Playoff Chase battle heats up as NASCAR heads for historic Watkin’s Glen

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.

4 Responses to “Playoff Chase battle heats up as NASCAR heads for historic Watkin’s Glen”

1. Luke on August 6th, 2007 6:19 pm

   1… NASCAR had a date with the pooch on this one, and you know where that lead to.

   Not to condone Robby’s actions thereafter, but I will say he at least had a point. NASCAR should have let another caution lap fly, and got it sorted out. When your crew chief is telling you to drop back to behind the #33, and you’re seconds from mashing the gas, what do you do?

   In what appears to be an off the cuff decision, Robby stayed where he was at, in case there was chance that his “concerns” were ruled in favor of later. At least the race plays out.

   Everyone saw the punt coming, although fully proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt (although we all know better) is another story. Darn, I dunno what happened, but all of a sudden he slowed down and I got into him. Oops! Racing “incident”.

   Robby should have listened to NASCAR bottom line, but that still doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a valid point.

   NASCAR said that at the time the full course caution came out, Robby was in second, and that before they could get slowed down he had passed the 57. So Robby wasn’t the leader.

   OK, I’ll buy that. What makes this smell worse than a jar of Bee-Jay’s left out in the sun for a week is what comes next.

   If the above is true, then the 57 spun the 55 under caution, which in the past where that has happened a few times, they were allowed to resume their position because the field was frozen, despite not keeping “pace” under the yellow.

   On Robby’s radio, coming to take the green, you could hear his crew chief telling him that NASCAR ruled his position was behind the 33, and Robby saying OK, where’s the 33? All of this, coming to take the green.

   So, do you mash the gas and go racing, or cause a big wreck as everyone else mashes the gas and you don’t?

   In the end, it was a complete cluster f***, and NASCAR should have waived off the Green, and either figured it out, parked Robby, or let him give in and fall back safely.

   That was pretty exciting to watch though, I’ll give it that. Nice double burn out too. Any coincidence that the sponsor on the 55 also happens to be associated with KHI? Hmmm… Maybe I should borrow Marc’s hat for a while.

   2… Crap, I’m well out of words now. Oh well.

   Yes. While 500 at Pocono is a definite test of machine, if I wanted to watch a train of cars I could go sit by the railroad tracks. Sure you can pass at Pocono, you just have to be close enough to do it.

   3… Well, you do what you can, right? I didn’t see any danger in it, but I don’t have my NASCAR Tower Goggles on, either.

   Both really. That shock change was really sweet to watch unfold. Anyone think they consider themselves a lame duck? Right…

   With Pat, I find it interesting that nobody has really mentioned the Roush connection, and that there was definitely some familiar territory there. Between Fennig and Tryson discussing setups, driver preferences had to come into the discussion somewhere. Knowledge that isn’t too soon forgotten, just stored for later. Also, the two had to have known each other a bit while at Roush, although not detailed maybe, they at least were on familiar ground.

   Then there is the trust factor too. Pat knew what Kurt could do, and vice versa.

   While another crew chief could have came in, I think it probably would have taken longer to get on the same sheet of music. The two had common ground to work with right off the bat, and could communicate and discuss things the “Roush” way, and work on their own chemistry from there.

   Now, how ironic is it that Slugger Labbe is again finding himself on the short end of the stick at DEI?

   Funny how those things can go in circles, huh?

   I’ll give him a tie for third in turn 4 there, as he sacked up and is putting his crew before himself in trying to find them work.

   That’s leadership right there, and even though he’ll be picked up quick (you know he will), he’s taking the time to find his crew new homes first.

2. Charlie on August 9th, 2007 7:43 pm

   Sorry, I just woke up. Who won the Busch race?

   1. They should have made the official who made the stupid Robby Gordon call go uout on the track and stop him. He could have used Martin Brodeur’s little stop sign and a goalie’s stick. HE SCOOOOORRRES!

   2. 500 miles at Pocono is a looonnnggg (my keyboard keeps stickinggg) flippin’ race. It is NASCAR’s version of an enduro - what with the long, long pond, engine stressing straight and the sheer length of the race. Two of these things in a season is one too many. But I think the Cup Series should be the long race series. Busch races are 300 miles long, ARCA races 200 miles or 200 laps. Cup races should be long. It’s a different test of racer and race car.

   3. Pocono is a fast place. Safety first, and all that is fine. If they did feel the need to artificially tighten thing up, I wish they would just call them what they are. Competition yellows. Who cares. Well, I know, this bothers some purists. They can go watch the F1 parades for all I care. I like close finishes. And things that people bitch about.

   4. If Eury Jr. gets the credit for the fix on the shock, he probably has to take the blame for the pole winning car going backwards from the start. So, I choose Tryson, for keeping the eye on the prize after the team took a 100 point penalty because of Kurt.

   Luke, anybody named Slugger is good in my book. Except for my first wife - Slugger Gillespie. She’s the biggest largemouth I ever threw back

3. Steve on August 9th, 2007 7:48 pm

   1–

   Robby was wrong. NASCAR was wrong and as everyone, including Jeff Hammond ON PIT ROW, said two wrongs don’t make a right. Robby blew a fuse and there is no way in the world that NASCAR is going to let him throw his temper tantrum in front of the NASCAR brass, all of Canada and the ESPN world. NASCAR seriously blew this call. There had to be yellow on the track because of the wreck behind the leaders. Therefore; as Luke said the field HAD to be frozen at that point. Scoring loops anyone?

   2–

   Knock at least 100 miles off this sucker and you’d have a great product. Better for the fanxs, better for TV and better for the drivers. Want to keep it a 500? How about 500k–everybody would be happy.

   3–

   Lets call a lug wrench a lug wrench. If NASCAR wants to keep the field together, let them have a couple of TV timeouts per race and be done with it. There is no need to run six laps of caution for a spinning car that continues on un-abated after NOT coming in contact with anything.

   4–

   Tony Eury Jr. had a little help with the shock change. AS per #3 above; six laps of caution helped Jr. not go a lap down. And lets not forget who probably made the original shock change that turned Jr’s car into a piece of clag to start with. Tryson got Busch a win after 51 races without. That in and of its self is remarkable–and in a Dodge to boot.

4. Luke on August 9th, 2007 8:24 pm

   Y’all had “guns” on the show, eh?

   Cool.

   He’s right though. 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Last I knew, if you get popped under caution, you can get your spot back. Heck, if Robby wouldn’t have made sure it was safe to rev it back up, he wouldn’t have lost a spot.

   Oh well. NASCAR gets their press coverage, and ESPN gets another piece of footage to use in their intros for the next 5 years.

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