A Voice for the Fans ~ Who Is Not Speaking to Whom?
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I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and a cordial “Hey y’all” to our assigned reader of
all things NASCAR. I hope this lovely day finds everyone well and happy. Now,
let’s get right to the meat of the story. Did everyone enjoy the race at
Martinsville? That’s one I can’t answer with a simple yes or no. I love that little
track, and surely I’ve seen my fair share of wrecking on her tight curves and
high curbing.
Short
tracks tend to bring out the worst in even the nicest guys. That’s just the way
it is… two cars both want the same spot; one gets it and the other gets to kiss
the SAFER… or, when things don’t go as planned, sometimes they both kiss the
SAFER… or, sometimes other cars.
One
thing I learned many years ago is that it’s not always the fault of the guy
behind. We can’t honestly assess from our living rooms much of the bumping and
banging that goes on in any typical short track race. Sometimes, what we think
we see is not what actually happened. The mess at the end of this one wasn’t
one of those times… but we’ll get to that one in due time. As with most short track
dust-ups, there are folks not speaking to other folks. Some Christmas card
lists have been shortened and there are hot tempers and cold shoulders being
served up at several tables, so let’s take a look at some of that.
The
earliest problem, circa lap 37 involved Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and
Michael McDowell. I’m not even sure that NBC gave a good rerun of that one.
None of them are in the Chase/Playoff thing, so they don’t count. It “appeared”
from my seat that McDowell spun Dillon and Stenhouse happened to be in the
area, but I’d assess no blame there. Martinsville isn’t Talladega and sometimes
2-wide proves to be one too many. In any case, Ty, who was on my Yahoo Fantasy
team this week, probably won’t be talking to Michael right away.
Farther
on down the line, at lap 88, there was a meeting of fenders between Danica
Patrick and A.J. Allmendinger. No harm to Danica, but A.J. was out of the race
and received the Brock Beard award given to the “Last car.” (Oh yes, he was
also on my Fantasy team) Again, no real blame that I could see. From my chair,
it appeared that A.J. went up the track a bit and Danica decided that she’d fit
through. He came down; she was there. BOOM! Regardless, he’s not speaking to
her for now.
After
that, things settled down for the most part until circa lap 300, Kyle Larson
flat lost his Chevy while driving under the Rick Ware entry driven by young
Kyle Weatherman, running his first Cup race. (Seems to be a whole lot of Kyles
all of a sudden, doesn’t it?) Larson did his best to keep his about-to-spin
mount off the youngster, but in doing so, took ‘er
straight into the inside SAFER barrier… hard! I don’t suppose either one of
those Kyles is mad at the other one, though Larson was probably talking to
himself about how if he’d hit the kid, he could have leaned on 4 more wheels
and probably straightened his own car out. That’s how the young ones learn
lessons.
The
race carried on and we saw a couple of harmless spins, one by Erik Jones and
another by Landon Cassill. Each caused a caution flag, but I don’t believe
either one had assistance. It’s kind of hard to tell, as noted earlier, because
NBC pays little or no attention to anyone not in the running for the Fantasy
Championship. The next spinner on the schedule was Carl Long and he managed a
solid meeting with the SAFER that sent him to the garage and onto the trailer
bound for home.
At this
point, the race was nearing its end. Joey Logano had a tire rubbing, courtesy
of Kyle Busch, but decided to ride it out and hope for the best. Meanwhile,
teammate Brad Keselowski was out in front with clear sailing and a convincing
lead. BOOM! Joey is around and the caution waves, killing Brad’s lead. They
restart with but a couple laps remaining, and inexplicably Brad chose to start
on the outside. I’m sure he’s rethought that move over and over and probably
isn’t speaking to himself… and possibly Joey, whose crew chief now says he made
a bad call. He should have called Joey in and protected his teammate’s lead. “Too
soon oldt und too late schmart!”
The
restart produced about what one would expect with the race win on the line.
Side by side… Elliott and Keslowski… some bumping,
some banging and up the track they go. We couldn’t see any significant contact;
the young one just drove Brad up into the marbles and he fell back rapidly. No
harm; no foul; Chase takes the lead and looks home free, but no! Now it’s Denny
time! Hamlin bumped the youngster probably 3 times, but Chase held on. Then, just
entering turn 3, Denny drove directly into the #24, lifting it off the ground.
Chase was toast after that.
This
was a tweet from PRN Live at 6:57 on race day:
Hamlin:
"He missed the corner because I had his backend jacked up, for sure. I got
in too hot and he went around."
And…
the answer from Jeff Gordon:
Jeff GordonVerified account @JeffGordonWeb Oct
29
Jeff
Gordon Retweeted PRN
Translation “I wrecked him”
That lit up Twitter for several hours Sunday night. But
back to the action on the track. Chase Elliott’s ills caused yet another
caution, which always means another restart. This time it was Hamlin on the
inside and Kyle Busch on the outside. Hamlin took the lead, but Kyle soon took
it back. Truex is right behind and so is Clint Bowyer. The #14 gave his own
version of how to move someone out of the way and bumped Denny up the track.
Denny out of control resulted in a massive traffic jam that quickly turned into
a parking lot, with cars scattered everywhere.
Kyle Busch went on to take the Checkers, with Martin
Truex close behind; Bowyer was third, Keselowski fourth and Harvick fifth. From
Keslowski back, I guess they finished in the order
that they managed to peel themselves apart and circle around to the
Start/Finish line. And… we have video!
That tells it much better than I can. For sure and
certain, Chase is not speaking to Denny and no phony apology is going to right
that ship anytime soon. Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney had some words for each
other after the race. In the final melee, I guess Ryan did get into him, but he
was being catapulted off someone else’s bumper. Pretty much everybody hit
everybody there at the end. That’s short trackin’ the
way it can be. The garage area at Texas will undoubtedly be kind of a quiet
place, but they can and will get over most of it. What isn’t gotten over… well,
that’s called “Payback.” That’s something else that does happen, though NASCAR
will tell you differently. After the race, I put up one tweet, and it’s still
being retweeted today, Tuesday.
PattyKay Lilley #NFB @MamaPKL
Most of the race was clean, until Denny got involved.
Then it all went to Hell in a hand basket!
And that’s just the way it was at Martinsville last
Sunday.
Time now for our Classic Country Closeout and this week
we’ll all enjoy another of the wonderful series I’ve been playing, featuring
the wonderful and oh so memorable Stars of the 1950s. Please enjoy!
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling.
It looks so good on you! Don't forget to turn your clocks BACK Saturday night!
~PattyKay 