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Stewart gambles at Las Vegas and loses

An Opinion


March 9, 2011

By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams



















Tony Stewart had a wicked fast car and led just about the entire race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past Sunday.

Just about ain't good enough in Sin City though.

Trying to recover from a pit road penalty, the decision to take two tires to gain lost track position came back to bite him in the rear later in the race when he was forced to take four tires.

Stewart proved to others that you can run and stay in the lead on just two tires though, and that gave Edwards the shot he needed. With a faster pit stop, Carl Edwards took over the lead from Smoke and drove it to the win.

Tony was obviously perturbed over the loss, knowing he had a fast car and that a pit road gaffe cost him the win and sole possession of first place. As every driver knows, wins will be more important than ever in the final Chase seeding and giving away what was looking like a sure thing -- doesn't sit very well with Stewart.

In the meantime, Edwards has proven himself strong so far in the young season and had it not been for a wreck at Phoenix, he might be sitting with two wins and atop the leader board himself.

As it stands now, Stewart is tied for first with Kurt Busch -- who spun after a restart and never got back in the groove, finishing ninth.

Kyle Busch started the race tied for the points lead and blew an engine (after blowing a right front tire) and now sits 14th in points.

Egads! The new point system is sure showing how quickly a driver can fall from grace and how long it takes to make up ground from a bad race. Last week Jeff Gordon won the race and was sitting firmly in the top five. With his wall slam (right front tire -- see a pattern here?) he fell like a rock and now sits in 19th.

It is still early in the season obviously, but I can see that the volatility of the new point system could become an issue as the season progresses over the next few weeks. I have no doubt that Jeff Gordon won't get back into the top 10, but it may take him several more weeks to get there if he doesn't win again in the next few races.

The standings are still filled with some surprises that I thought would be closer to being gone by now.

After a dismal 2010, Juan Montoya has stayed out of trouble and put his Chevy into the Top 5. I certainly did not see that coming. Ryan Newman also had a forgettable 2010 but he has managed put his car into the Top 5 as well. Paul Menard, Martin Truex, Jr. and AJ Allmendinger are all in the Top 10 and have done it by keeping their noses clean and running half way decent. Allmendinger took the biggest hit this week falling five spots with his 19th place finish but it is interesting to see if he can maintain some consistency in the coming weeks to stay in touch with the Top 10.

And if you did not notice, Jimmie Johnson had a miserable race and yet managed to sneak into the Chase group in 12th place. And in case you have been under a rock since Sunday, Dale, Jr. grabbed another top 10 finish and is sitting in tenth place. Junior Nation is optimistically on the edge of their seats.

In what was possibly the biggest racing news of the weekend, Danica Patrick placed fourth in her Nationwide race, the highest finish ever for a woman in a NASCAR race. Pretty soon she will go back to the IRL (which is not the IRL but the Izod IndyCar Series. Whatever.) and we will forget all about this historical event as she plods her way through another open wheel season.

In the meantime, the only NASCAR race on this weekend is the Camping World truck race at Darlington on Saturday. Trucks at Darlington -- that should be a good one.

Let me know your thoughts.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.








Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News.
You Can Read Other Articles By Chuck Abrams

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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