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Double Clutchin’-The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly From Atlanta

Well, Atlanta has come and gone, and although Carl Edwards won the race, did the backflip, and had a pretty good day, Jimmie Johnson still managed to finish second and in the process he made winning his third straight championship an almost certainty.

Carl’s post-victory interview was priceless.  How good was it when he climbed out of his car and was greeted with the “Do you know who finished second?” question and he answered, “No, who finished second?”  The look on Carl’s face and the “Are you kidding me!” that followed when he found out Jimmie was behind him, were tremendous.

Jimmie Johnson had as much business finishing second in that race as Britney Spears’ mother did of writing a parenting book.  Now onto the G, B, and U:

The Good:

Good racing by Carl, who once again showed that he’s not afraid to bump somebody if it means the difference between a top five finish and a win.  Edwards bumped Denny Hamlin on lap 310 and held the lead for the rest of the race, and did all that he could to shorten Jimmie Johnson’s lead.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough, because…

Jimmie Johnson is the devil.  He has sold his soul to the same Sports Satan that ensured that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots would dominate the NFL for most of the last decade.  Johnson overcame being down a lap early in the race, and at the end of the race he was making more passes than a college student at a strip club.  Johnson is going to win his third straight championship, something that only Cale Yarborough has done, and with that accomplishment he’s going to make it impossible to ignore his name when talking about the most impressive achievements in NASCAR history, or the greatest drivers in NASCAR history.  He is also the man whose winning of another championship is going to bring up a lot of discussion about the way that the points system in NASCAR is set up.  Is Johnson great?  Or is he just a good driver who is taking advantage of a flawed system?  I don’t know the answer to the first question, but I have this answer to the second one.  All the other drivers are racing under the same rules as Johnson and we’re not talking about any of them.  So, if he’s got a secret to winning the Chase it must be one hell of a secret, because no one else has been able to duplicate his formula.

The Bad:

“My name is Juan Pablo Montoya, you have wrecked my race car.  Prepare to die.”

Anyways, moving right along.  Montoya had a great, great, car Sunday, and I was cheering for him to break through with a win at a traditional track.  It was not to be however, as Montoya was first hit on pit row by Clint Bowyer and was then unable to avoid the crash between Dave Blaney and Jeff Burton.  Montoya ended up with a 40th place finish, but there is no doubt that this was one of the better races of his NASCAR career and one that he and his crew can hopefully build off of for the remainder of this season and into the next one.

Speaking of Jeff Burton; until he had the wreck with Blaney, you would have had a hard time finding him on the track with X-Ray glasses.  Burton has had very mediocre races (17th and 18th spot finishes) since winning two weeks ago, and has taken himself out of what was a legitimate shot at a championship.  This season may have been Burton’s best shot at a championship and I have to wonder if the driver’s legendary cautious streak kept him from being able to really pull the trigger the last couple of races.  Maybe he got tight, I don’t know.  Burton is a very good driver, but he’s never struck me as having a great deal of killer instinct, and I’m not sure that he’s got the time left in his career to develop it in, in order to get that championship.

In a move that should make Shrub haters smile just a little, the 18 car was confiscated after the race and is being taken to North Carolina to have its measurements checked.  Although NASCAR.com says that its not expected that anything will be found, it’s still going to be fun for some people to kick President Kyle while he’s down.

The Ugly:

Is it just me, or were there a whole bunch of NASCAR fans dressed up like empty seats on Sunday?  I haven’t seen a number that shows the race’s attendance (I’ll look around) but I have read several articles like this one, that suggest that the Atlanta sports market is really struggling right now.  It doesn’t really single out NASCAR as being the only sport hit by the economic crunch, but it just goes to show that right now there are many people who are having to choose not to go out to the track, not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t afford to.  NASCAR has followed the lead of many other sports in becoming more and more expensive over the last 10 years or so, and in the process they have made it really difficult for many of their fans to experience a race or the racing experiment live at even the Nationwide level, and that’s a shame.  Plus, with the financial difficulties that many local tracks are having, one has to wonder where the next generation of NASCAR fans are going to come from.

That’s it for the Good, Bad, and Ugly for this week.  Next week is Texas, and I’ll say one thing about Texas; I may not be a Cowboys or Longhorns fan, but I love their cheerleaders.  Keep it between the lines folks and enjoy the races.

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