Casey Mears Wins

[falcon325]

I left that one out for a reason 

LOL.  Yeah, KNEW that.   

Personally, I LIKED Shrub the Elder's Bristol celebration. 

[south jersey girl]

I wanna see a backflip...it's been awhile.

I read somewhere that Carl Edwards stole the backflip from Tyler Walker, after seeing Walker backflip after winning a Sprint car race.  Hopefully that's the only thing he got from Walker...

[KurtBuschFan]

Personally, I LIKED Shrub the Elder's Bristol celebration. 

Me too....it was original

[HUDSON HORNET]

How 'bout Mooning? 
When was the last time y'all can remember a driver Mooning? 
Now, T H A T would be original!     

After 600 miles, it wouldn't surprise me to see a driver do a snow pee. Of course, said driver would be no snow ANGEL. Would they?         

[FS Ren]

...when Kurt Busch laid down on the Start/Finish Line I kept thinking, I wonder if he made sure all of the cars were off of the track before he did that?

Now THAT would have been great to see on 'America's Funniest Home Videos"!  Especially if it was followed up with a small dog peeing on him and a toddler fan kicking him in the groin!  Could have won the $100,000 easy!

Ren

[FS Ren]

Oh yeah, almost forgot:

My apologies to Beth.

Bless the little pygmies in Africa too.

Ren

[KurtBuschFan]

LMAO Ren!!!

[falcon325]

For al those knuckleheads who said the 25 team had nothing to lose by gambling on fuel mileage:

http://www.jayski.com/stats/2007/grids/2007dov1-grid.htm

Heck of a call by Brian Grubb!

[FS Ren]

The worst he could have left Lowe's mathematically was 36th and that was only if he finished 40th or worst  At that point in the race, even if he had run out of gas and finished two laps down, they would have been well inside the top 35.  Definitely a no brainer at that point.

Ren

[Chris]

I know what you are getting at Falcon... not a bad point...
But just to point out the other side of the coin...

MEARS (knowing he was locked into the race already) could of very weel spent most ALL of the first practice session working on RACE set-ups,.. there'by keeping up with the OTHER teams also doing the same things thats also locked into the top 35.
IMO if he was OUTSIDE the toip 35 in points,.. he'd of had to concentrate on qualifying setups.... then had faster practice speeds, and qualified faster than he did because he "had" to....
Thats what's so BAD about this top 35 lockin foolishness.  Not all the teams go and "play the same game" every week.
Top 35 play one game.... and get a leg up for the race...
and those NOT locked in have to play something else.

I'm LOOKING FORWARD to when we go to the ROAD COURSES, and some owners bring in some road course ringers.  Then we'll have some of these "usual" top teams sent home because we have Pruett, Said, Fellows, etc racing and there'll be three to five teams go home that "normally" race...

MAYBE THEN NASCAR will get off their ass and see about changing this stupid qualifying.  Infineon is less than three weeks away..??

Those 33rd-35th better MAKE sure they don't drop to 36th between now and Infineon,... they just might MISS the field there..??

[FS Ren]

I'm LOOKING FORWARD to when we go to the ROAD COURSES, and some owners bring in some road course ringers.  Then we'll have some of these "usual" top teams sent home because we have Pruett, Said, Fellows, etc racing and there'll be three to five teams go home that "normally" race...

MAYBE THEN NASCAR will get off their ass and see about changing this stupid qualifying.  Infineon is less than three weeks away..??

The top 35 is based on owner points, not driver points.  Any team that normally races, probably will still be racing. 

Check out Mike Lovecchio's article tomorrow. Every week he covers the top 35 contest.  It's a good read.

End shameless site plug

Ren

[Chris]

well what I was more reffering to was like in years past:
Ganassi has put Preutt in the #39 car (so that would be a 4th car)
Said has his own team and only runs part time, and is outside the points
"Generally" Kirk Shelmerdine has Tom Hubert drive his car at the road courses,.. thats another car outside the top 35
Fellows HAS been driving the #32 the past couple years,.. but since they have closed up shop,.. He'll end up somewhere I am sure,.. but don't know where
PJ Jones has driven the #4 car the past four road course races... another car outside the top 35
Then you have the #34 and #37 teams who usually put someone like Brian Simo or Brand Ash into a car, and they usually make the field.  Thats two more entries outside the top 35.
Thats seven "roadies"... and Elliott will have a Champions Provisional in his pocket

I was just looking at the "extra" entries that are road course specialist... and could make the field... and knock out the CUP "regulars"
Gonna be INTERESTING watching qualifying for THAT race.

[falcon325]

The worst he could have left Lowe's mathematically was 36th and that was only if he finished 40th or worst  At that point in the race, even if he had run out of gas and finished two laps down, they would have been well inside the top 35.  Definitely a no brainer at that point.

Ah, I see your point, Ren. 

By my calculations, Casey was in 35th, with a 100-point lead over Dave Blaney in 36th going into the race at Lowes.  If he had run out of gas and gone two laps down, he would have ended up in 17th place, with 112 points rather than the winner’s 190.  And Blaney finished 18th, three laps down, so Mears would actually have gained three points.

Still, I don’t buy the “no brainer” argument.  You just can’t throw away seventy-eight points when you’re sitting on the bubble.  The guys deep in the top ten with the knowledge that the Chase would wipe the slate clean in 14 more races are the ones who could afford to gamble.  They didn’t.

Mears’ struggles in qualifying at Dover underline the point.  I understand Chris’ argument that the 25 team may have blown off qualifying and worked on race setups.  But racing luck is a fickle thing.  A blown tire here, somebody else’s mess there, and the 25 could be on the outside looking in.  I just don’t think you can afford to gamble that far back.  Grubb made a gutsy call.

[KurtBuschFan]

Yeah he made a gutsy call...but it worked.  Just like Steve Letarte's gutsy call leaving JG out with his engine obviously overheating.

[flamehothead]

well what I was more reffering to was like in years past:
Ganassi has put Preutt in the #39 car (so that would be a 4th car)
Said has his own team and only runs part time, and is outside the points
"Generally" Kirk Shelmerdine has Tom Hubert drive his car at the road courses,.. thats another car outside the top 35
Fellows HAS been driving the #32 the past couple years,.. but since they have closed up shop,.. He'll end up somewhere I am sure,.. but don't know where
PJ Jones has driven the #4 car the past four road course races... another car outside the top 35
Then you have the #34 and #37 teams who usually put someone like Brian Simo or Brand Ash into a car, and they usually make the field.  Thats two more entries outside the top 35.
Thats seven "roadies"... and Elliott will have a Champions Provisional in his pocket

I was just looking at the "extra" entries that are road course specialist... and could make the field... and knock out the CUP "regulars"
Gonna be INTERESTING watching qualifying for THAT race.

Great Post Chris.

Every car you mentioned IS outside the Top 35 looking in and I agree that qualifying will be Interesting to say the least. IMO we will see a few regulars GO home and then maybe they will see what it feels like.