup of sorts at the end of the Xfinity race.  What looked to be a certain victory for Kyle Busch was snatched away when he blew a tire on the final lap.  For one fleeting moment it looked like Daniel Suarez would claim his first Xfinity victory, but then he ran out of fuel.  (I so hate fuel mileage races.)  Instead Austin Dillon drove through the melee to win the race.

For several weeks now, Kyle has been beating up on the youngsters and taking all of their trophies.  But this tiny bit of back luck . . . which really does not matter much in the grand scheme of things for a reigning Cup champion . . . brought out the old, petulant, crybaby Kyle.  Just when it seemed that he had achieved a certain level of decorum, he blew it away by whining that NASCAR did not throw a caution, then stomped off without fulfilling his media obligations.  When NASCAR's work week gets started and they review the weekend's problems, I hope they decide to slap him around by making him sit out of the Xfinity series for a while.  Cup drivers who participate in the lower series should set a positive example for the up-and-comers, not model embarrassing behavior.

I hope you enjoy the Easter weekend off.  When we come back, it will be short track time!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This weekend's Cup race in Vegas would have made Clint Eastwood proud.  The various adventures reminded me of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as 39 teams sought to claim the treasure in the desert.

The bad:  The 19 Arris Toyota Camry unloaded without a lot of speed, finishing the first practice in 14th place.  There was a time when we would have expected that, but thankfully those days are behind us.  Now we expect top tens if not top fives.

The good:  The team must have figured something out, because when qualifying got underway Carl was sitting in a rocketship.  At the end of the first round of qualifying, he was in 4th.

The ugly:  During the second round of qualifying, that beautiful orange rocketship smacked the wall, leaving them with a 24th place starting position.  Unfortunately the damage was bad enough that the team pulled out the backup car, so at the start of the race Carl had to move to the back of the field.

The good:  The backup car had more speed than the original, as evidenced by finishing the next two practice sessions in 1st and 2nd.

The bad:  Las Vegas must have angered Mother Nature, because just about every weather problem imaginable was thrown at the track.  The wind was so strong that car covers were flying off of cars and laptops were blown out of pit boxes.  The clouds tried to rain on the party but only managed to spit a bit.  And then a dust storm blew in, threatening to obscure the drivers' views.

The good:  And then the weather problems cleared up and left a lovely sunshiny afternoon behind for the crowd to enjoy.

More good:  Carl was able to systematically pick off one car at a time until he cracked the top ten on lap 105.

The bad:  Once he found the top ten he struggled to stay there.  He spent a good portion of time just out of the top ten.  A good pit stop would move him forward, but then he would again slip back a few positions.

The really really ugly:  And then, Matt Kenseth spun out, hit the wall, and collected Chase Elliott.  As the other drivers scattered to avoid it, Carl got a piece of it.  His crew managed to get him fixed up and back on the track without losing a lap, but the car was never really the same.  He finished the race in 18th place.

Our teammate's ugly continued:  After ending yet another race in the garage, Matt Kenseth might be having the worse three-race stretch of his career.

The bad:   With today's poor finish, Carl slipped to 8th in the Chase standings and 7th in the drivers standings.

The good:  That really is not a problem so early in the season.  Heck, that is not a problem later in the season, either.  If this were cut-off time, poor Matt would not even make the Chase.  Perspective is a wonderful thing.