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!
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!
posted by Jamie at 6:11 PM
2 Comments:
Good point Jamie; I couldn't agree more. I'd love to see that kind of racing at a few of the tracks.
After hearing Tony praise his crew on the radio when they beat Johnson out of the pits, one can only imagine how disappointed he was to lose this way. He sounded nervous when between turns 3 and 4 on that final stop he came over the radio and asked Zippy "are you sure we should pit?" Perhaps teams need to make this type of planning part of their strategy going into such a race. "at what point do we just roll the dice and see what happens?" Agree to it and end the race knowing you're all on the same page. I'd find it hard to believe that they weren't all shaking their heads after the race saying 'what if'...
Well Done MrsBSat30 (hands clapping)
Great Job Jamie, I always enjoy your blogs
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