Being the race fan that I am, being able to sit at home and watch the race at Talladega Superspeedway was unbelievable. I loved it because it was a good race. We saw the guys put on a good show. The element of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, with the tightness in the points, added even more drama to it.
Sure, it had some lulls, but what race doesn’t? C’mon it is like anything else, you have to catch your breath from time to time. Overall, though, it was unbelievable.
There at the end we saw some great calls on pit road. I thought Kevin Harvick’s crew chief, Gil Martin, made a great call. He kept his driver out, Kevin got up on the wheel and he made magic with that race car. He really did a great job there at the end of the race.
Some may question whether it’s a two-man or three-man race for the title.
Kevin Harvick is a legitimate contender. The reason I say that is he simply won’t go away. He showed that Sunday finishing the way he did with a damaged race car. He’s the proverbial junk-yard dog. No one is willing to give him his due.
That Richard Childress Racing team has earned the right to fight for the championship. They’ve done everything right this year. They are showing everyone during the Chase that what they did in the first 26 races of the season is for real.
I’ve said it before, but car owner Richard Childress’s decision to swap pit crews in the middle of the Chase could be a big difference maker. I think that could be a determining factor in Kevin’s favor. Actually, you saw pit crews that had been swapped between Clint Bowyer and Harvick both have a good day Sunday.
Heck, at the end of the day, where were their drivers? Yup, they finished first and second.
If you have a car that has a legitimate shot at winning the championship and it will appease the driver, then why not do it?
That’s what Richard Childress decided to do and I think it was a great move. Maybe Rick Hendrick will consider the same thing between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. That’s not to say Jeff Gordon is out of it, but the reality is he’s over 200 points behind and there are only three races left.
Probably the only disappointment for the fans on Sunday was not having the Big One.
Now sure there were some wrecks but never really the big Big One. We still had tremendous racing. These guys put on a great show.
It had to be exciting to the fans listening to the radio transmissions of the No. 48 team when crew chief Chad Knaus called to Jimmie and say “OK bud, it’s time to go to the front.”
You then saw Johnson and Jeff Gordon put the whip to their horses and off they went. There at the end you got to see Kevin Harvick with, again, a wounded race car go to the front with help from David Reutimann. The same can be said for Clint Bowyer with help from Juan Pablo Montoya. These guys are the masters of the big tracks and they again showed why. They all fought their way through the eye of the storm. It’s just impressive to see them do what they do.
Except for the loss of a true NASCAR icon and our dear friend, Jim Hunter on Friday night, it was just a great weekend. I think Jim would have been very pleased at how things went in the Truck race on Saturday and the Cup race on Sunday.
So we head to Texas Motor Speedway and we have three guys shooting it out — Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick. In Denny’s mind he has to be of the same mindset of “let’s keep it close and get me to Homestead,” because Denny definitely has the advantage at Homestead.
