• Home
• Blog
• Podcast
• Forum
• Speed Shop
• Archives
• About Us

• Channels:
• Formula 1
• IRL
• NASCAR
• Motorcycles
• NHRA

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

It’s fitting that the Bank of America 500 took place in the former home of Mid-Atlantic wrestling. The race was over-shadowed for most of the week by the fight between Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick, but when the lights came on, it was the grizzled veteran Jeff Burton who took the checkered flag. How did the rest do? Let’s find out, shall we?

The Good:

Great job by Jeff Burton. Burton led for the final 57 laps and used a gas and go strategy to help hold off a very game Kasey Kahne for the victory. Burton continues a career that has shown him to be one of the best drivers that the mainstream knows nothing about and aren’t interested in featuring. Now that he sits behind only Jimmie Johnson in the points standings, it may be only a matter of time before Burton takes the respect that he’s not been getting.  Burton is as consistent as the sun coming up in the morning and it’s that same consistency that’s going to keep him in the running for the main prize until the final checkered hits at Homestead.

OMG we had a Kurt Busch sighting. This was easily Kurt’s best run since Daytona (yes, I know that he won a race because of the rain, I’m choosing to ignore that), and it had to feel good for him to edge out little brother. I’m amazed by how the last couple of seasons have gone for Kurt. A few years ago he was easily one of the top guys in the sport and it looked like he was only going to get better. Of late though, he’s been nothing but a footnote in little brother’s biography. He’s shown himself still capable of winning a race or two but has lacked any kind of consistency from week to week. Maybe this finish can be the start of some positive momentum.

The Bad:

A Kevin Harvick fan somewhere got their money out of that Carl Edwards voodoo doll. Edwards watched his once-promising Chase standing slide south in a hurry. The culprit of Edwards’ 33rd spot finish was an ignition problem that ended any hopes of winning at Charlotte and that forced him to fourth in the standings, behind JJ, Burton, and Greg Biffle. Edwards still has a shot to get back his momentum, but he’s probably going to need to help himself and to get some help with bad finishes from the guys above him. As consistent as Johnson and Burton are, that kind of help isn’t likely.

“If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all”, is probably the way DE88 feels after his tire blew one lap before he was ready to come into the pits. Junior remarked that there was no warning and the tire just went. I can’t remember another year when random tire explosions have played such a big part in seemingly every race. This was the second week in a row that Junior had a good car and was taken out of contention by random acts of lady unlucky (lady luck’s ugly sister, I know her well). Being a Junior fan this season was kind of like being back in high school and dating a preacher’s daughter. You wait and wait and figure that eventually something good is going to happen and eventually you’ll be given a reason to smile, but as time goes on you begin to realize that the only thing that you are going to get is a steady diet of disappointment. But it’s not because of the driver, because Junior has driven very well this season and it’s still my belief that he’ll find a way in these last few races to grab a victory somewhere.

The Ugly:

I’ve feeling nice this week, no ugly. This wasn’t a great race by any means, but by that same token it wasn’t a terrible one. There were way too many cautions, but a strong finish helped out down the stretch. Expect a whole lot of excitement at Martinsville on the 19th and if you absolutely have to pick a winner, you might want to consider one of the Hendrick boys who have absolutely owned this track with JJ winning three of the last four races there, and Jeff Gordon has seven wins at this track. Who knows, maybe this will be the first win at Martinsville for the newest Hendrick driver.

And Carl Edwards better hope that voodoo doll is worn out before his next backflip.  If it’s not, he might end up in the second row.

Rocky Kitts writes about NASCAR for fastmachines and about other sports that are less important at threestrikesandout.  He can be reached by email at wwwthreestrikesandout@yahoo.com.

Comments