I’ve been pretty shocked by the turn of events in the first five chase races, not with Carl Edwards vs. Jimmie Johnson, I mean Edwards has been running good all season long and Johnson normally seems to come on, making statement after statement at this time of the year, he’s a lot like his teammate and owner Jeff Gordon, when the money is on the line, he steps up and goes for it, no, I have been surprised with Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch.
When I created my list of what the top 12 might look like in my eyes after Homestead, I choose to put Kyle Busch in the third spot in the chase and Greg Biffle in the 11th, so imagine my surprise when I see Greg Biffle win the first two chase races, finished in the top 5 at Kansas and etc., while Kyle Busch is holding down at the bottom of the list, it’s a complete opposite from what I predicted, 3rd, 11th and yet, a welcome treat to watch.
When I look back at the first two chase races in New Hampshire and Dover, those two races not only added some much needed excitement, but where two of the best races all season long.
Starting in New Hampshire with the first chase race is a good for NASCAR, New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a technical racetrack, it’s not a place that just any driver can go out and run flat out fast laps, it’s a one mile flat track with real passing, so it shouldn’t have been a giant surprise to see the racing that we did after the late June race, but surprise, surprise, the key to only getting to victory lane, but just finishing in the top 5 or even top 10 was survival. There were a couple of those standout drivers that just caught my eye, from Kyle Busch’s troubles with a broken sway bar (I believe) that had him finishing 34th, to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton racing hard with each other for a top 5 position.
However as much as that was surprising, nothing compared to seeing Biffle passing Jimmie Johnson for the lead in the final laps to win. Greg Biffle wins the New Hampshire 300. (Read full New Hampshire article here…)
Next up was Dover, yet another chase that surprised this NASCAR fan, the phase “heaven and a nightmare all in one lap”, considering I am a Dale Jr. fan, you can figure out just what lap I meant by that, however even with that going on, it was great to see that the battle for the victory would come right down to the final 40 laps of this one and all between three to five drivers that at one point, you could put under a blanket, what a battle and the top 3 cars were all Roush-Fenway Racing with Carl Edwards on two tires, that was a gamble that didn’t pay off, but it’s those calls that might just win you races as well, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle coming on strong.
The battle of Greg Biffle first going around Edwards was cool, even Mark Martin the #8 DEI Chevy got in the mix and the points leader Jimmie Johnson, but this race belonged to Greg Biffle once again as he doubled up on victories while Kyle Busch would double down with yet another bad finish, engine issues. (Read full Dover article here…)
So from there it was on to Kansas and Talladega, yeah, two races that are completely different, one being a 1.5 miler and the other is a high speed, flat out restrictor plate racetrack that is heart-stopping, yet hard to watch at times races. For Kansas, it wasn’t the exactly what I expected to see, but interesting none the less, it was a race of mistakes by the drivers and teams, not NASCAR, but nothing would have prepared me for the finish of the race on the last lap.
It takes something special to impress me, that’s why I am not only a Motorsports and Car enthusiant, but a huge NASCAR fan and that finish at Kansas was putting it all on the line for a victory. You had the leader Jimmie Johnson closing in on his first chase race victory, while second place Carl Edwards closing fast on Johnson, white flag one to go, and into turn 3, Edwards makes a video game move and throws his #99 Ford into turn 3 under the leader Johnson and goes straight up in front of the leader, hits the wall and tries to keep as much speed as possible, but just doesn’t have it, Jimmie Johnson dodges Edwards and comes down to win at Kansas, but like I said in my Kansas article, I have to give it to Edwards for making that move, he wanted that victory and was willing to race hard for it and not points race it.
However with every good race must come a race that makes you say, what was that and unlike the spring Talladega Cup Series race that I called a good race and enjoyed, this one on the other hand was a complete nightmare, can you say “The Big One”, ok, can you say at least two Big One’s and it wasn’t even over there, here comes the end of the race and guess what, the yellow-line rule would pick the winner, Regan Smith crosses the finish line first after being forced below the yellow-line by Stewart and had to race for the lead down below the yellow line and no victory, Tony Stewart wins his first race of 2008 or did he? Most media said NASCAR made the correct call, while others including fans said wrong call, personally, right call and then wrong call, what bothered me was the fact that NASCAR put him in 18th place on the final standings, that’s where they went wrong. (Read full Talladega article here…)
With Talladega Superspeedway in the rear view mirror, drivers set their sights on Lowe’s Motor Speedway, in a race that could be described as Kansas earlier this year without the dive move finish, a race that took its toll on several championship contenders including Carl Edwards having ignition troubles that put him 16 laps down, Dale Earnhardt Jr. blowing a right front tire in the middle of turn 2 just one lap before pitting, Matt Kenseth crashing hard on the front straightway, Jeff Gordon slapping the wall twice and Tony Stewart’s late race pit penalty, a championship contender dark horse emerged after a late race call for fuel only that kept him out front, Jeff Burton takes the checkered flag to win the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and second in points, only 69 back from leader Jimmie Johnson.
It’s still too earlier to pick one clear favorite right now, because all it takes is one bad race and your back to square one in the points, for Johnson, this is his championship, however don’t count out Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and the dark horse Jeff Burton to be contenders in the final five chase races, Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix and the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the finale.
- Racedriven
