Deja Flippin Vu, Almost
Monday, March 3rd, 2008 12:52am CST
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
If you’re new around here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Well, it was almost like deja vu as Carl Edwards led the last lap for the second week in a row.
After much impending anticipation, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made it to Las Vegas. After the fiasco in Fontana last week, it was definitely a welcomed weekend where weather wasn’t an issue, and the racing was anticipated to be really good.
It wasn’t bad, however as a colleague pointed out, I was left with a slight empty feeling. To me it felt like the guys we’re leaving something on the table, for lack of a better term. I reflect back to comments about the tires, a lack of overall grip, and the term cautiously aggressive comes to mind.
When you see familiar faces,
But you don’t remember where they’re from,
Could you be wrong?
When you’ve been particular places,
That you know you’ve never been before,
Can you be sure?
‘Cause you know this has happened before,
And you know that this moment in time is for real,
And you know when you feel Deja vu.Chorus:
Feel like I’ve been here before,
Feel like I’ve been here before.Ever had a conversation,
That you realise you’ve had before,
Isn’t it strange?
Have you ever talked to someone,
And you feel you know what’s coming next?
It feels pre-arranged.
‘Cause you know that you’ve heard it before,
And you feel that this moment in time is surreal,
‘Cause you know when you feel deja-vu.
– Iron Maiden, Deja Vu (Somewhere In Time, 1986)
Not only did a few rookies and lesser equipped drivers lose it, but so did some big time names. Ones who are known to be able to handle a car that’s sideways. Among those were Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, both having hard licks. The latter, Jeff Gordon, said after being released from the Infield Care Center that it was the hardest hit he’s taken. If that’s the case, it not only looked bad, it was bad. Remember his last hard lick? At Pocono in 2006, he lost his brakes and slammed into the wall in the closing laps. That hit registered a whopping 91G’s, and I’m curious about the black box data on this one. It didn’t help that he found the place on the backstretch where there aren’t any SAFER barriers installed. I’d bet there will be next time.
Tony Stewart on the other hand had a second bad day in trying to convince the fence it needed to come down. In Saturday’s Nationwide race, won by Mark Martin, he also was on the losing end of an argument with the wall. Needless to say, both he and Gordon will probably feel it in the morning.
There is one little twist to the whole flip off though. Edwards may officially lead the point standings Monday, for the first time in his career, it may not last long.
While his car didn’t fail post-race tech, NASCAR did find something amiss, and they didn’t like it.
It would seem that the #99 Dish Network Fusion was missing the lid to the oil tank box. You may recall a few Nationwide teams which had loose lids at Daytona, with a cost of 25 driver/owners points, but the difference here is that the lid was completely missing.
At this time it is unknown why, but NASCAR is taking it back to the R&D center for further evaluation. Most likely Edwards will end up relinquishing the points lead back to Kyle Busch who trails by 21points, although if there is a penalty assessed the victory will still stand.
There were not any other notes about anyone else having issues in post-race tech.
As we leave Las Vegas and head to Atlanta, hopefully we can breathe a sigh of relief. The racing is typically great, so tires shouldn’t be an issue, the weather looks to be OK thus far (temps near 50 on Saturday and near 60 on Sunday), so just maybe we can relax for a weekend before we hit Bristol.
Filed Under: Carl Edwards, Drivers, Hendrick Motorsports #24, Jeff Gordon, Joe Gibbs Racing #20, Las Vegas, Nascar, Roush Racing #99, Sprint Cup, Teams, Tony Stewart, Tracks
Tagged As: Carl Edwards, Cousin Carl, Jeff Gordon, Las Vegas, Post-Race Inspection, Tony Stewart
Trackback URL for: Deja Flippin Vu, Almost
Loading...
There’s a lot of those loose oil caps, the #99 and 5 in NNS. Makes me begin to think there may be a design flaw. That may explain why the ##99 got hauled off to R&D, to have a closer look.
I don’t know, but it sure is interesting.
I’ll be waiting to hear the explanation on it though.
In the Nationwide Series, I’m not to sure. That isn’t a new car or anything, and it isn’t something that’s been hit on before that I recall.
For the #99, common sense would tell you that it wasn’t just forgot. Especially since NASCAR made the statement with the NNS penalties that they are looking for that. Who would be such an idiot to completely leave it off?
Also, the taking of the car back to the France Cave indicates they needed to look at something much closer. If it was just a simple “it’s not there” case, I don’t think they would have done that.