DW: No issue with drivers cruising at 'Dega as Chase moves to Martinsville
I haven’t done a story for FOX Sports.com for a few weeks because I was curious to see how this Chase was going to play out. Now after the second elimination round has been completed, I think it is safe to say the complexion of it going into it has changed with only eight drivers now remaining.
Obviously, we knew that Talladega would be one of those races that would shake things up a bit. It didn’t disappoint in that. Also, if you haven’t heard, next year Talladega is going to switch positions with Kansas in the Chase schedule. I’m told that the drivers lobbied NASCAR successfully to make that move for 2017.
Probably the two biggest Chase game-changers coming out of Talladega were the eliminations of Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. from the championship hunt. Four drivers have four wins this year -- with Brad and Martin being two of them. These are guys that haven’t had these kinds of problems like we saw at Talladega.
That’s where the pressure of the Chase and Talladega come into play. Things get pushed to the limit and unfortunately something breaks. So engine failures on the No. 2 of Keselowski and the No. 78 of Truex have taken them out of the picture. I would also wager it has busted a lot of fans' Chase brackets wide open because many expected those two in the final four at Homestead in November.
I know the other big storyline coming out of Talladega is the supposed controversy about the three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. To me there is no controversy. Everyone goes into a race hoping to execute their strategy. Joey Logano wanted to win the race and he did. For Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, they fell immediately to the rear and stayed there most of the day. They simply wanted to survive and move onto round number three which they did.
NASCAR has even come out and publicly stated that what the three JGR drivers did not violate NASCAR’s 100-percent rule. So there is no controversy in my book.
Denny Hamlin in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota did what he had to do to beat Austin Dillon to advance to the next round. It took Denny beating Kurt Busch to the checkered flag by six one-thousandths of a second to make it in. He did that and now Denny is in the Round of 8 while Austin’s Chase dreams will have to wait another year.
Talladega has, is and always will be a crap shoot. I’ll admit that Sunday was a little different. They didn’t have the Big One that we all expect. They had some smaller cautions that really didn’t create any controversy or problems. We did have an over-time finish to decide the winner and who advanced to the next round.
I was especially happy for everyone over at Richard Petty Motorsports. Let’s be honest, they’ve had a lousy year but Sunday they had an awesome day. Brian Scott brought his No. 44 Ford home in an amazing second place while his teammate Aric Almirola brought the famous No. 43 home eighth. That’s just great for both those drivers, their teams, their sponsors and everyone behind the scenes at the shop.
I also was impressed by the Fords as a whole. Not only did they win the race with Joey, but they had five Fords finish in the top 11, so it’s good to see them flexing their muscle. I loved seeing that No. 17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. up there finishing fifth. The downside, as I mentioned earlier, was the blown motor by Brad Keselowski -- a definite championship contender -- and that leaves only his teammate Logano as the last Ford left standing vying for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup title.
When you look at this Round of 8, you’ll find the makeup of all four Toyota’s from Joe Gibbs Racing, two Chevrolets from Stewart-Haas Racing in Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch (with SHR, ironically, switching to Fords next year), one Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in Jimmie Johnson, and the one aforementioned Ford of Logano.
I was really proud of Dale Earnhardt Jr. who visited the TV booth Sunday. I thought he was insightful and did a great job. He is going to do it again this weekend at Martinsville as well.
Speaking of Martinsville, I love that little joint. The little paperclip was a blessing to my career. I’m going to make sure to wind all 11 of my Ridgeway Clocks so that I am on the couch in time to see the green flag wave.
One thing Martinsville will produce is excitement and entertainment, that I can promise you. In addition to Dale Jr. going back in the booth, this is probably Jeff Gordon’s final-final race of his career. Just think of the irony that my FOX NASCAR buddy runs what should be his final race at the track where he got his final win at in 2015. How cool is that for him?
