Jimmie Johnson had the dominant car once Mark Martin was speared by the pit wall opening in a scary, mid-race crash. But as J.J. was strolling to what would have been his series-leading fourth victory, a valve spring failed with less than 15 miles left to run. That handed Greg Biffle Christmas in August, gift-wrapping him a second victory after a green-white-checkered finish and a pesky push from Michigan native Brad Keselowski.
We just got dirt racing this year. The DIRTCar Summer Nationals for the modifieds (is a series of races where the points are for) your ten best races. We had run nine races. I really like the Summer Nationals because they race a lot during the summer-28 races in 32 days. I wasn’t thinking about the championship, but we just got to racing and all of a sudden we started winning. We won like three out of five and all of a sudden I looked and I was only 39 points out of the lead. Well, my competitors had all already run ten or more. So I decided to go for the championship.
It was a crazy story because on Saturday, I had to be at a one hour Speed TV production meeting at Loudon. So, I came to the meeting and the stars aligned perfectly: Tony Stewart was flying to Eldora and the plane was literally going right over Toledo. So Tony just let me ride in his airplane, he didn’t even ask for any money, and they landed and dropped me off. Now, my guys were in Indiana. I told them to turn around, and they turned around and drove five hours the other way. We showed up, ran second in our heat. It was a 25-lap feature and we led like 18 or 19 laps and then my car picked up a big push—I guess we had it adjusted wrong—and we finished sixth and pulled it off.
This weekend, as many as five drivers – Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski – could mathematically clinch their …
*ONE: Brad Keselowski Speaks the Truth on “Real Racing”*
Anyone that wasn’t thrilled with Sunday’s finish likely doesn’t have a pulse. Whether a fan had a dog in the Busch/Keselowski/Ambrose finale or not, the beating, banging, and sheer unpredictability of the last lap was easily the most compelling end to any race NASCAR has seen in 2012, and the best finish the Glen has seen since Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon off-roaded their way to the checkered flag in the 2006 Nationwide race.
The ending to Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before. It brought back memories of my favorite video game as a kid — Super Mario Kart for Super Nintendo. The ending was so chaotic it didn’t seem real.
Kyle Busch had the win and the second wild card spot locked up when he began slipping in oil during the final two laps, allowing Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose to close in. Keselowski spun Busch in the esses (green shell) and along with Ambrose, drove through the grass in the bus stop (shortcut).
Asked this past week at Pocono why he would be making his first Nationwide Series start of the year some six months into the season, Carl Edwards gave the expected answer: “It gives me a chance to have some fun and we can practice something we want to try on the Cup car.” But when asked if he’d be running any more races in 2012 after seven consecutive seasons of full-time double duty, Edwards remarked “This one just came up. There is the other factor that Ricky [Stenhouse] and those guys wanted someone at the road course to bounce information off of.”
There’s two facts to be taken from that statement. One, this race came about spontaneously, with longtime Cup sponsor Subway being the one to foot the bill for the Saturday race.
*Did You Notice?…* Dodge’s departure from the sport dashes expansion dreams? In the past few months, the manufacturer has been linked with Furniture Row Racing, looking to add a a second car with driver Kurt Busch; Andretti Autosport, exploring the option of debuting a team in 2013; and Richard Petty Motorsports, whose funding from Dodge could have spearheaded co-owner Andy Murstein’s desire to build from two cars to three. It’s clear, despite the loss of Penske Racing that Dodge had options; they just clearly didn’t like any of them. Why?
“Really this issue started many, many years ago as we consolidated down to one team,” explained SRT’s Ralph Gilles, President Of Racing and Technology. “We had a very, I would say, an elegant situation with the Penske group, having a one-stop shop, an engine, everything, a very high quality team to work with.”
For fans of cars and going fast, there are a few names that come to mind no matter what your allegiance. Corvette has been around …
It could be argued that Jeff Gordon deserved to be in Victory Lane several times in 2012, but Sunday wasn’t one of them. When Jimmie Johnson’s car broke loose because of a flat tire on a late restart and a wreck ensued, Gordon just happened to be the first car to make it through the smoke and was awarded the win when the skies opened up minutes later.
It was a lot of luck for a driver who hadn’t had any luck at all before Sunday. From flat tires, to accidents, to blown engines, the first half of the season had it all for the No. 24 team. As Gordon said in Victory Lane, “I think this is the one that makes up for all the ones that have gotten away.”
Jimmie Johnson, who had dominated the race, had his car get out from under him on the final restart and collected second-place Matt Kenseth. From there, it was on.