Post by rf44 on May 31, 2011 8:36:39 GMT -5
CONCORD, N.C. – Maybe it was because the race was 600 miles in length. Maybe it was because it started in daylight and ended, mercifully, late in the night.
Maybe it was just ... what? Where does one go to place the blame for crazy? For wild? For the totally unexpected?
Yeah, for anyone not witnessing the season’s 12th points race, it was all that and more.
Whatever the reason, Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 will be remembered as being one of the wackiest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races of the year.
It ended up being a fuel mileage race, and those gas-miser misfits are a cruel imitation of a sport that is built on speed. But this one? Never has a fuel mileage race ended with such a bang.
Fords dominated. For a time. The blue oval folks were first through fourth, as well as sixth, at the halfway point.
Kyle Busch dominated. For a time. But then went for a pair of wild rides that eventually sacked the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
The yellow flag was rarely seen in the early portion of the race, except for the occasional spin, the occasional bits of debris.
But a race that seemed to be bound and determined to be decided by brute horsepower and clean air took a topsy-turvy turn as the sun began to set here at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Suddenly, yellow fever reigned. Hoods went up. Engines went down. Multicar collisions unfolded.
And fuel cells ran dry.
In the end, Kevin Harvick flashed across the finish line, scoring his third win of the season for his Richard Childress Racing team.
“Happy” was just that after shooting past Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a final green-white-checkered shootout.
Happy, but not exactly ecstatic.
“I just don’t like racing here; it just doesn’t fit what I do,” the guy that collected the victory said.
Denny Hamlin’s team changed carburetors. Greg Biffle’s changed cooling units. Both drivers raced their way back into the picture despite the early misfortune – Biffle even getting all the way to the front, where he looked like the surprise winner.
But with the race under (what else?) the yellow flag and his tank dry, the Roush Fenway Racing driver had to give up the lead to pit on lap 398 of the scheduled 400-lap race.
A cooked engine in Jimmie Johnson’s typically stout Chevrolet was the culprit for the caution, and a national TV audience got a dose of the frustration running through the No. 48 camp on this night when crew chief Chad Knaus’ not-for-kids radio transmission was shot out over the airways without so much as a second thought.
The TV folks apologized for Knaus, but who really was in the wrong here?
Back on the track, Kahne had been handed the lead with Biffle’s temporary departure, and the Red Bull Racing driver was in a gambling mood. Until his fuel tank came up empty on the lap 400 restart, bunching up the field as they zoomed off into Turn 1, thus creating a bit of a traffic jam that sent several cars spinning and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. sliding into the lead.
In spite of the bedlam, there was no caution, and with Earnhardt Jr. sitting out front, you can draw your own conclusions from that fact.
But the sport’s most popular driver didn’t have the gas to get to the finish either, and when his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began a slow fade in turns 3 and 4 with the checkered flag in sight, the air was sucked right out of the biggest gathering in Concord, N.C.
“It’s not about having the fastest car all the time,” Harvick said later, once the dust had settled. “Sometimes it’s just about believing in everyone around you and putting yourself in position to win.”
And having enough fuel, of course, to get to the end.
Maybe it was just ... what? Where does one go to place the blame for crazy? For wild? For the totally unexpected?
Yeah, for anyone not witnessing the season’s 12th points race, it was all that and more.
Whatever the reason, Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 will be remembered as being one of the wackiest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races of the year.
It ended up being a fuel mileage race, and those gas-miser misfits are a cruel imitation of a sport that is built on speed. But this one? Never has a fuel mileage race ended with such a bang.
Fords dominated. For a time. The blue oval folks were first through fourth, as well as sixth, at the halfway point.
Kyle Busch dominated. For a time. But then went for a pair of wild rides that eventually sacked the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
The yellow flag was rarely seen in the early portion of the race, except for the occasional spin, the occasional bits of debris.
But a race that seemed to be bound and determined to be decided by brute horsepower and clean air took a topsy-turvy turn as the sun began to set here at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Suddenly, yellow fever reigned. Hoods went up. Engines went down. Multicar collisions unfolded.
And fuel cells ran dry.
In the end, Kevin Harvick flashed across the finish line, scoring his third win of the season for his Richard Childress Racing team.
“Happy” was just that after shooting past Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a final green-white-checkered shootout.
Happy, but not exactly ecstatic.
“I just don’t like racing here; it just doesn’t fit what I do,” the guy that collected the victory said.
Denny Hamlin’s team changed carburetors. Greg Biffle’s changed cooling units. Both drivers raced their way back into the picture despite the early misfortune – Biffle even getting all the way to the front, where he looked like the surprise winner.
But with the race under (what else?) the yellow flag and his tank dry, the Roush Fenway Racing driver had to give up the lead to pit on lap 398 of the scheduled 400-lap race.
A cooked engine in Jimmie Johnson’s typically stout Chevrolet was the culprit for the caution, and a national TV audience got a dose of the frustration running through the No. 48 camp on this night when crew chief Chad Knaus’ not-for-kids radio transmission was shot out over the airways without so much as a second thought.
The TV folks apologized for Knaus, but who really was in the wrong here?
Back on the track, Kahne had been handed the lead with Biffle’s temporary departure, and the Red Bull Racing driver was in a gambling mood. Until his fuel tank came up empty on the lap 400 restart, bunching up the field as they zoomed off into Turn 1, thus creating a bit of a traffic jam that sent several cars spinning and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. sliding into the lead.
In spite of the bedlam, there was no caution, and with Earnhardt Jr. sitting out front, you can draw your own conclusions from that fact.
But the sport’s most popular driver didn’t have the gas to get to the finish either, and when his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began a slow fade in turns 3 and 4 with the checkered flag in sight, the air was sucked right out of the biggest gathering in Concord, N.C.
“It’s not about having the fastest car all the time,” Harvick said later, once the dust had settled. “Sometimes it’s just about believing in everyone around you and putting yourself in position to win.”
And having enough fuel, of course, to get to the end.
Not much of a conspirator but there really should have been a caution at the end. Nonetheless, it gave some drivers who needed good finishes, good finishes.