It wasn't two days later, I was sitting on my couch live yelling the SAME thing Earl SHOULD have been saying as it happened. Go back and watch the move frame by frame. To me, the point of no return moment is just as the two cars are even with the barrels at pit in. Yes, Jimmie has a run, but he is SO FAR out of position, he has little hope of making a clean run through the chicane by himself at top speed, let alone running wheel to wheel with a car fast enough to be leading the race, especially coming off the banking onto the flat. That was the moment where Jimmie had a choice to make, and he chose to jump off the cliff, instead of moving back onto Truex's bumper. I base that on watching road course racing for the last 35 or so years, including hundreds of IMSA, GA, ALMS, SCCA and other races. I've watched way more than my share of dive bomb moves into the bus stop at Daytona to know that it seldom works out very well under more favorable conditions than the Charlotte chicane offers, and as a multi-time participant in the Rolex 24, Jimmie should have known it too. If Jimmie and Chad and the rest of the 48 team feel good about what transpired, then great for them, I'm glad they won't have any trouble sleeping at night. When you're a 7 time champion, you sort of get a free pass from scrutiny for the most part, but I'm guessing if the truth could ever be known, there are plenty of people at Hendrick Motorsports that were quietly pounding their head against the wall Monday morning, especially those trying trying to put together his 2019 sponsorship package.
