Lessons Learned in the Bluegrass State

We have become used to Dave Rogers unloading a speedy car for Carl, but this weekend the car was exceptionally fast.  He logged the fastest time in three of the four practices.  The only practice session he did not "win" was the second session that was shortened due to weather.

Unfortunately qualifying was rained out.  Until very recently they would set the field based on speeds from the first practice session, but NASCAR realized that policy would create a bad situation for the non-charter teams in position to make the Chase.  So just last weekend they changed the rule to instead set the starting grid based on owners' points.  It was a very practical change that just happened to work against Carl in this case.  His fastest time in the first practice session would have given him the first position at the start of the race (and the best pit stall).  But his fifth place position in the owners' points was not a bad starting spot anyway.  And Kurt Busch, who lined up in third place, had to drop to the back at the start of the race.  So when all was said and done, Carl took the green flag in third place.

Once that green flag dropped, Carl immediately moved up to 2nd.  But then he fell back all the way to 8th.  Thus began the pattern of the day.  He would gain a bit here, lose a few spots there, but never falling out of the top 15.  On some restarts he would fall back, on others he would dive to the bottom and charge ahead.  Carl said that his car drove much differently than it had in practice.  Everybody was learning about the new Kentucky track surface "on the job."  Sometimes tight, sometimes loose, using more brake than usual for an intermediate track.

The learning curve was particularly painful for quite a few drivers.  Both experienced and rookie men found themselves in the wall from tires going down or in the garage from competitors getting loose and taking them out.  It created quite a bit of stress for the teams on the Chase bubble.

Then the cautions settled down and the evening turned into a fuel mileage race.  Carl started saving earlier than many of the other teams.  Several cars came down pit road for a splash of fuel in the last few laps, but the 19 team saved well enough to make it to the finish line.  Unfortunately so did one other car.  Carl finished in 2nd place, but if the race had been one more lap longer, I bet he would have won!

Carl maintained the 3rd spot on the Chase grid, and moved up one position in the drivers' standings, from 5th to 4th.

The worst part of the race took place in the parking lot, where a pickup truck went up in flames.  The fire was so intense that it damaged the cars parked on either side of it.  A grill was perched in the bed of the truck, leading to the suspicion that it was likely the cause of the fire.  However, a post on Twitter indicated that the fire started in the cabin of the truck and emergency responders pulled someone out of there.  Whatever the cause, the result was a bigger mess than what was accumulating in the Cup garage.

Fire in the Parking Lot