The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[HardScrabble]

Martinsville.....Lots of fun with this race. And lots of stuff can be added to any of the categories here.

The Good –
-------The battle between Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon was another classic. Two accomplished drivers using everything the track and cars had to offer.
-------Fox using the split screen to follow the lead battle and catch an intense heat a bit further back with JJ, Jeff Burton and Elliott Sadler scrapping.
-------Nine races, Nine winners this season. The record for Winston Cup to start a season is 10 races with 10 winners back in 2000.
-------Ken Schrader gets his first top 10 in a few years and BAM gets its first ever.
-------Elliott Sadler gets by far his best finish at Martinsville where in the past he has been very very bad
-------Jeff Burton gets his first top 5 of the season.
-------Mike Helton’s presentation of NASCAR’s side of the yellow line call at Talledega. You might not agree with the call, but Mike’s side of the story was reasonable and logical.


The Bad –
-------Craven has a tire down on the restart at lap 447. Gets up the track into Jr who was second at the time. Would likely have made a great battle between Jr., Bobby, and Jeff.
-------Craven decides to park on the track with his flat tire. Not in this league Ricky.
--------Fox missing too many restarts
--------Matt Kenseth’s run. Worst finish of the season for Matt and the car was wrong all day.
--------Smoke puffing from the exhaust of Jamie McMurray. Looked good til then.
--------Ryan Newman again can’t find the race day set-up.
--------DJ has a bent front end, that’s bad. Yellow flag stops to get things squared away, but lug nuts are missed, that’s bad. DJ speeds down pit road and NASCAR notices, that’s worse.
--------Kenny Schraders rear tire changer doing a header after slipping in spilled fuel.

The Ugly –
--------Fuel Island fiasco, and Fox’s coverage of it. Kenny Wallace with a very strong car is pretty much eliminated from a run for the win because his crew has no fuel to put in the car. Jimmy Spencer and Jeff Burton are also caught short of fuel on pit stops, but fortune allowed that their days were not affected. Who is in charge of the island and why didn’t Fox get us some details on what was going on?
---------A dumpcan belonging to the #7 car lying on the track. Jimmy was good enough to challenge today, but the penalty for that deal ruined it.
---------Final caution……what exactly happened and why did it take so long for the flag to fly? Seems chaos reigned during a couple of laps and lots of things including Fox’s coverage fell completely apart.
----------TS banging on the rear of ES during the final caution laps. Ugly because we had no idea what happened.
-----------Carrot Top’s mug on the hood of KS’s car.

 

[Eagle1]

Very good posting HardScrabble.
I only have 1 other observation and that is about Ricky craven.
I think he was pretty smart to bring out the yellow, sure he got penilized one lap but it was better than losing 3 or 4 laps at that point in the race.

 

[barelypure]

-------Elliott Sadler gets by far his best finish at Martinsville where in the past he has been very very bad

And, to think that Harvick was running #1 when Sadler was #2 only to fade back to oblivion while Sadler kept his near the front.

-------Mike Helton’s presentation of NASCAR’s side of the yellow line call at Talledega. You might not agree with the call, but Mike’s side of the story was reasonable and logical.

If the story was reasonable and logical why is NASCAR still trying to defend their actions. They were wrong. They know they were wrong. And, they are trying to spin this mess to cover up their incompetence or favoritism. Take your pick.

-------Craven has a tire down on the restart at lap 447. Gets up the track into Jr who was second at the time. Would likely have made a great battle between Jr., Bobby, and Jeff.

Craven gets my attaboy award.
If only Nemechek had done the same at 'Dega when Hendrick was running #1-4 and Lil'E was beside him. Besides his engine went south a few laps later anyway. Come on Joe, learn to take one for the team.

--------Fox missing too many restarts
---------Final caution……what exactly happened and why did it take so long for the flag to fly? Seems chaos reigned during a couple of laps and lots of things including Fox’s coverage fell completely apart.
----------TS banging on the rear of ES during the final caution laps. Ugly because we had no idea what happened.

