Dover recap
One of the hazards of taking a week to actually get around to watching one of these races is the possibility that you will find out the results before you watch the tape. I was traveling through New Mexico and Arizona when the Dover race took place, and between ESPN, USA Today and NASCAR.COM I picked up enough little snippets of info that probably would have tainted my predictions, so I can't say that my results accurately reflect what I would have predicted if I'd made the call before race day.
I tried to remain true to my heart in making these late picks, but I had hunches about Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin that sort of spoiled the suspense. Here's a quick look at how I fared:
GLENN'S TEN (6-for-10... For what it's worth):
* Tony Stewart (winner) -- 18th, Lousy day for Tony. This was a brand new car and didn't perform well. He wound up two laps down.
* Ryan Newman -- 5th, Ryan racks up his second top 5 of the Chase. Just 12 points out of the lead.
* Rusty Wallace -- 3rd, A great duel with Mark Martin down the stretch to hang onto the position. Second in points.
* Jimmie Johnson -- 1st, USA Today had his car pictured with a Friday preview of the Talladega race. I figured that wasn't a coincidence. I would have picked him in the top 10 regardless, but I don't know that I wouldn't have picked him to win.
* Kyle Busch -- 2nd, Jimmie had to fight off his teammate to the checkers in the green-white-checkered finish.
* Kurt Busch -- 23rd, This makes two straight races in which the defending champ has performed poorly. After leading the most laps, Kurt suffered a flat tire under green and then compounded his woes by speeding on pit road.
* Jeremy Mayfield -- 7th, A quiet day that ends with a solid finish.
* Greg Biffle -- 13th, The Biff recovered well from problems that put him a lap down at one point.
* Mark Martin -- 4th, I caught a peek of something on NASCAR.COM that led me to believe Mark won this race. I would have picked him top 10 regardless. He was in the top 5 most of the day. Two tires on the final pit stop was a bad call.
* Jeff Gordon -- 37th, Jeff's car was getting better as the race went along, but then he wrecked. Typical bad luck.
REST OF THE TOP 10:
* Elliott Sadler -- 6th, Two-tire strategy played out well.
* Kyle Petty -- 8th(!!), A very rare top 10.
* Carl Edwards -- 9th, Chaser came from 32nd on the grid to notch the top 10.
* Casey Mears -- 10th, Pit strategy paid off.
OTHER NOTABLES:
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- 31st, Little E put himself in the hole early when he thought his brakes failed and spent 7 laps in the pits.
* Matt Kenseth -- 35th, Had a tire problem and tagged the wall hard.
Next week... It's already happened, but high speed hijinx at Talladega.
