Thank You, Captain Jablonsky

Let's begin with the most important element of this race.  Memorial Day weekend is dedicated to remembering the sacrifices made by our armed forces.  Each race car bore the name of someone who gave his life while defending our country.  Carl's car carried the name of Captain Jablonsky, Jr., from Pasadena, Texas.  He served as a Field Artillery Unit Commander in the XXIV Corps Artillery in Vietnam.  He sustained injuries in an attack on May 2, 1968, and died the next day.  Our thanks and gratitude go out to him and his family.

Carl's car must have had angel wings, because it was another Toyota rocketship.  In the three practice sessions, he finished in 3rd, 4th, and 11th.  During qualifying, he advanced through all sessions, eventually claiming the 9th spot on the starting grid.  He may not have been in the mix for the pole this time around, but with this track's temperature changes, I trusted that Dave Rogers knew what he was doing.

Once the race got underway, he maintained his spot, but did not seem to move forward very quickly.  When he did advance, it was one spot at a time.  But patience paid off, and soon he was running right behind the leader.

It was three quarters of the way through this longest race on the NASCAR calendar when disaster struck.  He did not get caught up in someone else's wreck.  He did not have a tire go down.  No mechanical problem appeared.  He very simply was caught speeding on pit road.  Twice.  As he served his pass-through penalty for his first speeding infraction, he did it again.  This time the penalty was a stop and go in his pit stall.  He ended up a lap down, a blow that he never could recover from.

Dave Rogers did try to pull a rabbit out of the hat, though.  When the caution flag finally flew, he elected to take the wave around. hoping to catch another caution soon so they could change tires.  But that caution did not materialize.  And on old tires, he was slower than the lead cars.  After a green flag pit stop for new tires, he was two laps down.  That is where he finished the race, in 18th place.   This finish moved him a tick down the Chase grid (2nd to 3rd) and the drivers' standings (4th to 5th).

While Carl was having some uncharacteristic bad luck, Martin Truex, Jr. finally got the monkey off his back in spectacular fashion.  He led an unbelievable 392 of 400 laps to get his first win of the season.  That was the most miles led in one race in the history of NASCAR.  The previous standard at Charlotte was set by Jim Paschal leading 335 laps to win in 1967.  It just goes to show what perseverance can do.  Congratulations to another Toyota in the Chase.