Wasn’t the first day of spring a good week before the race? Yes, I believe it was! It wasn’t very apparent if you were watching the race coverage throughout the weekend. Once again, this thing called indecisive weather, played games with the drivers (and us).
The weekend appeared to be better than before — no rain in sight — at least for the first half of the weekend.
During Friday’s qualifying, all the teams were on their a-game. The drivers seated below the top 35 in owner points were sitting on edge and stepping up. The starting lineup was evident of that. Aric Almirola, No. 08 U.S. Army Chevrolet, qualified third; Jamie McMurray, No. 26 Crown Royal Ford, qualified fifth; and Ken Schrader, No. 49 Microsoft Small Business Toyota, qualified seventh . They were among the usual suspects of Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and the pole winner, Jeff Gordon.
Despite their qualifying efforts, the real task was Sunday’s race where a few of the top qualifiers along with the other drivers outside of the top 35 in owner points would fall short of the task at hand.
Sunday’s race started with Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, and Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Toyota, on the front row. And, although Gordon was the driver everyone — fan or no fan — thought would win, Hamlin was the hometown favorite.
Hamlin would lead the first lap of the 500 laps race and Gordon quickly took the lead away from Hamlin. Gordon was the strong car for several laps, until a normal pit stop put him in the middle of the top ten. Bobby Labonte, driving the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge, pitted earlier during one of the first two cautions was leading. He fell back gradually, but maintained a top ten position. Almirola, who had pretty much stayed within his top ten starting position up until this point, got into the rear of Labonte causing a huge mess and the third caution. Many drivers got by, however, Gordon had no where to go and stop short of hitting Labonte hard. The front end of Gordon’s car did have damage but his pit crew was able to repair it.
The lead was in the hands (and wheels) of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had also pitted during one of the earlier cautions. He would keep the lead for a majority of the race, swapping occasionally with teammate Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet.
With rain in sight, and sprinkles on many of the drivers’ windshields, racing until halfway became a possibility. Some fans, the Earnhardt Jr. ones, wanted to rain to come, since he was out from and he’d finally get a points race win. And, some fans, a majority of fans other than Earnhardt Jr., hoped or wished the rain wouldn’t pick up. Most of these fans had hopes their driver could win or get a good finishing position. (I would include myself into that category.)
After the halfway point, the lead keep switching between Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon, who had made his way back to the front after the early race mishap. The rain was still a possibility but by the time the race reached a little over 350 laps, most fans and driver, were not worried about it.
At lap 390, after the 17th caution, Jeff Burton, Bristol’s winner, received the lead after a great pit stop. He then became the new hometown favorite, as it did not appear, at that moment, that Hamlin wasn’t an issue. That quickly changed as Hamlin made his way to the front, thanks to the 18th (and final) caution of the race.
Hamlin got around Burton and whoever else was in his way and seemed to, much like Bristol, pull away from the pack the best he could.
No more caution flags were thrown, no more lead changes happened, and the rained simply seemed to disappear, except for the evident raindrops on the drivers’ windshields. Hamlin finally won at his home town track, after a few failed attempts. But, the big winner, of Sunday, was Burton, who claimed the points lead after Kyle Busch was involved in an early wreck with his brother Kurt, No. 2 MillerLite Dodge. And, McMurray who managed to not only start the race in a Top Ten starting position but also finish in one as well. He was also able to move about the top 35 in owner points.
Despite my driver’s great starting position, I was not particularly happy with the end result — a Top 20 finish. I was happy, though, that he was able to maintain his Top Ten points position. (However, he dropped down one position.) That’s the best, at this point in the season, that I can hope for.
Don’t miss:
From Texas
- Sprint Cup qualifying, Friday 4:30 p.m. on SPEED
- O’Reilly 300 (Nationwide race), Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2
- Samsung 500 (Sprint Cup race), Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on FOX
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