2015 NASCAR Chase ...

[User 11148]

Not sure anyone around here (anymore) cares, but Joey Logano completed a pretty damn impressive sweep of the so-called Contender round of NASCAR's chase today at Talladega. A crash behind the leaders on the one attempt at a green-white-checker finish forced NASCAR to go to the video to decide whether Logano or Earnhardt was ahead when the yellow flashed. Was awfully, awfully close. Finishing second meant Earnhardt won't advance to the next round. Pretty unlucky for Earnhardt ... if they'd gone another hundred yards before the caution came out, he'd probably have had his bumper out front.

There was some pretty interesting gamesmanship (potentially) from Kevin Harvick on the operative restart. His engine was failing and he knew it, but he couldn't peel off because he'd lose too much Chase position relative to some drivers behind him in the standings. Intriguingly, he drifted right when Trevor Bayne tried to go around him, triggering the wreck that saved his chances to advance. Very, very convenient mistake ...

 

[Batman]

NASCAR probably should have black-flagged Harvick during the caution, especially after he got on the radio during the FIRST caution and said his engine was dying and he couldn't go very fast.
So, a weird day in NASCAR. You have one conspiracy theory (Harvick's) popping up while another ("Earnhardt gets favorable treatment") dies a flaming death. If NASCAR was smart, they'd have waited another three seconds to throw the caution. They do that, and Earnhardt wins the race. They also could have fixed it for Earnhardt on the previous caution, when Logano screwed up his restart and Earnhardt was about to lead them to the line.

 

[Batman]

The one who really got ****ed over was Greg Biffle.
Everyone else pitted with about 20 laps to go and he stayed out to try to win on fuel mileage -- at Talladega -- and had about a 35-second lead on the pack when Jamie McMurray's engine blew up with four laps left to bring out the caution. Then they ran what felt like 15 caution laps to get up a little bit of oil or fluid (turning the track into something resembling a Sahara Desert dust storm in the process, from all the Stay-Dry) which ran Biffle's gas tank dry. He pitted right before the end of the caution period and wound up finishing 20th.
I was rooting for Earnhardt, but it would've been awesome to see the pack racing their guts out on the last lap while Biffle cruises past the checkered flag by what would have been a restrictor plate-era record for margin of victory.

 

[User 11148]

The one who really got ****ed over was Greg Biffle.
Everyone else pitted with about 20 laps to go and he stayed out to try to win on fuel mileage -- at Talladega -- and had about a 35-second lead on the pack when Jamie McMurray's engine blew up with four laps left to bring out the caution. Then they ran what felt like 15 caution laps to get up a little bit of oil or fluid (turning the track into something resembling a Sahara Desert dust storm in the process, from all the Stay-Dry) which ran Biffle's gas tank dry. He pitted right before the end of the caution period and wound up finishing 20th.
I was rooting for Earnhardt, but it would've been awesome to see the pack racing their guts out on the last lap while Biffle cruises past the checkered flag by what would have been a restrictor plate-era record for margin of victory.

Yeah, that would have been the mother of all ****-storms, wouldn't it? It'd have been even better if a mysterious debris caution popped up just before Biffle took the white flag ...

 

[Batman]

Would've been even better when it's compounded by the fact that probably half the rednecks in the stands wearing Earnhardt gear had no idea Biffle was actually leading the race. So imagine if Earnhardt takes the "lead" in the main pack, rednecks go wild while he's racing Logano down the backstretch ... and the checkered flag waves a half a lap before he gets there.

As it was, it seemed fishy that they just kept turning those caution laps. I was watching it live, and I swear to God it was about 45 minutes from the time McMurray's engine blew up to the time the race finally ended. It was like they were just trying to wait Biffle out.

 

[User 11148]

Would've been even better when it's compounded by the fact that probably half the rednecks in the stands wearing Earnhardt gear had no idea Biffle was actually leading the race. So imagine if Earnhardt takes the "lead" in the main pack, rednecks go wild while he's racing Logano down the backstretch ... and the checkered flag waves a half a lap before he gets there.

Nah, they'd know. At least half have a scanner, and at Talladega you can hear the announcers very well over the PA (because the cars are bunched up and spend so little time, relatively, right in earshot).

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Also was watching, and I'm pretty convinced Harvick intentionally tapped Bayne to save his Chase chances.

 

[Vombatus]

Rigged. Reminds me of pro wrestling.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Jeff Gordon pushed Logano to victory and bumped Jr. From the chase.
As if 'Dega fans needed another reason to hate Gordon.

I expected Gordon to be a good teammate and lift letting Earnahrdt get ahead of Logano.

The chase is ripe for gamesmanship and shady ****.

 

[User 11148]

I expected Gordon to be a good teammate and lift letting Earnahrdt get ahead of Logano.

Pushing doesn't help until they're going far faster than they are at the restart. You do want to make sure you don't pull too far ahead, but that's just to ensure you're set up for when everyone gets to speed on the back straightaway.

Besides, Gordon wasn't safely in. Had he lifted and gotten spun, he could have easily wound up on the outside looking in a la Hamlin.

 

[Vombatus]

I do give these guys credit for being athletes.

But some of this stuff is like women's Olympic badminton.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Matt Kenseth just earned a legion of new fans... a HUGE thank you from Jeff Gordon.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's awesome that Gordon grabbed another win. I saw him lead 40 laps at Joliet. About the most I've seen a race crowd in one guy's corner other than perhaps Tony Kanaan a couple times at Indy.

 

[expendable]

Controversy on the track, and a once hated veteran picks up a popular victory before he hangs it up. It was a good day for NASCAR.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Controversy on the track, and a once hated veteran picks up a popular victory before he hangs it up. It was a good day for NASCAR.

The about-face regarding Gordon has been amazing. I think people have seen some real heels in sports in the last decade-plus: Bonds. Armstrong. Aaron Hernandez.

Ending the 3 car's reign once upon a time doesn't seem so awful by comparison.

 

[DanOregon]

I think part of it was when Gordon came in he was seen as part of the new breed of sponsor-friendly drivers, (young, telegenic, not necessarily from the South) people dismissed his ability because he was so successful out of the box. Seeing how responded to not winning every week went a long way to boost his image.

 

[expendable]

Earnhardt was even becoming more well liked before his death. I don't know if it's the NASCAR culture, but there seems to be an appreciation for the greats when they near retirement that doesn't seem to exist in other sports.

 

[DanOregon]

I hated Elway forever (still do) but was glad to see him finally get an SB.

I don't think you can diminish the impact of Gordon and NASCAR's move beyond their base market (both geographically and demographically).

 

[jr/shotglass]

For sure. You look at a season's roster prior to Gordon, and 90% of them had N.C. addresses. It's still heavily Tobacco Belt, but it's undergone a change.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Will be interesting to see the penalties for Kenseth--I would expect them to be pretty harsh. I don't think NASCAR wants to see contenders getting virtually eliminated in these short stage Chase sequences by someone intentionally wrecking them.