Tony Stewart finally got the monkey off his back and rolled to his first victory of the 2007 season. And he climbed his first fence.
Matt Kenseth kept pace with a second place finish. And he wasn’t happy about 2nd place.
Penske Racing finished with both drivers in the top 10. They appear on an honest to goodness roll.
Smoke and Hamlin appeared to make up and be all happy after a much-celebrated “29 minute” meeting with Papa Joe. Thankfully we don’t have to listen to that for another week.
Casey Mears sat on the pole and got himself a top 5 finish. If this pace keeps up, he could easily have another top 15 finish for the year and possibly better his career best 14th place from last year.
RCR placed all 3 cars in the top 10. If they can build on this momentum, they could be for real contenders in the Chase.
Jimmie Johnson was OK after a hard smack in the wall.
Dale Jr. avoided wrecking his car after losing his power steering. He finished the race with a top 20 and stayed in the Chase “bubble”, barely.
Waltrip, Reutimann, Blaney, Mayfield qualified their Toyotas.
Mike Skinner wins in the CTS and looks on his way to another truck title.
LOWS:
Another tragedy takes two lives in the NASCAR family this past week.
DEI having mechanical issues with all 3 cars at Chicago.
The war of words with Kyle Busch and his Hendrick teammates has not ended. Someone oughta take Busch, Johnson and Gordon out behind the woodshed and spank them.
Jamie McMurray squandered his win last week by finishing 38th at Chicago.
Ward Burton finally made a race only to be the 3rd car out 70 laps from the end.
Kasey Kahne has another abysmal performance. What is up with Evernham Motorsports? Note to Ray – Budweiser is not used to running that far back.
The long green flag runs meant it was a pretty boring race. The lead car got such a lead in clean air that it was hard for anyone to run him down. Thankfully a few cautions bunched the field up for some interesting racing. You hate fuel mileage races? I hate aero races even more.
Only 19 cars finished on the lead lap. Had it not been for the cautions, it would have been less.
There are only 2 drivers within 400 points of leader Jeff Gordon.
All the yahoo media people who have been slamming Smoke for his “…case of Schlitz beer..” comment. They are reading it out of context and oughta be taken out behind the woodshed and spanked after Kyle Busch gets his due. In fact, let Kyle do the spanking.
Aaron Fike is suspended from future competition after his heroin arrest in Ohio.
Hendrick announced that Budweiser would not be sponsoring Earnhardt next year. What next, no number 8?
(Read more on my thoughts on this subject at Chuck’s Corner at www.turnleftracing.com)
Let me know your thoughts on this or any other racing topic.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
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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