July 1, 2009
By Chuck Abrams
Logano loves Loudon
With rain fast approaching in New Hampshire, No. 20 crew chief Greg Zipadelli decided to leave Joey Logano out to see if he could steal a win. Well, it worked and rookie Logano secured his first Sprint Cup victory thanks to a heads up call by his crew chief.
For all the “tainted win!” whiners out there –- someone had to win the race and it was probably going to be someone who made a gutsy call. So he won the race and that is all that matters. Are Gordon and Busch a bit ticked off? Probably, but they would take it if they won in the same manner… and both have in the past.
I did not see Logano winning a race this year. This may be a bit of a confidence booster for him to actually run better and be in position to steal another win this year. He can hope for rain when they return to Loudon in September.
Restarts are awesome
The double-file restarts are still the best move NASCAR has made in years for the quality of racing. It also caused a massive wreck at Loudon when Dale Jr. spun his tires. You can’t blame Junior, that kind of thing happens. But Rowdy Busch got out of line and had no patience while everyone checked up. If you are looking for a finger to point, try there. The aggression is there with the leaders as well as with guys trying to make up for a bad day -- no matter who they are.
Infineon
Before I left for Canada I gave a shout out for Bowyer, Smoke and Gordon at Sonoma/Infineon. Montoya and Ambrose were also singled out for being threats to win. I even thought that Allmendinger and Speed could do well.
Nowhere did I see Kasey Kahne winning.
But good for him winning this race and holding off Smoke for the win. A great finish for Ambrose and Allmendinger as well. Even Max Papis got a top 15 finish. But outside of that, the ringers did not finish as well as they usually do. Part of that is due to the Cup regulars bringing their A-Game more often –- and that A-Game is better at road courses than it used to be. And another part is that the quality rides for the ringers just are not there any more.
And it was nice to see someone other than Rowdy in Victory Lane. It also put Kahne darned close to the top 12. A significant slip up at Daytona this week by Kenseth, Martin or Montoya could put him in the cat bird seat.
Danica in and Earnhardt out?
Yup, something I read on the web. Whether this rumor has much meat to it is for the distinguished reader to decide. But it has been thrown out there so it will have life. The rumor has Danica Patrick heading straight to Cup at Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Jr. moving over to his own JR Motorsports team, who would then move to the Cup Series.
I seriously don’t give this rumor much thought since I do not see Rick Hendrick abandoning Dale Jr. anytime soon.
Daytona under the lights
This should be an awesome race. This would also be a great time for Earnhardt to step it up with his new crew chief and win a race. There is no way he can make the Chase this year but he could make the top 15 with a win or two, or three. With this race and Talladega still to come, Earnhardt has the help and ability to reclaim his prowess on these storied tracks. Quit complaining about the car and drive the danged thing.
Well, that’s all for now. Let me know your thoughts.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
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