A picture is worth a thousand words, now I have seen everything, Kevin James, star of the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop, drives the official pace Segway of the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown prior to the Camping World race. (Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images via NASCAR PR)
Can you hear it off in the distance, yeah, those are 700+ horsepower V-8 engines roaring to life and that could only mean one thing, it’s finally time to get the 2009 NASCAR racing season under way and I can’t think of a better way than a good old fashion Saturday night showdown under the light at Irwindale.
I’ve got my Mountain Dew, Cape Cod Potato Chips, one large cheese and pepperoni pizza and I’m on SPEED Channel, the pacecar is on track, 40 stock cars behind it and a man on segway pacing the field coming off of turn four, what? Oh that’s Kevin James getting into character for his new movie, already, so in honor of Kevin James and to repeat what Kevin James said at the 2007 Pepsi 400 in Daytona…God Bless America, God Bless NASCAR, Gentlemen start your engines!
And with that, the green flag is in the air and the 2009 NASCAR season is underway with 250 laps at Irwindale Speedway as 40 cars fan out down the front straightaway down and into turn 1, look at that highline work its way though and off turn 2 down the back straightaway and straight into turn 3, it almost looks like a major wreck waiting to happen as the cars slide across the race track up towards the wall as they thunder around turn 4 and down the curved front straightaway at Irwindale and that was just the first lap, we still have 249 to go, now where’s last year’s winner Joey Logano?
What an interesting format for a showdown, run 100 laps, get a 10 minute break, run another 100 laps, have another 10 minute break and then finally have a 50 lap shootout. Yeah the racing is entertaining in the first 200 laps, yes we had several leaders, several wrecks and 14 caution flags, however there is nothing like a 50 lap shootout on Saturday Night on a short track under the lights with money on the line and no points, that ladies and gentleman is what this race is all about, survive the first 200 laps and see who’s the best and with leader Joey Logano starting on the front row and several drivers hot on his bumper, this would be as they say a barn burner.
But who know just how wild things would get, 7 laps to, 5 laps to go, Peyton Sellers trying to get to the front, moving through the field and even shoving Joey Logano into the wall a couple of times as he took the lead.
This set up the last five laps perfectly as Joey Logano was chasing, instead of leading, finally the white flag is out, one lap of racing to go at Irwindale, Sellers drives it down into turn one on the outside with Logano right behind him, off turn 2 and down the back straightaway, Logano looked really loss coming off turn 2, he was driving the #08 for all it was worth, then Sellers goes down in to turn 3 on the outside line, Logano sends it in on the bottom and before you know it, Logano looks to have gotten loss, comes back up the race track, but just couldn’t clear Peyton Sellers, putting Sellers and himself (Joey Logano) into the outside wall, wrecking Sellers and sending him into the inside wall while Logano was able to save it and narrowly cross the finish line first over Matt Kobyluck.
So who really won this race and did NASCAR like so many times, make the right call? In watching the replay of the final laps several times, first, the last lap, last corner move that Logano made on Peyton Sellers was very similar to last October’s move Carl Edwards made on Jimmie Johnson, it was a dive bomb move, however the difference between the two moves was, Carl Edwards didn’t put Jimmie Johnson into the outside wall, he only put himself into the outside wall, Edwards rebounded to finish 2nd, however last Saturday Night, Joey Logano in making the same move, dive bomed into the corner, but didn’t clear Peyton Sellers, both drivers into the outside wall with Sellers unable to continue, while Logano recovered to cross the finish line first.
The difference was, Edwards move was “No Harm, No Foul”, while Joey Logano’s move caused harm, putting the leader out of the race, so NASCAR called foul (Joey Logano caused harm, NASCAR called harm.) The only argument that I can make here is, Joey Logano in my opinion didn’t mean to take him out, so the same applies to what I said after last October’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega, NASCAR should have either placed Logano 2nd or in staying with their previous call, placed him 13th or 14th, last car on the lead lap.
Ultimately, two things, first I like what David Poole said on his blog “Me, I am just interested to see that NASCAR did make a call” and second, Joey Logano didn’t win the race because he caused harm to the leader.
So basically in my opinion, first, Joey Logano didn’t win, but still got screwed because he finished 40th, normally NASCAR would have gave a driver a one lap penalty during the race for rough driving, second, Peyton Sellers got what he deserved after his run in with Logano and other drivers on his way to taking the leader with less than 5 laps to go, Matt Kobyluck got lucky and walked into the victory, he didn’t have the best car, NASCAR made the wrong call in not penalizing Ron Hornaday Jr. for taking out Brian Ickler, he should’ve received a one-lap penalty for rough driving and Brian Ickler had the best car and should have won this race…did I miss anything.
TO NASCAR, ITS A NEW YEAR, A NEW SEASON, 2009, SO PLEASE KEEP YOUR CALLS CONSISTANT IN ALL SERIES PERIOD AND AT LEAST WE CAN SAY YOU ARE CONSISTANT EVEN IF WE DON’T AGREE.
