One more weekend of racing is in the rear-view mirror, so what did we learn as NASCAR and the NHRA kicked off their playoffs and several local tracks wrapped things up?
So Saturday afternoon I was watching the NASCAR truck race using the “pause live TV” mode, and the rain started. Knowing the weather in Ms-ville can be 180-out from Monroe, I called up Weather.com on the laptop, and saw a big ole’ blob of green over the area.
This particular Web site has a “future outlook” feature, and by clicking that it looked like things were going to clear up over Monroe, so I sat tight and finished watching Kyle Busch win while owner Kevin Harvick and employee Ron Hornaday played footsy behind him.
Unfortunately, every time I look at the “right now” screen, that big ole blob of green was hanging around, getting bigger and not going away. Indeed, the late-model championship race was called but the Mini-Stocks raced on — without me being there.
Congratulations to Kris Harriss, who won his first Mini-Stock division title by edging former three-time champion Scott LaCross. LaCross won the feature on Saturday, but Harriss finished third and took home the title. John Shukar was second in the feature.
For the Super Late Model division, Naima Lang had his second straight NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship wrapped up whatever happened on Saturday, so more congratulations go his way. Jeff Knight finished the season in second place, Daniel Moore had a strong sophomore year to come in third, NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver Natalie Sather was fourth and veteran racer Tom Hughs was fifth.
There was no rain to the north, so Skagit Speedway wrapped up what has been by all accounts a strong season by handing out four division titles on Saturday.
Jesse Whitney of Stanwood won the feature and the 410 Sprints crown, Brock Lemley just had to start the 360 feature to win the title — Shane Broers won the feature — and Kelsey Carpenter continued his amazing season with his 10th feature win and the Sportsman championship.
In the Outlaw Hornets, Cory Swatzina had the title won by taking the green flag, but he still raced to a third-place finish behind winner Ben Gunderson and Wade Swatzina.
Gary Lewis of Snohomish earned another championship on Saturday, taking the inaugural iRacing.Com ASA Northwest Late Model Tour crown. One of the most successful late-model racers this region has ever seen, Lewis added to a legacy that includes multiple track and touring series titles.
As someone following from a distance, I’d have to rate the inaugural season of the Northwest Late Model Tour as a success. I’m sure there are nits people can pick, but at this point last year, with two separate series, the future didn’t look great. Give credit to Jerry Losch and Scott Ellsworth for putting it together, and making it work.
If you watched the NHRA Carolinas Nationals, the first of six races in the Full Throttle Series Countdown to 1 playoff, you saw a lot of contenders bounced in the first round — or earlier.
Twelve of 20 “playoff” Nitro-division (Top Fuel and Funny Car) drivers lost in the first round, and a couple of the Pro Stock players didn’t even make it to Sunday. The track at zMax Dragway seemed to change dramatically before final eliminations, and many crew chiefs had trouble catching up to it.
The big movers were Funny Car winner Robert Hight and Pro Stock Motorcycle runner-up Karen Stoffer. Both barely made it into the playoff, securing the 10th and final spots in their categories in the last-possible event, but each moved up dramatically after this past weekend. Hight shot up seven spots to No. 3 and Stoffer jumped up five to No. 5.
Top Fuel winner Cory McClenathan also advanced, going from from sixth to No. 1 and Pro Stock winner Mike Edwards leapfrogged two spots to No. 1.
Note to ESPN2: Yes, we all know the confrontation between John Force and Tony Pedregon a couple weeks back was exciting and dramatic — then. You’ve officially beaten it to death now, so put the footage in the archives and don’t show it to us before/after every commercial break again.
Although I will sayt it was nice to see Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney — looking a bit like rocker Joan Jett — give her opinion of the episode, but please, no more.
I’m not sold on Juan Pablo Montoya as a NASCAR champion. Yes, he can drive and given the right equipment he will win multiple races in NASCAR — both oval and road course.
But I don’t get a guy who claims to admire and respect Mark Martin, then says he’ll dump Martin if he gets blocked again by the amazing 50-year-old wonder. Montoya said he never expected Martin to block him the way he did in the three-lap sprint to the checkered in the Cup race at New Hampshire.
Hey JPM — he was trying to win — and Martin did, by the — just like you were. It’s all part of the way the game is played. Did Martin brake-check you? Would you brake-check him? I’m thinking you would.
This of course comes after Montoya walked out on a scheduled NASCAR interview by satellite with a TV station in California. Montoya, who had been taking questions from various stations around the country, checked his watch and saw it was past his time. So, instead of giving the patiently waiting sportscaster a few minutes, he walked out.
Is that how they do it in IndyCar and F1?
Marcos Ambrose and A.J. Allmendinger played dump-and-run in the closing laps of Sunday’s Cup race, with Ambrose spinning Allmendinger for the caution that set up the final dash to the checkered.
Allmendinger also spun out on the front stretch on the final lap, and NASCAR held the yellow flag to nearly the last second to see if he could get started. That led to a potential disaster right at the start-finish line as the leaders were entering turn 4 at speed with Allemendinger sideways ahead of them before the caution came out.
TV replays showed Allmendinger cutting in front of Ambrose a few laps earlier in what looked to me to be a “racin’ deal” — in other words not intentional — but it appears Ambrose didn’t agree as he clearly bumped Dinger’s rear as he was heading into a turn: a move guaranteed to create a spin.
The cameras were focused on Martin and Montoya’s battle, so it’s unclear if Allmendinger’s final spin was “assisted” or not. Either way I’m wondering if NASCAR called both Dinger and Ambrose to the hauler to remind them that backmarkers should be careful not to screw things up for the Chasers.
Whatever went back-and-forth on the KHI radios at the NASCAR Truck race in New Hampshire on Saturday, the end result was owner Kevin Harvick didn’t get around his teammate/employee Ron Hornaday Jr., and Kyle Busch drove off to win the race.
Riding in third place, Harvick felt he was faster and wanted Hornaday to let him by. Although it didn’t look like Hornaday blocked much, he also didn’t lift and get out of the groove, so Harvick couldn’t make a pass on the notoriously pass unfriendly New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
But seriously, would Dale Earnhardt Sr. — if he was running for a championship, as Hornaday is — pull over for anyone? Especially for a driver not running for the title? And if Harvick was that much faster, why couldn’t he complete the pass on his own?
Sorry, team orders are for Formula One and IndyCar — not NASCAR.
If Ryan Briscoe ends up not winning the IndyCar title, the TV shows will on permanent repeat put his unassisted spin coming out of the pits at Twin Ring Motegi. Briscoe entered the race as the points leader, and he in front on the track when he was given a virtual free pass to victory in the series’ annual visit to Japan.
Briscoe made it inside the pit-road commitment line when a yellow came out, meaning he was free to finish a pit stop that would guarantee he could stay on the track ahead of rivals Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.
Instead, Briscoe lit up the tires exiting the pits, putting the car into a retaining wall and picking up the “pit lane exit” cone in the process. His car needed enough repair on pit-road that he dropped out of contention.
Dixon won the race and jumped into the points lead, while Franchitti finished both in second. All of which sets up a to-the-finish showdown in the next and final race of the season at Homestead.
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