The coverage was arguably their worst all season. Kurt Busch spun out but did he have help? Tony tried to block Jeff Burton and Sadler and missed on both of them but what got him upset? And, how did his tire go flat?

--------Fuel Island fiasco,...

I understand the rule but they either need a faster pump or an additional pump. This should be a non issue during a race.

-----------Carrot Top’s mug on the hood of KS’s car.

That has to be the ugliest car out there. I just wish Carrot Top would go away.

 

[stridsberry]

Originally posted by Eagle1@Apr 14 2003, 09:13 AM
I only have 1 other observation and that is about Ricky craven.
I think he was pretty smart to bring out the yellow, sure he got penilized one lap but it was better than losing 3 or 4 laps at that point in the race.

Exactly what I was going to say. If Ricky comes in under green to change the tire, he ends up 4 laps down, but by parking the car, bringing out the caution, and taking the one lap penalty, he ends up only two laps down. You may not agree with what he did, but when you look at it from his perspective, it was the best thing he could do under the circumstances.

 

[HardScrabble]

If the story was reasonable and logical why is NASCAR still trying to defend their actions. They were wrong. They know they were wrong. And, they are trying to spin this mess to cover up their incompetence or favoritism. Take your pick.

Always controversy on a judgement call. That was also stressed in the presentation. Opinions will vary as to whether it was favoritism or objective interpretation.

Craven gets my attaboy award. 
If only Nemechek had done the same at 'Dega when Hendrick was running #1-4 and Lil'E was beside him. Besides his engine went south a few laps later anyway. Come on Joe, learn to take one for the team.

So much for objectivity........

The coverage was arguably their worst all season. Kurt Busch spun out but did he have help? Tony tried to block Jeff Burton and Sadler and missed on both of them but what got him upset? And, how did his tire go flat?

When Kenseth spun Kurt caught enough of Matt's car to get turned into the wall. There was ever so brief a glimpse of it happening. Follow-up was non-existent. Apparently when Tony tried to keep Elliott back he left enough room for Sadler to stick the nose under and there was contact which ripped teh valve stem out of Tony's tire. During this little soiree Jeff went by both on the outside.

I understand the rule but they either need a faster pump or an additional pump. This should be a non issue during a race.

The only thing I've found on this deal is that according to a quote by Kenny wallace there were "only" three pumps open.....I seem to recall as many as five or six operating years ago. Fox mentioned the deal more than once so why the producer did not dispatch one of the pit reporters over to the island to check it out is beyond me. I also have no clue who is in charge of the pumps, the track, Unocal, or NASCAR. I kinda would think Unocal, Goodyear is in charge of bringing the number of tires required and being sure they have enough folks on hand to mount them.

 

[Tiny]

Unacol is incharge of the pumps. Sence they are out after this year what do they care.
Spenser's stuck can and spilled gas was a direct fault of the no gas problem. When they couldn't get gas they used another team's (who aready has full gas cans) gas and the filler tops didn't fit their car right. The can spilled gas then stuck.

 

[DeeDee]

Glad to see The Good, The Bad and The Ugly back! I found the Unacol Problem interesting especially after the other thread HS posted inregards to questioning the fuel consistencey.

 

[Ward Burton]

-------Nine races, Nine winners this season. The record for Winston Cup to start a season is 10 races with 10 winners back in 2000.

And thats where Ward comes into play!

 

[DJFan]

The Good....Jack Roush gave Jeff Burton Kurt Busch's ride and Jeff gets a top 5. Sorry Kurt you really should thank the crew more!

The Bad...Jeff Gordon still can not win without putting a fender to somebody, and Tony Stewarts anger management classes are wearing off (what good does it do to hit someone under caution anyway?)

The Ugly...Schrader decides he has to get 7th away from Jarrett with 200+laps to go and ruins DJ's run from 37 to 7th out of greediness. (Dont even try the missing lug nut crap either, if his tire changer hadn't been trying to pull sheet metal off the tire he would have had all the lugs tight!)

Kel