Nemechek clicks heels together three times, wins
What a great finish on Sunday! The margin of victory was a fraction of a second and for once the two guys slugging it out at the end weren't named Earnhardt, Gordon, Kenseth or Kahne. Who ever would have predicted Joe Nemechek and Ricky Rudd? Certainly not me. And who could have predicted some of the have-nots who made a decent showing while the Chase contenders struggled, some mightily. Well, my amazement shows in my results for the week, which were a disappointing 4-of-10.
GLENN'S TEN:
* Tony Stewart (winner) -- 14th, Tony just didn't have a car to win with. He got up near the top 5 but never looked strong, and paid the price in the shuffle of pit stops as various strategies played out to his disadvantage.
* Jeff Gordon -- 13th, Battled a "temperamental" car all race long and never got it perfect. Think he cracked the top 10 once, but only after losing a lap mid-race. Still in the hunt for the championship, but he needs to have some stellar performances at the tracks where he runs well. This was supposed to be one of them, but Lowe's and Martinsville are coming up.
* Kurt Busch -- 6th, He's making a Kenseth-like run at the title. He got his five bonus points for leading, and got a decent finish to broaden his lead over Earnhardt Jr.
* Jimmie Johnson -- 32nd, I hate to say this, but I think Jimmie's chance at the championship went out the window today. The car wasn't handling well before it spun out the first time, and the wreck several laps later assured an abysmal finish. Here's a guy who righteously can claim that the new Chase format sucks.
* Kasey Kahne -- 12th, Looked like a car that could contend for the win early, but as is so often the case with Evernham teams he got swallowed up in traffic and never recovered.
* Ryan Newman -- 33rd, Jimmie Johnson has plenty of company this week. Time to start thinking about 2005. He had a top 5 car until he got into the wall late in the race. No one to blame but himself.
* Dale Jarrett -- 8th, DJ is another one of those who got lost in the caution flag shuffle. He led a few laps and was a serious top 5 threat, plus he nipped Dale Jr. on the final lap to steal 5 points from one of the Chase contenders.
* Elliott Sadler -- 4th, Huzzah! Championship hopes not yet dead. Maybe the Wizard of Oz paint kept him from getting swept up in a twister like he found himself in last week at 'Dega.
* Matt Kenseth -- 17th, I'll tell you what the problem was this week -- he started too close to the front. Matt needs to start 25th or worse in order to be in the top 10 by the end of the race. 15th was too close. Title hopes hurting.
* Jamie McMurray -- 7th, Nothing to lose, so why not a top 10? When's this guy gonna break out and get another win?
REST OF THE TOP 10:
* Joe Nemechek -- 1st, Front Row Joe does the Kansas sweep, winning the Busch race on Saturday and then capitalizing on pit strategy to get up front when he needed to. First time a car numbered 01 has ever won a gNA$hCAR event.
* Ricky Rudd -- 2nd, (Obligatory plug for Fatback to follow...) Here's the surprise performance of the day. Just when everyone is thinking the guy's career is about toast he comes back from nowhere to almost steal the win. This came after he almost crashed on the next-to-last restart and made a great save through the grass. On the final restart he was able to chase down Nemechek from over a second back with less than five laps to go and almost powered his way past the #01 at the scoring stripe. Think Fatback McSwain is overrated as a crew chief? Watch out for this team next season.
* Greg Biffle -- 3rd, When I pick him he crashes, when I don't... More time and he might have been the winner.
* Jeremy Mayfield -- 5th, So what? He led the most laps. So what? He's in the Chase for the Championship. So what? He's 10th in the standings and far enough behind that it doesn't matter anymore. And his dogs are ugly too.
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- 9th, I take back all the evil things I said about DEI not doing well here. Oh yeah, he's now 29 points behind Kurt Busch, which would still be second place even without the 25 point penalty for swearing.
* Brendan Gaughan -- 10th, Uh-oh! Keep this up and they might actually think he's capable of a good finish every week.
OTHER NOTABLES:
* Michael Waltrip -- 11th, See my earlier comment about DEI.
* Bobby Labonte -- 16th, Life without Fatback just hasn't been the same.
* Mark Martin -- 20th, Didn't need this sort of finish, especially after the car was running well all day. A victim of running over debris that cut two tires and then left him stuck in traffic.
* Casey Mears -- 31st, The Breast Cancer Awareness pink has to go. Scraping the wall is a good way to not finish well.
* Sterling Marlin -- 34th, Blew his clutch at the drop of the green on lap 1. Crashed later.
Next week... Saturday night under the lights at Lowe's.
