Season Finale in Homestead

Season Finale in Homestead

Okay, let me first say I'm very sad to see the season come to an end. I'm kinda happy though. I root for Kasey Kahne, and that team needed to get the season over with. They have been running so bad the whole year. It seemed like they were on the right track there for a while, but Sunday's race was totally opposite. He finished 24th. His teammate, Elliott Sadler, finished 38th after hitting the wall. Their new teammate, open-wheeler Patrick Carpentier, finished 40th. There was some hope for Kasey early on because he did start 3rd, but then it went downhill from there.

Now for the rest of the field. Jimmie Johnson started on the pole. He made sure he lead the first lap to get the extra 5 bonus points. Then he floated back and just drove. As for Dale Earnhardt Jr., it was just another disappointing Sunday. He brought out the first caution. The drivers had to use the access road in order to go to pit road. All the sand, grit, and debris was blown onto the access road. The access road is not pit road, so they are not under mandatory speed, so they go really fast. As you can imagine, Debris + High Speeds = Trouble! As he was coming onto pit road he ran off the access road, but then got back in line. He was then tapped from behind by Kyle Busch, which made him spin. Patrick Carpentier was in this too. Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove back on the track instead of going on down pit road, so of course, NASCAR penalized him for a commitment cone violation. He had to go back down pit road because of this. But the fun wasn't over yet. Just as they got the green flag and were about to go, Jeff Burton got into the back of Dale Jr., which made him spin. It just wasn't Jr.'s day at all. He has had a ROUGH season, and I know he is ready to get to Hendrick Motorsports to start a new chapter of his career.
However, this was a huge break for most of the field, because they started in front of the leader Matt Kenseth. This gave them the chance to drive around and get at the end of the longest line. Again this week, Matt Kenseth lead a lot of the laps. He ended up winning the race.
Johnny Sauter spinned, and was out of the race. He needed to have a good race Sunday. He does not have a ride for 2008, so he needed a good race to prove to other owners what he is capable of doing.
At some point during the race, when Reed Sorenson was pitting, the jack man didn't let the jack down, so Reed drove off with the jack still under him. it stayed under him for a couple of seconds, but then went flying off. It was very fortunate that it didn't hit anybody. That could have done some major damage to somebody. It was unbelievable how fast it flew off. It is sad to see the season through with, but I know many of the drivers needed this break.

tag: NASCAR, driver, cars, Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne

This week in NASCAR: Johnson didn't Mess Around in Texas

Dickies 500, Fort Worth, Texas

This week's race was won with a behind the fender come around in the last lap by Jimmie Johnson. Matt Kenseth's fender was still burning and perhaps his embarrassment knowing he lost it at the last moment. But that is why I LOVE NASCAR!!!!!!

The race between Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth was very close. This was Jimmie's 9th win this season, 3 more than last years Kasey Kahne who won the most with 6. They are on a roll. It seems like nothing they do is wrong. I am happy for them though. I would rather Jimmie win than Jeff.

The Race

Okay so lets start out the race. Vince Vaughn got to drive the pace truck and lead them down to the green. That must have been the experience of a life time. Most of the time the celebrities just ride along, but he got to drive, so I know that was cool.
A.J. Allmendinger did not have a good day at all. He scraped the wall one time and then brought out a caution for cutting a right side tire. Jeff Burton brought out two cautions for debris that had fallen off of his car. Some of the pit stops yesterday were made under caution so that was pretty risky.

Kasey Kahne had been running really good up until lap 151, when Johnny Sauter made contact with him . Kasey had to go to pit road under green and get it checked out which put him two laps down, which is really hard to recover from. He never could get the "Lucky Dog" to get back on the lead lap, so his day was pretty much over. He did finish 18th though. (one note: they might bring this car to Homestead, the season finale, so hopefully he'll do much better then.)

Back to the race. All the chase drivers did pretty good except Carl Edwards. A chain in the sway bar got twisted up, so they had to come in to fix that. He didn't do very well. He was two laps down.

Juan Pablo Montoya did pretty good, up until he lost a cylinder. A.J. Allmendinger brought out another caution when he lost it coming off of turn 2. He had the brakes on, but then let off a little bit and that is when he hit the inside wall. It was pretty bad. Yesterday was just not good for him.

Caution #9 was a huge wreck! Casey Mears got loose and slid into Tony Stewart. Tony only had a little bit of damage though. Man, Kevin Harvick was right in the middle of that and somehow managed to get through. It was amazing seeing him drive through it without getting hit. The cars that were involved were Casey Mears, Tony Stewart, David Gilliland, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, and David Ragan.

Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin were racing real hard for the lead. Denny brought out a caution. He took his self out when he started racing dirty.

Greg Biffle didn't do real good. He brought out two cautions. On the first one, he just spun. On the second one, he spun and had to completely stop, because fire and smoke was in the cockpit. That must have been really hard trying to get out fast and breathing all that smoke. He said that He couldn't get out fast enough because the hose was stuck. He was wanting the Emergency worker to cut the hose. However, this was a sigh of relief for the other cars, because they were going to be running close on fuel if a caution did not come out. Then that is when the racing with Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson happened. It was really good, clean racing. I like both of them. They are good drivers. I would have liked to have seen Matt win, because Jimmie already has enough wins. I'm happy with how the race turned out. It is so hard to believe there are only 2 more races left.
tag: NASCAR, Kasey Kahne, driver, cars, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle,