I got all three winning drivers right in my predications for this past weekend’s NASCAR races in California.
Too bad I had Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards winning the wrong races.
At least I did get Kyle Busch winning the Truck race right. So that would make me 1-for-3 on the weekend and 1-for-4 overall (I didn’t pick any race except the 500 in Daytona). In baseball terms, that’s not too bad a start to the season, right?
So, what did we learn this weekend?
1. The CoT Ford can compete very well on the non-restricter plate tracks.
Edwards had the hands-down dominant car in the Cup race. He was coming on strong Saturday before the race was postponed and picked right up Monday morning, passing Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon with 13 laps to go to take the lead for good.
2. Bet against the Hendrick Gang at your own risk.
Although they didn’t have an answer for Edwards this time, Johnson and Gordon were right there at the end, and you can bet that team will absorb the lessons learned and be even stronger the next time.
I wonder where Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears would have fit into the equation had Mears not taken both out of competition when he hit some water in the early going Saturday.
3. I’ll say it again, that Kyle Busch can DRIVE.
Darrell Waltrip said in the past that Busch drove “wreckers or checkers,” and we saw that three times over this past weekend. The younger Busch won the Truck race, finished fourth in the Cup race and second in the Nationwide race.
I suspect being voted off Hendrick’s island in favor of Junior really did a lot to focus Kyle Busch, who seems (from his TV interviews) to be enjoying himself quite a bit this year with Joe Gibbs.
4. NASCAR on TV during a rain delay is much, much worse than the pre-game show at the Super Bowl.
No explanation necessary.
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