Oh Noo, Kyle

Mark Martin 4th! -73 on JJ

What a mess of a finish. Only Busch and Hamlin actually made it I think.

What a mess of a finish, but at least it was kind of interesting.

Oh yeah I forgot about Busch's cool victory celebration. I like it.

wtf celebrating in reverse lol

M Martin class interview..

cya for next race guys!

This was due to happen for Johnson at one of these races, things had been too straightforward. 110 points is a huge swing, but it could have been worse - the start and parks and the Edwards-JPM-Gordon crash swung some important points back his way. Edwards must be in disbelief that he finished behind him.

Really underscores Martin getting caught in the wreck so late at Talladega.

Whether people would admit it or not, for the sake of interest in the next two races you could almost feel Nascar nation from admin to TV to competitors and fans perk up across the country when Johnson hit the inside wall.

it's because passenger cars have five, one of the few connections they have left to stock cars.

something that probably didn't come up, but a fan got to pick a driver for a chance @ $1 mil, - they picked kurt busch - so congrats to that fan for his win too.

I'd say the roars of cheers coming from the stands was more than "perking up". Despite the perk though, Johnson will probably have to have another bad race for Martin or anyone else to catch him. Martin basically needs to gain 40 points in two races. While possible, its unlikely given how well Johnson runs in the Chase.

Rewind one page

The mrs found them in Fenwicks at Newcastle a few weeks ago and insisted on buying them at £7 a box. Figured not having her whinging all day was worth the few quid!

OLB, you got to change your avatar!! that's a desperate look!

Without watching the crash, I can't stop thinking of a 'fix' to make the chase more interesting.

So I ask you guys, was JJ's crash a terrible stroke of bad luck or someone had it comming for him???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctly3RUxeF8

He's waiting to see what Target will pay him to remove it. Hold out for the $50 gift card OLB!

Watch the crash. It's Hornish (perhaps with an assist from Reutimann), who, God bless him, is either very impressive or barely in control on some of these tracks. This was not one of his impressive moments.

He's had very few impressive moves lately.
At one point during this season I was thinking the light came on for him, lately, not so much.
He'll be lucky to make the chase next year, which will be his third year in a top of the line team.
Montoya, with a much less impressive team, with lots of upheaval, in his third year has done very well.
I'm having the feeling that in a couple more years of this, Hornish will be following Stremme, out the door...

Just finished watching my replay... and damn I was on the edge of my seat hoping Ambrose had enough fuel at the end there! I secretly wanted Kyle Busch to win just so he could grab that record, but seeing Marcos get another top 5 would have been great, the 47 was among the fastest all day except for that stint with the bump packer in. That crap pitstop at half distance didn't help either...

Good to see the Chase tightening up again at the expense of JJ and with the luck of MM, but like MM said, it's tough to beat them on pace. It's still an uphill battle but hopefully Martin can continue to close the gap so we have a race on our hands come Homestead.

Yeah, about mid-season things seemed to be coming together. Lately . . .



The Chase? [Cue Jim Mora's famous tirade about the Indianapolis Colts and the playoffs]
Who's talking about the Chase?
The Chase?

law of averages - everyone has a bad race... in the chase it's considered everyone can get away with one mulligan.

Brilliant reference. Thanks for the memory.


me too and me too

You gotta give the entire Hendrick crew to rebuild Johnson's car including installing a new front. It took them a hour to do so. That's determination and teamwork of a champion.

Yep, hard to beat that.

Not to be left out are Montoya's crew who I think did a swell job as well. He hip-checked the wall pretty hard and after coming back out, was faster than JJ (I enjoyed watching Montoya pass Johnson while Logano and Hamlin waited patiently behind lol)

Guys, here's a more balanced view. The Evening News interviewed a famous NASCAR driver coach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2OcW_Hwkg

There's some in-race radio there for those of you who haven't heard that yet.

From Jayski:

Johnson's lead still 73 points: #48-Jimmie Johnson leads the points standings by 73 points over #5-Mark Martin with two races remaining. The largest points deficit overcome with two races remaining was 85 by Alan Kulwicki in 1992.(11-10-2009)


So not impossible. Merely improbable.

Even if the powers that be ultimately wind up resetting the points at the last debris caution at Homestead ;) that's a title finish that won't be matched....Davey Allison got taken out in a crash and lost the points lead, and Kulwicki won by the margin of the most laps led bonus, which he won by 1 lap IIRC (granted he let Elliott by after clinching it).

Also was Richard Petty's last race and Jeff Gordon's first.

It was the subject of a pretty good book by David Poole.

http://www.amazon.com/Race-Destiny-David-P...3263&sr=8-5