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

Hey, did anyone hear who won the race today?

If you didn’t, where the hell have you been?

The Lifelock 400 from Michigan gave Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans what they have been waiting on all year; a victory.  As the 88 crossed the finish line on fumes you could tell Junior was glad to have the monkey of 76 straight races without a win off of his back.  “Let em say what they want”, Junior joked after the win, alluding to the fact that there are sure to be many who will look at this race as a just a fuel race, a race in which fuel economy had more to do with Junior’s win than his driving did.

It’s not going to matter to Hendrick, it’s not going to matter to Junior, and it’s not going to matter to the fans who can all exhale now that their hero has crossed the finish line ahead of everyone else.  Good job Junior, now let’s get to the G, B, and U:

The Good:

Junior’s win was good for Junior and Hendrick Racing, but it will also be good for NASCAR.  Coming off the suspension of two men alleged to be guilty of inappropriate behavior in a $225 million lawsuit, you know that NASCAR is glad for anything that will divert attention back to the racetrack and away from the storm building up away from it.  Junior is so popular and the winless streak has been so publicized, that there should be plenty of stories written tomorrow about Junior, and with the win occurring on Father’s Day, you know that there are many writers licking their chops for one more Dale Sr./Dale Jr. father/son story.

Kasey Kahne pulled off another good finish.  Kahne finished second and even a Junior fan like me has no problem in admitting that Kahne was probably going to pass Junior after the restart, had the race not finished under caution.  Kahne has moved up to seventh in the points and if he keeps running like the devil’s after him, he may pass Kyle Busch as the hottest driver on the scene.

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed Kyle Petty in the broadcast booth.  I know that there are many who like to criticize broadcasters when their English isn’t perfect or when they get so excited that they get their words mixed up, but I enjoy when there is someone in the booth who can tell me what it’s like for a driver during certain circumstances, and I think that Kyle did a good job of doing that during the race.  I also think that it was apparent how much Kyle loves racing through his commentary.  He seemed genuinely excited to be broadcasting and I enjoyed his takes and opinions.  I’ve been hard on Kyle as a driver, but I think that he’s always come off as a really good guy, and after this TNT broadcast I wouldn’t mind hearing him more and seeing him drive less.

The Bad:

Sam Hornish Jr. was running a good race and had led early in the race, only to instead finish 23rd and be responsible for a caution on lap 198 that directly affected the finish of the race for the rest of the field.

Along those same lines; Patrick Carpentier shouldn’t expect a Christmas card from Kasey Kahne.  When Carpentier spun out on lap 201 it handed the win to Junior, and kept Kahne from making the run at the win that he felt that his car had in it.  Carpentier might however; get a fruit basket with the name Earnhardt on it sometime around the holiday season.

Kyle Busch should stick to Sprint Cup racing.  Busch ran well early in the race, but fell victim to the gas crunch of the later laps.  I doubt if racing last night in the Nationwide Series had anything to do with Busch’s 11th place finish at Michigan and it’s not like 11th is a terrible finish, but he’s leaving himself open to criticism that he really doesn’t need. Busch is still the points leader, but a little of the heat has come off of his fastball in the last couple of weeks, and momentum can be a hard thing to get back when it’s gone.

The Ugly:

I didn’t see much ugly in this race.  It was an entertaining race, no one driver dominated it to the point where it got boring, and it had a tension-filled final 10 laps, where there was doubt about who would have enough go juice to finish the race.  So, since nothing ugly stands out, I’m not going to go out looking for it. But, I am going to list one tiny thing that bugged the heck out me.

Hot dog wrappers and The Bill Engvall Show got almost as much airtime as the race did today.  There, that’s my ugly, and I’ll take that any day of the week.

This article is for dad.  It wasn’t the one that you would have liked to be watching win, but it was still pretty cool that an Earnhardt ended up in victory lane today. Happy Father’s Day to all of the ones who made a difference.

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