It was not a lucky win...

The more I read last night after the Coke 600 the more I saw fans on message boards, and on the Jack Daniels Postrace show on Nascar.com refer to Casey Mears' first career win as "lucky".

Eh I don't think so. Mears ran in the top 15 all night. Same for JJ Yeley, Kyle Petty and Ricky Rudd. All of those cars ran in the top 15 or 20 all night.

Now, the reason we had such weird results is because too many teams are doing the one thing I dislike more then anything, they were points racing. Matt Kenseth, Dale Jr, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson all stopped to get gas. Mears, Yeley, Petty and Rudd stayed out and stretched their fuel to get the win.

It's very obvious why the first group didn't take that chance, they are all in Chase contention for the end of the season. But how many chances do you get to win the Coke 600? They told Tony he was 2 laps short, he couldn't do anything on the track while leading, ie slowing down, to save 2 laps of gas? For Stewart, Kenseth, Hamlin and Johnson, it's not like a 15-20th place finish would suddenly knock them out of Chase contention come September. All of us would be shocked if all 4 of those guys were not in. You have a chance to win the Coke 600. But you play it safe.

Races, especially in May are about winning, not points. If your team is good enough, one chance taken to win a race and run out of gas will not keep you out of the Chase after Richmond. Roll the dice crew chiefs!

Where was Ricky?

Oh I think the picture says it all.

Richmond race observations

Well after a long weekend at the track we finally got the 400 lapper in.

Several thoughts

I thought the COT was supposed to bring more parity and allow the smaller teams to compete? Hmmm funny thing hasn't worked out that way so far. But I'm sure they will catch up....riiigghhhhttt.

Evernham. These 3 teams are in trouble. The 19 was horrible all weekend. Driver? Crew chief? His teamates both qualified in the top 10 and he could barely break the top 40 before cars started wrecking out. Elliott...you have been lucky enough to upgrade your ride twice in your career. This is it, if you cannot show more in this car with this team, the next team you go to will be at best a lateral move. If that.

RYR. My goodness this is painful to see. At least the 88 qualified well. And then it was all downhill from there. The 88 got worse on every run. Either the driver has lost the ability, or the crew chief is not worth anything. At least I could see the 38 improving as the race went on. That's not saying much as the 38 was horrible at the beginning. The 88 never got better. Speaking of Rudd. Ummm Mr. Rudd, Mr. Helton requests your presence at the white trailer to explain your actions after your wreck. You are darn lucky the 1 didn't completely run you over while walking through the infield grass and then you decided to stroll across pit road with the 84 coming down to pit. Just get in the ambulance Ricky.

Penske. For a 2 car team they really have the COT figured out. Kurt really drives well when he is angry. His pit crew really let him down on his first stop.

Speaking of pit crews. DEI must have the 3 stooges pitting the 8 car. Their stops all day were bad.

Harvick. Not a fan of his but he had the car to beat hands down no questions asked. He was lapping cars like crazy. Too bad his crew chief and spotter were asleep at the wheel on his pit stop.

Jeff Green is a not so lean mean wrecking machine. Wow.

Why all the boos for Montoya at driver intro? What is up?

Nice showing of the VA drivers to present the check to Coach Beamer Saturday night. Oh wait...one of them decided to no show completely. Thank you Elliott, Jeff, Ward and Denny. Ricky?? And nice showing by the Hokie Nation at RIR this weekend. Many race fans left their driver attire at home to proudly wear the orange and maroon.